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Slowing The Pack: Breaking Down The Viking Defense

Andrew McKagan |
November 28, 2014 | 12:24 p.m. PST

Staff Reporter

After putting up 108 combined points in the previous two weeks, the Green Bay Packers were expected to steamroll the relatively stagnant Minnesota Vikings. Aaron Rodgers looks like the best quarterback in the NFL, and he has seemingly connected with Jordy Nelson for long touchdowns more games than not this season. 

But while the Packers beat Minnesota, they "only" managed to squeak out a 24-21 victory against a Vikings team that frankly isn't very good right now. So how did the Vikings defense manage to contain a Packer offense that was on an historic pace after putting up 50+ points two weeks in a row?

After putting on the tape, I saw a Vikings defense that had a clear gameplan and executed it well. They played a lot of cover-2, with two safeties deep in an effort to limit shots downfield. This strategy worked, and the Packers had exactly zero completed deep bombs during this game by my count. 

But by playing two-deep coverage, that essentially dares the offense to run the ball, and that's where Green Bay got most of its sustained offense. Eddie Lacy had a fantastic day (25 carries, 125 yards), and was able to break off enough chunk runs to pick up the offense when the passing game wasn't. The Vikings run defense wasn't a sieve, and made some good plays at times, but there were far too many instances of guys who couldn't get off blocks in order to clog running lanes. The run defense was Minnesota's weak point on defense during this game, as they couldn't contain Eddie Lacy with just seven or even sometimes eight in the box.

But on the plus side, the pass defense was much better. Against the Packers, it all starts with tackling and limiting yards after the catch. A lot of Green Bay's offense is dependent on getting receivers the ball quickly in one-on-one matchups and allowing them to make guys miss after the completion, and the Packer receivers are great at this. 

The Viking defensive backs, however, did an excellent job of limiting this facet of the Packer offense. Cornerback Josh Robinson is in a zone coverage right here with his eyes on Aaron Rodgers:

He expects this quick-hitter right here, and does a great job breaking back to the ball and going low on Jordy Nelson to make the tackle. A lot of cornerbacks don't know how to tackle properly (i.e. they go high instead of low), but I'm not surprised that this Mike Zimmer-led defense seems highly disciplined in that aspect.

Here's another play designed to put Jordy Nelson in the open field with the ball, but the Vikings again contain it very effectively. Green Bay's other two receivers actually do a fantastic job blocking this play up for Nelson, but the unblocked Captain Munnerlyn (24) comes in and makes the one-on-one tackle perfectly:

And one more:

Munnerlyn again wraps up in space, this time against Randall Cobb. If Cobb breaks this tackle, he gets the easy first down, then some. Again, fantastic tackling job.

But the coverage by the Vikings as a whole was pretty good too. Xavier Rhodes in particular had a really good game, which is quite a feat for any corner against Green Bay's offense. On one of Green Bay's only shots downfield, Rhodes had perfect coverage:

Minnesota is in a cover-3, and the Viking corners are apparently coached to play with inside leverage to use the sideline as a second defender. Rhodes does that perfectly here, and you'll notice how he subtly "squeezes" Jordy Neslon into the sideline around the 32 yard line. Rhodes doesn't extend his arms at all (or it probably would have drawn a flag), but instead uses his body to edge out Nelson and take away any room for Nelson to catch the ball in bounds. This pass was incomplete.

Rhodes also had this nice play against Nelson on a deep comeback route. You can see Rhodes' speed and acceleration as he breaks back to the ball and beats Nelson for the pass deflection:

The Vikings also deployed this coverage a handful of times to take away the deep ball:

Here, they have a corner and a safety straight-up double team the isolated receiver (at the top of the screen in this case) while playing man coverage with a safety over the top on the other side of the field. Too many teams in weeks past have left Packer receivers (especially Jordy Nelson) in one-on-one coverage deep, but the safeties here take away any chance at a throw over the top.

Last but not least, the Vikings used a lot of pre-snap disguise such as this to try and fool Aaron Rodgers:

Minnesota shows an all-out blitz here, but drops into a common cover-3 zone post-snap. Rodgers is forced to bring Andrew Quarless (81) into the backfield to account for all the defenders. After the snap, Rodgers couldn't complete to pass deep to Davante Adams due to tight coverage by Rhodes, but he also had no outlet over the middle because of these fake blitzers clogging passing lanes underneath. Minnesota rarely brought extra pressure during this game, but even the illusion of it forces the quarterback to adjust--these adjustments can help create matchup advantages for a defense, such as getting a running back trying to block a defensive end one-on-one.

Minnesota also did something I've never seen before, where they came out in a cover-2 look, rotated to a cover-1 look just before the snap, then switched back to a cover-2 post-snap (the GIF file was too large to show here, unfortunately). They definitely put a lot of effort into confusing Rodgers, and it apparently was effective to an extent. 

But again, the downfall of the Vikings in this game was largely due to their run defense, and the Packers were able to run out the clock at the end of the game due to a few Eddie Lacy first downs. However, I did notice that one player who was stellar in run D all game long was Everson Griffen, who regularly overpowered Packer left tackle David Bakhtiari. Green Bay couldn't run at him. Griffen is just so good, and would definitely be in the Defensive Player of the Year conversation if not for JJ Watt, in my opinion.

Minnesota really should be better up front. Talented players like Griffen, Linval Joseph, Brian Robison, Tom Johnson, and Shariff Floyd (the latter two of whom are having breakout seasons) means that they should rarely be dominated.

Minnesota's young defense definitely has room to grow, but their performance against the Packers is a really good sign. And if anyone can get these guys playing at their peak abilities, it's Mike Zimmer.



 

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