FOXBOROUGH White Josh Gordon Jerseys , Mass. (AP) — The Patriots have been at their best on offense this season when they’ve established the run and avoided facing a significant number of third downs.Achieving success in both areas could be difficult on Sunday against a Vikings team that offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels is expecting to offer “as big a challenge as we’re going to have all year.”The Vikings are the NFL’s stingiest defense on third down, allowing opposing offenses to convert on a league-low 28 percent of their opportunities. They are also allowing only 94 rushing yards per game, which is tied for the fourth-fewest in the NFL.One of the reasons, McDaniels said, is Minnesota’s ability to mix up its personnel and coverages. That is bolstered with talented players that are spread throughout its defense.“They have a great front, they have linebackers that are very athletic, the team speed in general is tremendous,” McDaniels said. “You’re not going to outrun this group.”The Patriots are 1-3 this season when converting on less than 33 percent of their third downs. The lone exception was their 27-20 season-opening win over the Texans. The Patriots went just 4 of 14 on third down (29 percent) in that game, but were able to take advantage of some early Houston mistakes in jumping out to a 24-6 lead.New England can’t count on that against Minnesota.The Vikings’ offense has been turnover-prone at times this season, but Minnesota enters Sunday’s matchup with a plus-2 turnover margin overall. The Vikings were turnover-free in last week’s win over Green Bay. It was their first game since their Week 7 road victory over the Jets in which they didn’t have a giveaway.New England has had to adjust offensively in recent weeks as it played through the injury-related absences of its leading rusher Sony Michel (knee) and tight end Rob Gronkowski (ankle, back), one of Brady’s favorite options on third down.Both were effective in their returns to the starting lineup against the Jets. Gronkowski caught his first touchdown pass since Week 1 and Michel rushed for a season-best 133 yards.“They are one of the best teams at running the ball in the red zone and one of the best teams at stopping the run in the red zone Josh Gordon Jerseys 2019 ,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said.“When you can run the ball in the red zone that typically leads to touchdowns because you don’t get in third-and-longs and things like that where you’ve got to throw in a condensed area.”The Patriots are also hopeful that the return of Rex Burkhead from injured reserve will ultimately provide a boost similar to those provided by Michel and Gronkowski. Burkhead was one of New England’s go-to options in short-yardage situations last season. But he played only three games before suffering a neck injury against the Lions on Sept. 23. His status for Sunday is to be determined.While Burkhead’s absence hasn’t affected the Patriots’ ability to score touchdowns in the red zone (24 TDs on 38 drives inside the 20), center David Andrews said they recognize room for improvement.“(The Vikings have) got a great defensive front, I think they play really hard, big, tough guys in there,” Andrews said. “I don’t know what the game plan is going to be yet, but whatever it is, we just have to execute it, do whatever we can up front to be at our best and be the most physical team.” The New England Patriots defense has certainly come a long way this year: after an inconsistent start into the season, the unit grew into one of the NFL’s better units — one that stood its ground going against two high-powered offenses in the divisional and championship playoff rounds: the Patriots slowed down both the Los Angeles Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs en route to Super Bowl 53.After successfully defending the NFL’s scoring offenses number seven (Chargers) and one (Chiefs) in back-to-back weeks, the unit will now face its next task: going against a Los Angeles Rams offense that ranked third in the league in the regular season with a scoring average of 30.5 points per game. Needless to say that the group will need another sound performance this week, in order to help the Patriots lift their sixth Lombardi Trophy.“This is probably the best offense we’re going to face this season White Jonathan Jones Jerseys ,” said cornerback Jason McCourty today about the task of facing off against another high-powered offensive machine. “Last week going against Kansas City, it’s another tough offense and when you turn on the film [on the Rams] you’re like ‘we’ve got to do this all over again.’ We know we’ve got our work cut out for us.”Defensive tackle Lawrence Guy shared a similar mindset about Los Angeles’ offense. “They have big explosive backs, they have a great offensive line, and they got a quarterback that can manage it all,” he said during the Patriots’ media session on Tuesday. “You can’t take one play off, you’ve got to continue the play and if we have a bad play we’ve got to go to the next play to make sure we continue to play consistent football.”One of the reasons why L.A. is such a productive team on the offensive side of the football is quarterback Jared Goff, who is coming off the best season of his career. “You watch his film you’re going to be like ‘woah,’” said Elandon Roberts. “He’s throwing in the pocket, he’s throwing outside of the pocket, he’s throwing coming out of the play-action. And then they have the running game to complement that.”“This offense is high-power,” continued the Patriots’ linebacker. McCourty added that Goff might very well be the toughest quarterback that New England will face this season. “He’s killing it this year,” said the veteran cornerback. “He’s got two 1 Jonathan Jones Jerseys 2019 ,200-yard receivers, a really good running back, and he’s handled that offense and put them in a position to score a ton of points each and every game.”So what can the Patriots do in order to slow Goff and by extension the Rams’ high-powered passing attack down? According to Guy, the answer is a simple one: don’t allow the third-year passer to extend plays and create consistent pressure to get him off his game. “You have to go out there and keep him in the pocket and try to maintain constant pressure on the quarterback,” said Guy before adding the logical consequence of this plan.“You maintain pressure on the quarterback, good outcomes come,” he said. So far this postseason, New England was able to put significant pressure on both Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers and the Chiefs’ likely league MVP Patrick Mahomes. And if the team’s defense can do it again on Sunday, it should create similar results.