The Minnesota Vikings are guaranteed one more game in the 2023 season, and it will be played on Sunday at Ford Field at noon CST.
These last two weeks for the Vikings have been ones to forget. Getting throttled by these same Lions and embarrassed in a pivotal primetime matchup against the Green Bay Packers in back-to-back weeks was not an ideal end to 2023.
It’s 2024 now. The calendar has flipped, and the possibilities are endless. Except for the possibility of Minnesota getting into the playoffs, that ends at around 3%, depending on what simulator you use.
If Minnesota wants to try to cash in on those small odds, they must stop this Lions offense that has been rolling as of late. They scored the sixth-most points, gained the sixth-most yards per play, and were fifth in total yards in December.
Minnesota’s defense, other than their 3-0 slobber knocker against the Las Vegas Raiders, has been a dumpster fire. Since week 15, Minnesota has been second-to-last in EPA/play allowed and dead last in defensive success rate. Teams have been able to get whatever they want against the Vikings, especially through the air. They are third-worst in EPA/dropback and dead last in defensive success rate on dropbacks in that same span.
Whatever the answer may be, they need to find it fast if they want a shot at slipping into the playoffs. Here are four potential answers that they could administer to slow down this Lions’ attack.
Get him Goff the spot
The last time Jared Goff saw Minnesota, he picked apart the Vikings’ defense from the pocket without much resistance. Goff went 30-for-40 for 257 yards and a touchdown, and it looked easier than the stats suggest.
The Lions were able to block up the blitzes Flores sent and get to his secondary reads without a ton of opposition. Goff was pressured on only 19.5% of his dropbacks and sacked only once. If Goff gets comfortable, that’s when he’s most dangerous. The philosophy of this defense is dictated by its ability to speed up the timing of the quarterbacks. For the past two weeks, that has not happened.
Since D.J. Wonnum was lost for the year, no one has stepped up in the pass-rush on the other side of Danielle Hunter, allowing teams to stop the pass-rush by just chipping and slowing Hunter. Someone has to step up as a secondary pass-rushing option for this defense to work.
Rally to the ball!
In the last game against Detroit, the Vikings missed 14 tackles, helping lead to over 150 yards worth of yards after the catch.
Flores’ defense dares quarterbacks to continue to work the flats and the underneath parts of the field to move down the field. If the offense can get an average of five yards after the initial catch, Ben Johnson and the Lions’ offense will have no problem keeping the ball near the line of scrimmage and out of Goff’s hands quickly.
When this Vikings’ defense is at its best, they are making open field tackles and limiting the yards after catch underneath. Without that security, they have to use more resources to muddy the underneath coverage and leave themselves vulnerable in the intermediate to deep parts of the field. Whether it’s Akayleb Evans or Camryn Bynum, the defense has to make open-field tackling a priority.
Be ready for anything
Johnson and the Lions staff showed they will do anything to get their playmakers in space. Whether that’s running motions to get Amon-Ra St. Brown alone in the flat or lining Sam LaPorta on the outside against a safety, the possibilities are endless for this Detroit offense.
That means possibilities must be endless to combat them for the Minnesota defense. Teams are figuring out that Minnesota has two calling cards: blitzing and running a cover-two (usually Tampa-two) or cover-zero behind it and feigning a blitz while dropping eight in coverage. Teams are keying on this Vikings’ defense because it has started to become predictable. It may be time for Flores to pull out a few different looks to keep offenses on their toes.
One last chance
Despite the last two weeks, this has been a special defense. The turnaround that this unit made from year to year doesn’t happen a lot in the NFL. A bottom half of the league unit, scraping by behind the successful offense last season, turned into the anchor of the team this season and allowed the offense time to attempt to piece themselves together amid a slew of devastating injuries.
The Lions game may be the last time Vikings fans will see this structure of defense. Flores has done a tremendous job and may be up for a head coaching position next season. Harrison Smith could be playing his final game as a Viking. Hunter, Wonnum and Marcus Davenport are all free agents next off-season. This defense could look very different come next year, so I want to take this time to say thank you.
It has been an honor to cover this unit as currently constructed and see the different usages of players such as Josh Metellus, Bynum and Smith. What Flores has done with this unit has been exemplary and deserves all the praise that will assuredly follow this season.
