SEATTLE — The Vikings entered November with a top-10 NFL offense, but it’s been all downhill since.

For the fourth time in five games, Minnesota was held to less than 300 yards total offense. The result was an ugly, 21-7 loss Monday night to the Seattle Seahawks at CenturyLink Stadium.

The Vikings finished with 276 yards and were fortunate not to finish with under 200. They had a meager 61 yards at halftime, and 115 through three quarters.

“You hear the offensive coordinator (John DeFilippo) is getting a lot of ridicule, but it’s about the players,” wide receiver Adam Thielen said. “The players have got to make the plays. It doesn’t matter what play is called, you have to run that play and you have to be successful on it. It just comes down to execution, all 11 players doing the right thing.’’

The Vikings (6-6-1) entered November ranked ninth on total offense; they’ve since dropped to 17th — and lost three of its last four games.

The Vikings had the No. 1-ranked defense when they advanced to last year’s NFC Championship, but they also had the eighth-ranked passing offense with Case Keenum at quarterback. They believed signing Kirk Cousins to a three-year, $84 million free-agent deal would make that even better, but not so far.

After losses at Chicago on Nov. 18 and New England on Dec, 2, Zimmer was critical of DeFilippo’s play-calling, saying the Vikings aren’t committed enough to the running game, and wondering aloud if the offense is trying too hard to “trick” opponents.

The Vikings ran more Monday — carries for 77 yards — but falling behind relied mostly to the passing game. Quarterback Kirk Cousins finished 20 of 33 for 208 yards. Seventy of those yards came on a drive in the final minutes, when the Vikings were down 21-0, that culminated with a six-yard touchdown pass to running back Dalvin Cook.

That kept the Vikings from being shut out for the first time since a 34-0 loss at Green Bay on Nov. 11, 2007.

The Vikings (6-6-1) are still in position for a wild-card playoff spot. But how do they fix the offense with three games left in the regular season?

“That’s a good question,” Zimmer said. “Keep at it, keep trying to find things we are good at. We didn’t score many points. We didn’t score many points (against the Patriots). Part of it is being better on third downs. Part of it is being better at the red zone.”

Trailing 6-0, the Vikings had first-and-goal at the Seattle 4 early in the fourth quarter but the drive ended without a score when Cousins’ fourth-down pass to Kyle Rudolph at the back of the end zone was knocked away by Bradley McDougald.

“When you don’t execute, it’s frustrating,” Cook said. “We have to put it together. We have to go back to the drawing board and we have to figure out what we need to do. … We practice so hard. … All the coaches put us in the right place.”

Cook carried nine times for 84 yards against the Patriots, and DeFilippo agreed that the second-year back needed more carries. On Monday, Cook ran for 55 yards on 13 carries, just the second time this season he has had more than 10 attempts in a game.

The Vikings, though, didn’t get much help from running back Latavius Murray, who had three carries for just four yards. He was stopped short on a fourth-and-1 run late in the third quarter at the Seattle 40 when Minnesota trailed 3-0.

Certainly the running game wasn’t good enough for the Vikings to help star receivers Thielen and Stefon Diggs, who were double-teamed all night.

Thielen, who leads the NFL with 103 receptions, didn’t catch a pass until six minutes were left in the third quarter and finished with five catches for 70 yards. Diggs caught four passes 76 yards.

“It’s tough,” Diggs said. “We’ve got to score points, we’ve got to move the ball, we’ve got to stay on schedule. We can’t get behind the chains.”

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And the Vikings can’t commit turnovers. With 2:35 left in the game and Minnesota trailing 14-0, Cousins was sacked by Jacob Martin and lost his NFL-high seventh lost fumble of the season. Justin Coleman picked it up and returned it 29 yards for a touchdown.

He was sacked twice and had to throw the ball away a number of times.

“When you have the pass rush like the Seahawks, getting in there and influencing the plays, coverage is pretty sound, maybe there were some times where I could have done (run),” Cousins said. “That’s probably my first thought coming away from it.”