Will Alexander Mattison's Ball Security Issues Open the Door For Cam Akers?
Vikings running back Alexander Mattison finally got going against the Chargers in Week 3, racking up 125 yards from scrimmage on 25 touches after a slow start against the Buccaneers' and Eagles' stout defensive fronts. Mattison's hard, physical running style was on display as he forced four missed tackles (per PFF) and picked up 8-15 yard chunks in bunches.
At the same time, Mattison's ball security issue did not go away. His struggles to hold onto the football, combined with a missing big-play element, could open the door for the newly-acquired Cam Akers to eat into his workload moving forward.
Late in the first half of Sunday's game, the score was tied at 7 and the Vikings were set up with first and goal from the LA 3 after Derwin James was flagged for leading with his helmet. Mattison took a first-down handoff from Kirk Cousins, went nowhere, and had the ball stripped out for what appeared to be another catastrophic Vikings turnover. Somehow, he was bailed out by the officiating crew, who ruled that his forward progress had stopped. It was a bad call. If ruled correctly, it would've been Mattison's second consecutive game with a lost fumble in a critical moment.
That wasn't all. One play before the penalty on James, Mattison had a wide-open drop — his second of the season — in the red zone. He also lost the football again in the second half, but was down by contact before it came out.
On Monday, head coach Kevin O'Connell spoke sternly and directly when asked if the Vikings' fumbling issues have been contagious.
"No, I think that's something that we're going to fix, one way or the other," he said. "Either guys are going to do it or we're going to have to put other guys in the game that have ball security."
That comes across as a pretty clear message to Mattison and also T.J. Hockenson, who had the ball ripped out of his hands for a turnover that ended the Vikings' first possession. O'Connell was very frustrated to still see his team have trouble holding onto the football despite that being a major emphasis last week in practice, coming off the loss in Philadelphia.
"We need to end every snap with the football in our hands," O'Connell said. "And that’s going to be a continued urgency and emphasis like it was last week, and we’re going to continue to do it differently and emphasize it in different ways until that value is received. Because that is a losing formula, as we've seen, being where we're at in the turnover differential right now."
Mattison figures to remain the Vikings' clear No. 1 back heading into a Week 4 matchup against the also-winless Panthers. But if ball security remains an issue for him, that could quickly change. It's notable that Mattison provides very little from a big-play perspective, with zero gains of more than 15 yards this season and a career-long run of 48 yards in five years.
Akers seems likely to make his Vikings debut in Charlotte after being inactive against the Chargers. "I know I'll make the most of (this opportunity)," he said on Monday. If Mattison can't take care of the football, Akers' role could be even bigger than initially expected.
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