Right after last year's playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams, Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell promised a general shift toward being a more physical football team. That was in large part paid off with a reconstruction of the interior offensive line.
The last two games of last season fully exposed a shortcoming the Vikings' offense had all of last season. The running game was not good in short-yardage situations.
While the aforementioned interior of the offensive line was a huge factor in that, Aaron Jones was also not an effective short-yardage runner, and some deeper metrics regarding expected rushing yards were not kind to him.