I keep seeing that the Vikings abandoned the run and that was why they lost. I do not believe that is true. Sure, the Vikings had a number of successful long runs. But, they also had a number of terrible runs. The big runs generally came on first down, then the Vikings would run again on first down, get bottled up and then be forced to run on 2nd and long or pass....sometimes they ran and were stopped and other times they passed.
Either way, the high YPC number is inflated by a few long runs that do not tell the story of the Patriots defense, generally making the Vikings pay for running the ball.