Bill Belichick: Vikings will have to prove they can play from behind

The Vikings have only trailed for a little over 3 of the 180 minutes they've played.

Sep 15, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold (14) in action against the San Francisco 49ers during the game at U.S. Bank Stadium. / Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

Through three weeks, just about everything has gone right for the 3-0 Vikings. The offense has been effective, the defense has been dominant — even the special teams phase has been a positive.

One thing we haven't seen much of is how this Vikings team, with Sam Darnold at quarterback, plays when it's behind. They've trailed for 3 minutes and 26 seconds of the 180 minutes they've played this season. That was the span of game time between the Giants going up 3-0 in the season opener and Aaron Jones scoring to put the Vikings up 7-3. Since then, they've had two wire-to-wire wins over the 49ers and Texans.

Legendary ex-Patriots coach Bill Belichick made that point on the latest episode of his show Coach with Matt Patricia.

"I think the Vikings are eventually gonna have to prove that they can play from behind," Belichick said. "They've been great from ahead. Most of their defensive production has come when they've been ahead, which is great, and offensively they've been able to score and get ahead, but at some point, that levels out. How is that gonna work?"

It's a fair point. The Vikings have had one real high-leverage offensive drive this season, which came in the fourth quarter against the 49ers in Week 2. They led that game 20-14 and needed points to finish the deal. And to their credit, they aced that test despite being without their best player, Justin Jefferson. Darnold converted three third downs to Brandon Powell and Jalen Nailor, the Vikings drained nearly seven full minutes off the clock, and they kicked a field goal to go up multiple scores and seal the game.

Still, it's reasonable to point out that the Vikings probably aren't going to cruise to multi-score wins week in and week out. There will be times where they're trailing and Darnold has to do a bit more in obvious passing situations. He's been pressured on 39 percent of his dropbacks — ninth-most among 34 qualified QBs — but has done well in those situations, posting a 68.2 passing grade with four touchdowns and one INT. Will that continue? Darnold has historically struggled quite a bit when pressured.

When trailing, at least in theory, the Vikings won't be able to lean on their running game quite as much to manage the clock. It'll have to be Darnold moving the ball against defenses that are coming after him. In the same vein, Brian Flores' defense will have to stop the run and won't be able to pin its ears back against quarterbacks while in advantageous leading positions.

With that said, there's little reason to believe the Vikings can't continue to take early leads and also get themselves back into games when they do wind up behind. We'll just have to cross that bridge when we eventually get there.