Vikings' Turner: We need to get Cordarrelle Patterson more touches

The Minnesota Vikings offense suddenly looks a lot different than it did in Week 1. Star running back Adrian Peterson is away from the team indefinitely as he deals with child abuse allegations and rookie Teddy Bridgewater is the new starter behind center following Matt Cassel's placement on IR.

One thing that hasn't changed in Minnesota is the criticism Vikings coaches face for not manufacturing enough touches for dynamic second-year player Cordarrelle Patterson.

The 2011 first-round pick is a bit of an enigma. With the ball in his hands, he's one of the most dangerous players in the NFL. The issue is how to get the ball in his hands. He's classified as a wide receiver, but he's still not a particularly strong route runner.

The Vikings have given Patterson some rushes out of the backfield - to great success - yet he carried the ball only once (for -7 yards) in the team's Week 3 loss. With Peterson away from the team, it's hard to make sense of the Vikings' reluctance to use Patterson in this manner.

Vikings offensive coordinator Norv Turner addressed the issue this week and promised to continue to work to get Patterson touches in more creative ways.

“We need to continue to find balance,” Turner said via the Star Tribune. “When everyone talks about balance, they think it’s run and pass. It’s balance in terms of getting all of our players involved. In my experience when they’re going good, they take someone away or concentrate on someone to give someone else the opportunity. Cordarrelle is a different situation he was a year ago. He’s growing and teams are matching with him and they’re concentrating on him. We’ve got to continue to work ways to get him the ball.”

The Vikings square off against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. The Falcons defense is surrendering the league's fifth-most yards per game on defense, so Patterson should be able to find some running lanes - if his coaches put him in position to do so.