The Minnesota Vikings lost a heartbreaker to the Detroit Lions on Thursday. It was the second time they've lost to the Lions in rather ridiculous fashion this season. The Lions scored a combined 38 points in the two wins over Minnesota, so it's not like defense has been a problem for the Vikes. They just can't score.

Why? Quarterback Sam Bradford thinks it has to do with a lack of big plays.

"We've probably got to try and find a way to create some explosive plays,'' Bradford said, per the St. Paul Pioneer-Press. "It's hard when you're only picking up five, six, seven (yards) at a time. There's things that we can do to try and figure out how we can create some more explosive plays.''

Leaving aside the fact that Bradford is a huge part of the reason the Vikings don't make explosive plays, we can acknowledge that he's right.

Minnesota's longest pass play of the season is 46 yards. Only the Bucs don't have a passing play at least that long. The Vikings' longest run of the season is 29 yards. Only five teams don't have a running play at least that long.

The Vikes rank dead last in rushing plays of at least 10 yards, with only 14. They rank 19th in passing plays of at least 25 yards, with 18. Overall, no NFL team has a lower "big play percentage," which is the percentage of total plays that are either 10-plus yard rushes or 25-plus yard passes.

Bradford himself averages 6.4 air yards per pass attempt, per Pro Football Focus, a full yard less than the next closest qualified quarterback. During the Thanksgiving game, he averaged 3.5 air yards per attempt, the single lowest figure by any quarterback in any game this season. He repeatedly checked down in front of the sticks, all game long.

Somehow, Sam Bradford had 3 failed completions in the same down series twice in the 4Q. @ArifHasanNFLpic.twitter.com/S0nDy7EexT — Scott Kacsmar (@FO_ScottKacsmar) November 25, 2016

Bradford is not necessarily blessed with a ton of skill position talent around him, what with Adrian Peterson out for the year and Stefon Diggs having missed several games. He's also not got the greatest offensive line in the world in front of him. But surely he can push the ball a little bit farther down the field with some of these throws. There's a difference between being risk-averse (which he normally is) and doing the offensive a disservice by not trying to make plays down the field at all. Bradford has been on the wrong side of that line of late.