Vikings Statistical Rankings Through Week 17: Defense
Josh Frey
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The Minnesota Vikings saw their losing streak extend to three games on Sunday when they fell to the Green Bay Packers by a score of 33-10.
With the loss, the Vikings fall to 7-9 on the season, and while their playoff hopes haven’t been totally eliminated yet, a lot needs to happen this weekend if Minnesota is to sneak into the tournament as the No. 7 seed.
Today, we will be breaking down the Vikings statistical rankings on defense through Week 16 as a whole, and where individual players stand. Shout out to Pro-Football-Reference, Pro Football Focus, and nfeloapp.com for the numbers that went into this article.
NOTE: Individual PFF Grades are sorted to include players with at least 50% of the league leaders for defensive snaps at each position.
Team Defense
Total Defense
- Points Allowed per Game: 20.8 (12th)
- Total Yards Allowed per Game: 330.2 (16th)
- Plays per Game: 64.9 (T-26th-fewest)
- Yards Allowed per Play: 5.1 (10th)
- First Downs Allowed per Game: 19.3 (T-16th)
- Takeaways per Game: 1.38 (18th)
- Third-Down Conversion Percentage Allowed: 42.6% (28th)
- Fourth-Down Conversion Percentage Allowed: 69.6% (31st)
- Red Zone TD Percentage Allowed: 52.2% (12th)
- Overall PFF Grade: 70.6 (21st)
- EPA/play: -0.05 (17th)
The Vikings put together one of their worst performances of the season on Sunday night against the Packers. Minnesota allowed 33 points, which is the second-highest this season, and the Packers were able to put up 470 total yards of offense. This was just the third time all year that a team has put up 400+ yards against the Vikings.
Pass Defense
- Completions Allowed per Game: 25.2 (32nd)
- Pass Attempts Against per Game: 35.9 (25th-fewest)
- Passing Yards Allowed per Game: 229.7 (18th)
- Net Yards Allowed per Attempt: 6.0 (14th)
- Passing First Downs Allowed per Game: 12.2 (29th)
- Passing TDs Allowed per Game: 1.31 (T-18th)
- Interceptions per Game: 0.69 (T-19th)
- Sacks per Game: 2.6 (T-14th)
- Coverage PFF Grade: 82.5 (10th)
- Pass-Rush PFF Grade: 59.6 (32nd)
- EPA/pass: -0.01 (9th)
Run Defense
- Carries Against per Game: 26.4 (13th-fewest)
- Rushing Yards Allowed per Game: 100.5 (9th)
- Yards Allowed per Carry: 3.8 (6th)
- Rushing First Downs Allowed per Game: 6.19 (T-15th)
- Rushing TDs Allowed per Game: 0.75 (T-11th)
- Fumbles Recovered per Game: 0.69 (T-4th)
- Run Defense PFF Grade: 63.4 (T-16th)
- EPA/run: -0.13 (13th)
Minnesota continues to allow more completions per game than any other team in the NFL after Jordan Love completed 24 of his 33 passes on Sunday night. The Vikings’ secondary struggled to slow down the young QB as he completed multiple Aaron Rodgers-esque passes off his back foot.
Minnesota’s run defense saw their fair share of struggles as well, allowing 120 yards to Aaron Jones on his 20 carries. This is an area that has been superb for the Vikings all season, but they were dominated on the ground all throughout the game.
Individual Players
OLB Danielle Hunter
- Solo Tackles: 49 (T-120th)
- Tackles for Loss: 21 (T-1st)
- QB Pressures: 74 (11th)
- QB Hits: 21 (T-20th)
- Sacks: 15.5 (5th)
- Forced Fumbles: 4 (T-5th)
- PFF Grade: 76.5 (24th among 60 qualifying EDGEs)
OLB D.J. Wonnum
- Solo Tackles: 33 (T-234th)
- Tackles for Loss: 7 (T-97th)
- QB Pressures: 38 (T-71st)
- QB Hits: 15 (T-54th)
- Sacks: 8.0 (T-34th)
- PFF Grade: 62.3 (T-43rd among 60 qualifying EDGEs)
OLB Pat Jones
- Solo Tackles: 22 (T-368th)
- Tackles for Loss: 5 (T-163rd)
- QB Pressures: 30 (T-106th)
- QB Hits: 8 (T-121st)
- Sacks: 1.0 (T-257th)
- PFF Grade: 36.5 (60th among 60 qualifying EDGEs)
DL Harrison Phillips
- Solo Tackles: 49 (T-120th)
- Tackles for Loss: 2 (T-321st)
- QB Pressures: 19 (T-164th)
- QB Hits: 6 (T-155th)
- Sacks: 3.0 (T-139th)
- PFF Grade: 60.1 (44th among 73 qualifying DL)
DL Jonathan Bullard
- Solo Tackles: 21 (T-383rd)
- Tackles for Loss: 3 (T-257th)
- QB Pressures: 9 (T-273rd)
- QB Hits: 2 (T-290th)
- Sacks: 2.0 (T-191st)
- PFF Grade: 49.4 (64th among 73 qualifying DL)
LB Jordan Hicks
- Solo Tackles: 57 (T-79th)
- Tackles for Loss: 4 (T-209th)
- QB Pressures: 13 (T-227th)
- QB Hits: 2 (T-290th)
- Sacks: 1.0 (T-257th)
- Passes Defended: 5 (T-147th)
- PFF Grade: 75.0 (20th among 61 qualifying LBs)
LB Ivan Pace
- Solo Tackles: 58 (T-74th)
- Tackles for Loss: 2 (T-321st)
- QB Pressures: 14 (T-210th)
- QB Hits: 8 (T-121st)
- Sacks: 2.5 (T-171st)
- PFF Grade: 75.8 (T-17th among 61 qualifying LBs)
CB Byron Murphy
- Solo Tackles: 43 (T-155th)
- Tackles for Loss: 4 (T-209th)
- Passes Defended: 13 (T-15th)
- Interceptions: 3 (T-22nd)
- PFF Grade: 57.9 (63rd among 80 qualifying CBs)
CB Akayleb Evans
- Solo Tackles: 47 (T-130th)
- Tackles for Loss: 0
- Passes Defended: 7 (T-84th)
- Interceptions: 1 (T-96th)
- PFF Grade: 57.5 (64th among 80 qualifying CBs)
S Harrison Smith
- Solo Tackles: 57 (T-79th)
- Tackles for Loss: 2 (T-321st)
- Sacks: 3.0 (T-139th)
- Passes Defended: 2 (T-310th)
- Interceptions: 0
- PFF Grade: 69.8 (27th among 65 qualifying safeties)
S Camryn Bynum
- Solo Tackles: 90 (6th)
- Tackles for Loss: 2 (T-321st)
- Passes Defended: 9 (T-49th)
- Interceptions: 2 (T-40th)
- PFF Grade: 75.6 (11th among 65 qualifying safeties)
S Josh Metellus
- Solo Tackles: 73 (T-30th)
- Tackles for Loss: 7 (T-97th)
- Passes Defended: 4 (T-183rd)
- Interceptions: 1 (T-96th)
- PFF Grade: 72.2 (20th among 65 qualifying safeties)
Vikings Statistical Rankings Through Week 17: Offense
Josh Frey is a Class of 2020 graduate of The College of Idaho and managing editor of PurplePTSD.com. When he’s not writing about the NFL, Josh enjoys running, gaming, or rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks. Check out his Twitter account: @Freyed_Chicken.