Vikings searching for answers with another pressure-packed puzzle ahead against the Patriots

On Sunday, a Cowboys team that leads the NFL in sack percentage brought Kirk Cousins down seven times — the most he's been sacked in his career — while handing the Vikings the second-largest home defeat in franchise history.

On Thursday, the Vikings will try to avoid a two-game losing streak at home, while facing the Patriots, the NFL leader in quarterback pressures, without left tackle Christian Darrisaw.

Then it's a 10-day break before a third straight home game against the Jets, who rank No. 5 in total pressures despite blitzing less frequently than all but two teams in the league.

It's an unenviable slate of games for the Vikings, who on Sunday had no answer for the Cowboys' pass rush in a 40-3 loss. Dallas got six of its seven sacks with a four-man pass rush. According to Pro Football Focus, the Cowboys pressured Cousins 61.5% of the time they sent a standard four-man rush after him; they blitzed only four times, with a 50% pressure rate.

"When you can rush four, it's effective," Cousins said. "Certainly we want to be in a place where we're not having to drop back too much. And you certainly need to be in a game where you're right there and you're not behind where you have to drop back. So that's the part that you feel you can stay in the game and then keep yourself from being in those scenarios."

On Sunday, the Cowboys accentuated their four-man pressures with stunts and simulated pressures, but at times, they got to Cousins simply with pass rushers who beat the man across from them . The Vikings tried to counter with different protections but couldn't find any answers.

On four of the Cowboys' seven sacks, the Vikings tried to block a four-man pass rush with a five-man protection. They opened the third quarter with an eight-man protection, but a simulated pressure from Micah Parsons (who engaged tight end Johnny Mundt before dropping into coverage) occupied both Mundt and C.J. Ham, while DeMarcus Lawrence beat left tackle Blake Brandel with a swim move and bounced off a block from Dalvin Cook.

The Cowboys' sixth sack came on a first-and-14 in the third quarter; the Vikings lined up with both T.J. Hockenson and Mundt blocking, and kept Cook in the backfield to chip off play action before releasing. But former Vikings safety Jayron Kearse saw he could add to the Cowboys' rush when Mundt stayed in to block; it was the only sack of the day where Dallas used more than four pass rushers.

The final sack came when Dorrance Armstrong chased Cousins down after pressure from Lawrence, Parsons and Fowler collapsed the pocket.

"That's what they do," Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell said. "We didn't do much. We tried to get the run game going early, and we faced some third downs. Whether they were manageable or not, Kirk [Cousins] was under duress. When you lose your left tackle early on in the game, sometimes you can try to move that hard down around, and they just kept finding ways to affect Kirk.

"Our receivers did a nice job for the most part against a pretty good secondary of trying to get separation and trying to win on the perimeter. We just could not find those stacked plays together to truly gain the momentum that you have to do when you're playing a good football team."

Brandel, who has replaced Darrisaw each of the past two weeks, gave up a sack and another pressure on Sunday. He figures to start at left tackle Thursday against the Patriots, given how difficult it would be for the Vikings to reconfigure their offensive line in four days, though O'Connell said the Vikings would "take a look at it."

"Knowing it's a tight turnaround, there's not going to be a lot of time for full speed reps or development," he added. "We've just got to go out and give our guys the best possible plan. They've got to be ready to execute against a really good football team."

The Patriots drafted O'Connell in the third round in 2008; he knows Belichick well enough to have some idea of how the legendary coach will defend the Vikings offense. The Patriots have the NFL's 12th-highest blitz rate (the Cowboys are 10th), and linebacker Matt Judon (a Defensive Player of the Year candidate with 13 sacks) will line up on both the left and right sides.

New England employs more man coverage than most teams in the league; the Patriots figure to try to take Justin Jefferson out of the game, possibly with double teams, and will likely attempt to make the Vikings win a different way.

As former Vikings coach Mike Zimmer liked to say, Belichick is fond of making teams "play left-handed," without being able to rely on their best weapon. If that happens, Cousins could need to hit secondary targets while the Vikings find a better solution for the Patriots' pressure than they had for the Cowboys.

Jefferson, who caught just three passes for 33 yards Sunday, said the Vikings might need to incorporate more quick-developing plays into their passing game to help Cousins. Six of the seven sacks occurred at least 2.5 seconds after the ball was snapped, indicating the Vikings might have been able to beat the Cowboys' rush with plays that got the ball out of Cousins' hand more quickly.

"It's tough, Kirk getting sacked before you even get out [of your] break," Jefferson said. "We've just got to move toward more quick game: getting the ball out quicker, putting the ball in space and letting people work. If things are not working out the way we planned, we need to find a way to adjust and go toward something that's going to work better for us. We can't continue to keep doing the same thing throughout the game, even though it's not working. We've got to be better as a whole team, and it's good, because we have a chance to do that in three days."

ONE PLAYER WHO STOOD OUT

Danielle Hunter: The Vikings did not have a sack on Sunday, but Hunter had the team's only hit on Dak Prescott, and showed his typical level of grit in run defense, chasing Tony Pollard to the sideline for a 1-yard gain in the second quarter before wrestling Pollard down after a 3-yard gain on the next play.

ONE TREND TO WATCH

How the Vikings manage Za'Darius Smith: The edge rusher played on Sunday with the knee bruise that's followed him for much of the season, but logged just 25 snaps. The Vikings played him for just nine snaps against the run, and could try to keep his usage rate down against the Patriots' run game, as well. They can't afford to lose Smith, who leads the team with 9½ sacks; it's possible they'll look to manage his snaps in a short week against the Patriots, as well, before using their 10-day break to get him some rest before the Jets game.