Vikings Have 2023 Flashbacks and 1 Wrinkle Is Alarming
Let’s travel back to the 2022 season. The Vikings were incredible, winning 13 of 17 regular season games. Most of those were close one-possession contests, decided late in the fourth quarter. One reason for that was the lack of aggressiveness on offense to put games out of reach, but another reason was the terrible defense.
Vikings Have 2023 Flashbacks and 1 Wrinkle Is Alarming
Ed Donatell coordinated the defense in year one after Mike Zimmer. A shaky cornerback room was surrounded by a lot of experience on all three levels and a scary pass rush. Still, the Vikings’ defense was so bad that the club fired Donatell after only one season and one blundered postseason game.
That game directly led to the New York Giants paying Daniel Jones a lot of money, but it also led to Minnesota’s hire of Brian Flores, a former head coach. He implemented a unique defensive scheme, built around a league-lead in blitzes but also a league-high in three-man rushes, meaning he either sent a bunch of defenders after the QB or dropped more than usual into coverage.
After some early-year struggles, the defensive unit became one of the elite groups in the NFL, certainly climaxing in Las Vegas failing to score a single point in the 3-0 win, a game that couldn’t have been worse from a viewer’s perspective.
Something happened halfway through the Week 15 contest against the Bengals, though. The Vikings were blowing them out, and suddenly, the defense stopped working, and the Burrow-less Bengals scored 21 points in the fourth quarter and three more in overtime.
In the following three weeks, the Lions (twice) and the Packers carved up Flores’ unit. The teams got enough film, and three excellent offensive game planners exposed their weaknesses.
Through three weeks last year, the Vikings ranked 26th in EPA/play on defense. Between Weeks 4 and 14, the Vikings ranked first in the NFL. In the final four games, including the game in Cincinnati, the Vikings ranked 31st.
Why does this matter now? Well, Flores came up with some changes entering the 2024 campaign, and his defense was outstanding in the first three games, plus two quarters against Green Bay. In the second half, however, his unit got exposed. Quarterback Jordan Love marched down the field numerous times.
Love finished the game with 389 passing yards and four touchdowns. Green Bay collected 465 offensive yards despite barely moving the ball in the first half. Somehow, receivers continued to be wide-open on medium throws. The pass rush couldn’t pressure Love anymore, and the offense looked unstoppable outside of some jump balls in the end zone.
The end result was different, but the defensive breakdown was quite comparable to the game against the Bengals last year.
The question now is if it was an outlier and Love tore up the overly cautious prevent defense or if LaFleur has unlocked something and figured out how to beat Flores’ defense. The answer to this question will come next week when the Vikings face Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets.
Their offense hasn’t clicked through four games, but the four-time MVP is certainly a strong bet to find those advantages against an opposing scheme if they exist.
Meanwhile, Flores needs to go back to the drawing board and identify if his scheme was solved or if Love’s uber-aggressiveness just forced the issue. Throwing every other pass down the field into jump-ball situations certainly isn’t sustainable, either. It is alarming, nevertheless.
The next test for the defense will come on Sunday when the Vikings (technically) host the Jets in London.
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Janik Eckardt is a football fan who likes numbers and stats. The Vikings became his favorite team despite their quarterback at the time, Christian Ponder. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and prefers Classic rock over other genres. Follow him on Twitter if you like the Vikings: @JanikEckardt