Even after they had heard about it all offseason, even after they had devoted hours of practice time to fixing it, the Vikings still were facing the same problems scoring touchdowns in the red zone through the first half of 2017 that they experienced in 2016.
Red-zone issues dogged the Vikings through much of last season, when they ranked 28th in the NFL with a 46 percent success rate at scoring touchdowns inside the opponent's 20-yard line. Nothing had changed in the first eight games this year; the Vikings had scored TDs on only 46.4 percent of their red-zone trips.
So before players departed for their Week 9 break, coach Mike Zimmer made it clear what he wanted fixed.
"It's been a point of emphasis," tight end Kyle Rudolph said.
How, pray tell, does Zimmer emphasize a point?
"It was all we did for two days straight," Rudolph said.
The problem, in the Vikings' four games since the bye week, appears to have been solved.
The Vikings are 12-for-15 on scoring touchdowns in the red zone in their past four victories, and the two trips that haven't resulted in points were kneel-downs at the end of their victories at Detroit and Atlanta. The only time where the Vikings tried to score a touchdown and didn't came when Kai Forbath kicked a 36-yard field goal against the Lions.