Streamlining the offense Sunday was key to Minnesota's largest shutout win in 45 seasons.

"You have to have a pretty unique plan," Vikings Head Coach Kevin O'Connell told reporters Monday.

The 31-0 romp of Washington in Week 14 kept the team's less-than-1-percent playoff hopes afloat — and pivoted from its usual winning formula under O'Connell that relies on passing and explosive gains.

Alec Lewis of The Athletic on Tuesday gathered that O'Connell toggled between two worlds against the Commanders: one that leaned on heavy personnel and rushes, and another, spread-out mode of attack.

Lewis pinpointed that Minnesota opted for bigger bodies on early downs in order to move the line of scrimmage, and then shifted to the shotgun on more than 80 percent of its third downs so QB J.J. McCarthy could have a clearer sense of where to go with the football. The strategy, obviously, worked.

On plays under center, Minnesota picked up 101 rush yards — out of 165 total (162 if you include the 3 yards lost on kneel downs at the end of the game) — on 23 attempts, according to Next Gen Stats. Backfield buddies Aaron Jones, Sr., and Jordan Mason were in peak shape, averaging 5.4 and 4.7 yards. And the forward lean on Washington's defensive front succeeded in opening up concepts for McCarthy.

Overall, in his seventh start, the 22-year-old generated the week's third-highest passer rating (129.2), behind Bills QB and reigning MVP Josh Allen (139.7) and Rams QB and MVP favorite Matthew Stafford (131.3). When he absolutely had to have it (on third downs), McCarthy aced 4 of 6 attempts for 51 yards.

In all fairness, Lewis reminded that Washington's defense is "porous." The Commanders have allowed 135.5 yards per game on the ground, 29^th in the NFL, and their pass defense is even leakier (246.9, 30^th).

But … there were factors that finally and tremendously worked in Minnesota's favor. Lewis shared them:

• The Vikings starting o-line, from left to right of Christian Darrisaw, Donovan Jackson, Ryan Kelly, Will Fries and Brian O'Neill, managed 49 snaps together after playing 35 snaps through Week 13.
• The Vikings defense had three takeaways — four, really, thanks to a goal-line stand and turnover on downs — which matched its total from the previous five games. In complementary fashion, the offense scored 10 points off those turnovers and held a TOP advantage of about 10 minutes.
• The Vikings started fast, choosing to receive the ball after winning the coin toss and scoring a TD on a simple but pretty seven-play drive. That let them play with a lead for 54 offensive snaps and therefore commit to a run-focused offense. Before Week 14, they played 128 snaps with a lead.
• And last but not least, the Vikings benefited from McCarthy's accuracy. Releasing the ball in 2.56 seconds on average, more than a quarter of a second quicker than his old best (2.84 against the Bears in Week 11), McCarthy finished with his lowest off-target rate (4.3%) in a game so far and he did not commit a single turnover-worthy play for the first time in 2025 per Pro Football Focus.

Lewis paralleled the performance to Week 9 at Detroit, when Minnesota ran the ball and played ahead. One big difference was McCarthy's effectiveness on third down; he was 3-for-7 with 61 yards and an INT.

Read Lewis' article, which delves further into O'Connell's adjustments and what they might inspire, here.

Diving even deeper

The lowest point of Minnesota's 2025 slate likely was the lackluster effort on Thursday Night Football.

In that 37-10 loss to the Chargers, which followed a near win over the Super Bowl champion Eagles, the Vikings passed for 130 yards and ran for 34. An early deficit resulted in a sky-high 76.6 percent pass rate.

That was the hardest O'Connell has leaned on the passing game this year.

Conversely, Sunday against Washington was the "softest" — and the most frequently he's run it since his debut 2022 season. Minnesota ran the rock on 55.7% of its offensive plays; the prior highwater mark in a game under O'Connell was 53.5%, which produced 141 yards in a 29-13 Week 18 win at Chicago in 2022; the Vikings rotated from starters to reserves in that game, with a spot in the playoffs already guaranteed.

That switch in strategy prefaces Ben Goessling's analysis for the Minnesota Star Tribune this week, basically, that Minnesota's offense looked closer to what McCarthy directed in his final year at Michigan.

Supporting their win in the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship Game, the Wolverines ranked seventh in the country, according to Sports Info Solutions, with 563 rushes in a span of 15 games.

Goessling wrote the following:

The conditions for the Vikings on Sunday were as pristine as they've been all season. General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah talked before the season about building a team that could win "any type of fight"; the Vikings' 31-0 win over the Commanders didn't demand a great deal of resourcefulness.

But the Vikings, who had lost their last four games and scored six points in their last two before Sunday, weren't in a position to quibble with how they secured this victory. And while a win over Washington might not earn them many style points, it came in a manner that has been rare for them under O'Connell but might actually work for them at this point in McCarthy's tenure.

Check out Goessling's breakdown of Minnesota's adapted personnel and usage of the big fellas here.

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