Vikings’ offensive aide fired

The Minnesota Vikings, still seeking to salvage a season that started with Super Bowl designs, made a lastditch move to capture a mid-December spark by firing offensive coordinator John DeFilippo.

Coach Mike Zimmer made what he called an “extremely difficult decision” on Tuesday morning, following a 21-7 defeat at Seattle on Monday night . DeFilippo’s first season on the job ended after just 13 games, amid a sharp decline in production by the offense over the past six weeks.

“I went round and round and round and round about it because I feel like, ‘I hired him. It’s my job to try to help him to continue to get better,’ ” Zimmer said. “I obviously didn’t do a good enough job there. I’ve always felt like if you hire a guy, you should stick with him and try to help him and help him mature as a coach.”

The Vikings (6-6-1) have been held to under 300 total yards in four of their past five games. They’ve scored an average of 12.8 points in those four games.

Quarterbacks coach Kevin Stefanski was made interim offensive coordinator, taking over the play-calling duty.

Gordon wants to play: Melvin Gordon wants to suit up for the Los Angeles Chargers’ biggest game of the season Thursday night at Kansas City, but he said his status likely will not be decided until 90 minutes before kickoff.

The fourth-year running back from Wisconsin has missed the past two games after spraining the MCL in his right knee during the second half of the Chargers’ Nov. 26 win against Arizona. He is sixth in the AFC in rushing with 802 yards despite missing three games and leads the conference in rushing average per game (80.2).

Gordon acknowledged that he will not be 100% if he plays against the Chiefs. He was listed as limited on the team’s Tuesday practice report.