Everything that went right and wrong for the Vikings vs. Ravens
By Matthew Coller
Every week is a brand new story in the NFL and that is certainly the case between Week 9 and 10 with the Minnesota Vikings. Last week, many things clicked into place for the Vikings to get a big win in Detroit but this Sunday they were not as sharp. Let’s have a look at the things that worked for them and what went sideways…
What went right
McCarthy vs. the blitz
One of the areas where McCarthy struggled in previous weeks was when the opponent sent extra pressure. On this day, the Vikings sorted through the blitzes and McCarthy went 7-for-13 with 131 yards and two big-time throws.
His most impressive W versus the blitz came late in the game when the Ravens overloaded the right side of the offensive line and pressured McCarthy. He scrambled out of the pocket, kept his eyes downfield and found Jalen Nailor working back to the QB for a fourth down conversion.
McCarthy was critical of himself when it came to throws on the run last week and this game had a mixed bag of positive and negative plays when he scrambled but we can see here the high end capability that he has outside the pocket. Between the creativity to dodge the rush, the velocity of the ball and keeping his eyes downfield to find Nailor, it was an impressive play.
Whether QBs perform well against the blitz tends to jump up and down from week to week because all blitzes aren’t created equal but proving that it isn’t an easy answer was a plus for McCarthy. Next week they face a team that rarely blitzes in Chicago.
Jalen Nailor proving his skill
Teammates and coaches have been banging the drum that Jalen Nailor has been performing very well and just needed opportunities to make plays. He seems to prove them right every time he gets a chance, including the game-ending reception last week and a huge five-catch, 124-yard showing against Baltimore.
That started with a 62-yard reception. On that play, he lined up in a trips formation with man-to-man coverage. Nailor times his break up with the “pick” route and then turns on the jets. He creates separation and then tracks the ball over his head. Once he brings down the touch pass from McCarthy, he turns into a tackle breaker.
There might be a good argument to get Nailor the ball on short throws if he’s going to run through tacklers like this. In terms of the throw, the behind-QB angle shows pretty clearly how good McCarthy was with his mechanics. His base isn’t too wide, he doesn’t drop back too fast or rush the throw and puts a very nice arc on it to drop the ball over the DB and into his receiver’s hands.
The next excellent hook up between McCarthy and Nailor brought the Vikings within one score. The interesting thing about this connection is that Nailor’s route brings him right into the leverage of the defender, which usually isn’t the most high percentage look. It seems like the defender may have assumed he wasn’t getting the ball because he slowed down at the end when Nailor was grabbing it out of bounds. McCarthy’s throw led him to the only place he could possibly get it.
McCarthy’s game overall had a number of flashes like this where he showed that he can put some arc on the ball and lead his receivers to open space.
The run game
There was a lot of frustration from fans about not sticking with the run game and while a good percentage of their pass attempts came either on first-and-15 due to false starts or when it was a two-score game, you can see why folks wanted them to keep handing off. Aaron Jones, who has looked spry over the last two weeks, got two big gains from runs out of big personnel packages.
On the first one (both clips included below), rookie Ben Yurosek and TJ Hockenson work in conjunction to open up a huge hole and Jordan Addison got just enough of the DB for Jones to go virtually untouched into the secondary.
The second run has a similar formation on the other side and while Ben Sims doesn’t get the block, Hockenson gets his, Addison contributes and they get another chunk play.
Maybe the Vikings will never have a run-first offense under KOC but the success that they have had running with two TEs or a fullback on the field is something to consider when trying to get McCarthy into favorable situations and play-action looks. The healthy O-line and blocking TE combo (Josh Oliver should return soon) could be tough to stop.
The pass protection
McCarthy was under pressure on 47% of his drop-backs but that was not because of issues with blocking up front. Every lineman produced better than 70 PFF grade, including another strong showing from center Blake Brandel (75.1) and rookie Donovan Jackson (71.2).
How can they grade well and give up a lot of pressure? McCarthy’s average time from snap-to-throw was 3.63 seconds on plays where he was pressured. PFF credited him with four of his own pressures, including three QB hits.
Dallas Turner’s 27 snaps
Unfortunately for Turner, his most impressive play of the day did not end up counting because of a roughing call.
It wasn’t the only quality play by Turner on the day though. He had the second highest PFF grade of any Viking defender, getting one other QB hurry and breaking up a pass.
Here’s the PBU. He drops back and reacts very quickly to Jackson throwing the ball his way and sticks out a paw to knock it away.
Turner’s role will be interesting to watch going forward. For most of the early part of the season, he was playing big snap counts while filling in for Andrew Van Ginkel. Now he’s fitting into the rotation and looked more comfortable on Sunday.
The DTs, again
It was the second straight excellent showing from the interior of the D-line. Jalen Redmond had five run stops (per PFF), Javon Hargrave had four pressures and Jonathan Allen posted three and the unit played a big role in limiting the run game.
Here was a notable play where Allen blew up the guard to tackle Derrick Henry on a screen.
It’s clear that Brian Flores has been able to adjust to get the most out of the D-tackles in recent weeks. They have improved enormously at the right time, slowing down Jahmyr Gibbs and Henry from taking over.
One advantage they had is that the Ravens like to use bigger personnel groupings, allowing them to put three DTs on the field at the same time often. We will have to see if they continue to do that when opponents go to 11 personnel.
The Vikings linebackers have also looked much better since they put three DTs on the field and made some adjustments. Blake Cashman and Eric Wilson combined for eight run stops.
What went wrong
McCarthy from a clean pocket
It’s understandable that McCarthy would only complete 45% of his passes while under pressure but he only managed 11 completions on 22 attempts with a clean pocket for 6.6 yards per attempt. To put that in context, there are 19 QBs who have 70% or higher completion percentage with a clean pocket this year.
Some of the misses by McCarthy with no pressure were unsettling. In the fourth quarter, for example, the Ravens dropped into a deep zone and the play call used Addison and Jefferson to put the safety in a bind. He elected to stay deep with Addison, leaving Jefferson wide open along the sideline. McCarthy finds him and airmails the ball over his head.
It’s possible that having Will Fries and Brian O’Neill eventually get pushed back toward the QB forced him to aim high and he put too much gas behind the ball. It’s always tough to diagnose exactly what happened on an individual throw.
Only Aaron Rodgers, Bryce Young and Justin Fields had lower PFF passing grades with no pressure.
McCarthy also struggled with passes being knocked down. He had five total batted passes, which caused him to miss out on some golden opportunities.
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