A “Muddy” Minnesota Defense is Getting Praise For Deceptive Complexity
K. Joudry
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If Minnesota gets back on track in 2022, it’ll largely be because the defense found a way to rebound from consecutive poor seasons. Ed Donatell’s new scheme is supposed to help revive the defense, putting the Vikings in a far better position to succeed. For what it’s worth, the QB is impressed with what he has seen so far.
According to Kirk Cousins, the defense is “really muddy.” “When you drop back,” he explains, “you don’t quite know what you’re getting.” He later notes how “they’re doing a good job with disguise, making things look the same.” The defense has “a great scheme” that “makes practice difficult.”
A few minutes later in the press conference, Cousins returns to the defense’s style. The QB explains that turning his back through play action doesn’t matter too much since the initial moment or two of a play doesn’t reveal where the defense is going: “You’re better off just turning your back, doing a play fake, because I’m not getting any tells anyways.”
So much of the game of football occurs before the ball is snapped. QBs try to glean as much info as possible before taking the ball from the center. The goal is to get a sense of what he’ll encounter once the actual play begins. Some defenses try to confuse an offense by trotting out all kinds of different alignments and personnel packages, forcing the opposition to deal with a lot of different info. Others try to make things look very similar on every snap to avoid tipping one’s hand. If the defense always looks the same, the offense won’t be able to pick up on patterns or hints.
The Minnesota defense will find itself among the latter group, as Cousins suggests. Veteran players like Eric Kendricks, Harrison Smith, and Danielle Hunter have been joined by Za’Darius Smith, Jordan Hicks, and Harrison Phillips in an attempt to make the unit more dangerous. Last season, the Vikings finished 3rd worst in yards allowed and 9th worst in points allowed. The year before, it was 6th worst in yards allowed and 4th worst in terms of points allowed.
Donatell was the DC for the Broncos last season. Despite a ton of injuries, Denver finished as the 8th best for yards allowed and 3rd best in terms of points allowed. Hopefully, being able to confuse and confound an offense before the play will help the Minnesota defense get closer to Denver’s recent performance.
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