Crushed Confidence? Vikings Defense Puts Together a Putrid Packers Performance
Fans will be forgiven if they believed that Ed Donatell was calling the shots on Sunday Night Football. After all, the Vikings defense looked completely disinterested in shutting down the Packers.
In reality, the defense was being led by Brian Flores, but the product looked nothing like his usual effort. Green Bay regularly found ways of getting their pass catchers wide open (emphasis on wide). True, losing Byron Murphy hurts, but there’s simply no way an NFL defense should crumple so disastrously without their CB1.
Akayleb Evans, when he wasn’t getting stiff armed into oblivion, was getting picked on in coverage. Green Bay showed no respect for the team’s Week 17 CB1 and were rewarded for doing so. Evans had a horrendous game a week after getting benched. What happened to the confident, physical tackler whose length was an asset?
Meanwhile, the pass rush was non existent and the effort to get more beef onto the defensive line didn’t result in a suffocating run defense. What happens when a defense can’t stop the run or the pass? Those who lived through the 2022 version of the Vikings will know the answer.
Vikings Defense Puts Together a Stunningly Poor Effort
First, some numbers.
Jordan Love put together a marvellous effort on Sunday Night Football. He finished his day having gone 24/33 for 256 yards, 3 TDs, and 0 INTs. He added on a rushing score and wasn’t sacked a single time. Love, in short, was brilliant. At no point did he look flustered or uncomfortable. Several of his incompletions came down to GB receivers just dropping the pigskin.
Bo Melton, someone whom most NFL fans had never heard of, finished the day with 6 catches for 105 yards and a TD. Jayden Reed added 89 yards and a pair of scores. The wild thing about their production, alongside the production from the other cheesy skilled players, is that they were encountering very little opposition in the secondary.
Consider Exhibit A:
And Exhibit B:
And Exhibit C:
Folks, the stunning part is we could keep going with several other examples. Last night was ugly for the defense. A high school defense would be embarrassed to leave players that open. What about in the NFL?
On the way to 33 points — the second most Minnesota has allowed all season — the Vikings saw the time of possession decisively favor their Wisconsin rivals. Green Bay held onto the football for 37:32 while Minnesota had it for just 22:28. On their way to 470 yards of offense (again, the second most allowed all season), the Packers converted on 9/14 of their third downs.
The Vikings didn’t pick up a single sack. There was only 1 TFL and 3 QB hits. Nowhere close to good enough.
Make no mistake: Brian Flores has done tremendously in 2023. With some glaring talent deficiencies, Flores has his group as the NFL’s 12th best by allowing 20.8 points against per game. And, let’s not forget, that’s while navigating a brutal quarterback situation and a very high amount of turnovers. In a league where bad offense directly feeds into bad defense, Flores has mostly put together a strong product.
Last night’s performance, though, was awful. He’ll look to quickly correct a litany of errors in time for Minnesota’s final game of the season on January 7th.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this piece.
K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.
