There’s no way around it. Monday night was an absolute beatdown for the Minnesota Vikings. From start to finish, the Los Angeles Rams were in complete control, jumping out to a 10-0 lead before going on to win, 27-9.
The defense was particularly impressive, holding the Vikings to 269 total yards with two turnovers and three failed fourth-down conversions. Sam Darnold was sacked nine times, tying a playoff record, and the Rams returned a 57-yard fumble for a touchdown to go up 17-3 in the second quarter.
Former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky broke down how Chris Shula’s defense “whooped the Vikings offensive line” with disguised coverages, blitzes and unique personnel groupings that kept Minnesota on its heels.
“Completely outmatched, completely outclassed them. I thought Kevin O’Connell, in many ways, surprisingly got outcoached,” Orlovsky said. “It was really smart with how they created one-on-ones. It was a little bit like what the Detroit Lions did. Wide defensive tackles, super-wide defensive ends, the inside linebackers walked up to the center’s head. He’s just occupying time. He’s actually going to play the running back in man-to-man coverage, so you create one-on-ones versus the tackles, you double team Justin Jefferson inside and outside. Everybody else is playing physical man coverage. One of those one-on-ones has got to win.”
Remembered—KOC from LAR—Sean and Shula knew the rules of the protection. Knew how to stress it. Took advantage of it @RamsNFL pic.twitter.com/GdDEcWQLHI
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) January 14, 2025
Orlovsky went on to break down two other elements of Shula’s scheme that resulted in a lot of problems for the Vikings: cat corners and “diabolical blitzes. It was a masterful plan by Shula and Sean McVay, and Orlovsky believes it was helped by the fact that O’Connell used to coach with both of them in Los Angeles.
“I’ve been thinking about this all day because it was so impressive to watch the plan and I thought to myself, Kevin O’Connell came from where? The Los Angeles Rams,” Orlovsky said. “He’s going to use very similar protections. Sean McVay, I guarantee, went to Chris Shula, the defensive coordinator, and said, ‘This is how you can take advantage of those protections and understand how they’re going to try to answer the questions you present, and then you have a second question that they don’t have an answer for.”
The Rams devised the perfect game plan for the Vikings, who had one of the best offenses in football all season. They ranked ninth in points per game and 12th in yards, averaging the sixth-most passing yards per game. But against Los Angeles, Darnold, O’Connell and the high-flying offense was completely shut down.
