In the case of the Minnesota Vikings’ defense under Brian Flores, there are some numbers you should know.
The Vikings under Flores in his first year with the team ranked 13th in Defensive DVOA through the first seven weeks of the season. Since then, they rank second in Defensive DVOA behind only the New York Jets.
For the season, the Vikings have by far rushed opposing quarterbacks with three defenders more often than any other defense — they’ve done it 113 times, and the Saints rank second at 59. They’ve also rushed six or more defenders by far the most in the NFL this season — 121 times, and the New England Patriots rank second with 44.
Especially after the relatively “vanilla” schemes put forth in the 2022 season by former defensive coordinator Ed Donatell, Flores’ schemes look like a crazy quilt, and it took a few weeks for everybody to get on the same page. But that’s happened of late, and now, Flores’ defenders are playing his concepts not only with the advantages given when you throw things at quarterbacks they don’t see anywhere else, but with a discipline that makes it all work.
Vikings defensive lineman Harrison Phillips spoke this week with Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network about how things have changed for the better.
How are the #Vikings quietly morphing into a top defense under Brian Flores?
Fascinating answer here from veteran lineman (and Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year nominee) Harrison Phillips on The Insiders.
📺📱💻 Full episode on-demand now on #NFLPlus: https://t.co/yQxcW6joDt pic.twitter.com/kUXj5Z1k4M
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) December 12, 2023
“I’m glad you mentioned the discipline piece, because I said just after the game (Minnesota’s 3-0 win over the Las Vegas Raiders) when someone said, ‘This isn’t a typical 4-3 downhill attacking defense that you see some of these guys have,’ where it’s one man, one gap,” Phillips said. “Those defenses are really easy to understand. This one is a little more complex, because it’s not vanilla – Harrison, you have the A-gap. You could have the front-side A-gap, the front-side B-gap, the backside A-gap, maybe the backside B-gap. There are gap schemes within that, and oh, you might drop if we get this.
“We have so many different layers to the defense, I think what Coach Flores might have been shocked at himself when he came here… we have a veteran defense at a lot of the key positions. We’re able to get more complex and get two or three calls when the offense checks at the line of scrimmage, we can get into our second call. When they think we’re in a max look, we can go to another call. Being able to trust us and see the mental capabilities we have as a defense has allowed us to get deeper and deeper as we go on in the season and we get more reps. Guys are all getting on the same page, and there’s better communication. That’s another huge word when you talk about this defense.
“The success we’re having goes back to that discipline and that communication.”
The Vikings’ sack of Raiders quarterback Aidan O’Connell with 8:46 left in the first quarter was a great example of how Flores ties pressure to coverage, and how enemy quarterbacks can be placed out of their elements very quickly. Pre-snap, this looked like a seven-man pressure on second-and-18, but watch how the Vikings turn this into an effective four-man rush, accentuated by the subtle post-snap switches that took O’Connell’s options away. Pre-snap, it could have been a Cover-0 blitz (a Flores staple for years), but it turned into Cover-2, and that’s a lot for a young quarterback to take in.
Here’s another long-yardage situation that turned in the Vikings’ favor. In Week 7, the San Francisco 49ers had second-and-13 with 12:16 left in the third quarter, and Minnesota had a three-man rush with seven defensive backs. Again, the picture pre-snap and post-snap was very different. Linebacker Jordan Hicks and safety Theo Jackson could have blitzed, but they dropped into coverage along with safety Josh Martellus, muddying Brock Purdy’s underneath reads.
The Vikings beat San Francisco’s five-man protection with some cool pass-rush ideas, from Patrick Jones II’s pre-snap shuttle to either side of 49ers center Jake Brendel to Jones’ stunt with edge-rusher Danielle Hunter. Purdy didn’t have time to diagnose what the Vikings were doing to him before he hit the turf.
The Vikings also have an unusual situation in that Ivan Pace Jr. — an undrafted rookie from Cincinnati — is running Flores’ defense on the field. That’s a lot to keep in your head, but Pace was the closer in that Raiders game, flying across the field to jump O’Connell’s quick slant to Davante Adams.
“I think that’s what’s making them play at the level they are right now – it’s just consistent [with] the mix and match between keeping people off balance, using our playmakers at different positions to allow them to thrive in multiple roles,” Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell said this week of his defense. “Using a guy like Byron Murphy to maybe match in coverage sometimes; other times, maybe just play his standard stop. Josh Metellus, Harrison Smith, Cam Bynum at the safety position. A guy like Mekhi Blackmon steps in and gives us some really good snaps.
“And then I.P. [Pace], you know, running the show as the green dot. His ability to just continue to improve. I think [inside linebackers coach] Mike Siravo deserves a ton of credit for the development of an undrafted, free agent rookie that we’re really lucky to have and, quite honestly, don’t know where we would be without him. But once again, just a credit to Flo, his staff, our players for the consistency at which they’ve been able to continue to communicate, execute and ultimately finish.”
On Saturday, the Cincinnati Bengals and quarterback Jake Browning will be the nest to try and solve all of Flores’ puzzles. Right now, no defense is tying pressure and coverage together better in most interesting ways. In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys got deeper into it.
You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os,” featuring all of Week 15’s biggest NFL matchups (including Vikings-Bengals) right here:
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