By Matthew Coller
EAGAN — The Minnesota Vikings got back on track with a big win over the Detroit Lions.
Let’s take a look at the All-22 film and the stats that painted the picture of the win…
What went right
Linebacker blitzes
It’s not an exaggeration to say that the top reason the Vikings won the game on Sunday was because of their success blitzing up the middle against Jared Goff.
Eric Wilson was credited with six QB pressures, Blake Cashman had three and Ivan Pace Jr. added another.
One way that they accomplished such successful rushes from their LB unit was by pairing rush lanes up front with stunts from the LBs. Our first play is an example of that. Jonathan Allen rushes outside on the guard and Levi Drake Rodriguez lines up over the center and pushes him to the right. Then Blake Cashman hits the gap, where Jahmyr is waiting. Pace Jr. loops around and Gibbs tries to take him but that leaves Cashman to pressure Goff. LDR ends up with the sack.
Rodriguez played a big role on another rush by Pace Jr. and Cashman. This time out of a unique alignment that had Jalen Redmond at defensive tackle and Eric Wilson outside linebacker. On Sunday, Wilson cleared his career mark for D-line snaps in a season and he’s only played a handful of games.
On this rush, Rodriguez overpowers the center and Allen takes the left guard to the right, again leaving Gibbs to block a linebacker. Cashman comes on a delay blitz and Goff has to panic and throw at the feet of TE Sam LaPorta.
Speaking of Wilson’s alignment, he had a ton of success flying up the middle as well.
On this play, the Vikings line up seven men along the line of scrimmage and the LBs both rush the QB. Javon Hargrave takes the right guard to the right and Andrew Van Ginkel drops out, leaving a 2-on-1 against Hargrave and Cashman 1-on-1 with Gibbs. Meanwhile, Wilson smokes the center. Goff is looking toward his right but it seems that he didn’t expect Van Ginkel to be there and had to eat the ball.
Here’s a crazy stat: PFF credited Gibbs with allowing seven pressures. SEVEN. I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a running back have that many, which shows how clearly the Vikings identified something in the way Detroit was blocking up the blitzes.
“You would much prefer [Gibbs] blocking than being a major weapon in the pass game,” O’Connell said. “And they can still find ways to do that, free release him, use other players, tight ends or being two back, possibly formation. So, although you want to try to keep him in there as best you can, and he’s still a very solid pass protector, very willing and able, and historically, has done a pretty good job at that. We did want to try to limit his ability in the pass game to impact the game, because he’s as impactful as any running back in the National Football League when he gets the ball in his hands in space, and taking away some of those plays did seem to kind of help us.”
Here’s the most violent example of the Vikings taking advantage of Gibbs in the pass pro game.
Again Flores drops back both edge rushers and the DT ends up double teamed and Wilson runs free right at Gibbs. The veteran linebacker destroys him for a sack.
Greenard dropped into coverage 14 times and Van Ginkel 13 times.
It’s worth noting that the Vikings playing with the lead and stopping the run was massive. It allowed them to be in many positions to use this creative rush plan of dropping the edges and sending Wilson/Cashman/Pace Jr. up field.
All said and done, Goff’s average pass under pressure came out in 2.86 seconds. The Vikings got there quick and often, heating him up on 43% of drop-backs.
Andrew Van Ginkel’s return
In his comeback from injury, Van Ginkel played 39 snaps, created two pressures had three stops for negative players and was only targeted twice in coverage.
While he was the third highest graded player by PFF in this game, no grade can capture the amount of mind games that he played with Goff.
On this play, for example, he starts out at outside linebacker like he’s going to rush the passer and then when Gibbs goes in motion AVG follows him like he’s going to be in man coverage. You see AVG communicate with the rest of the defense once Gibbs goes back into the backfield. Then he sinks back into a zone.
On the next play, Flores gets a 6-on-6 look with Wilson, Greenard, Allen, Hargrave, Redmond and AVG lined up over each blocker. The tight end stays in to block AVG and he smokes LaPorta, pushing Goff up in the pocket and he throws an inaccurate pass.
At the end of the afternoon, it couldn’t have been any more clear: Van Ginkel is the X factor on the Vikings defense.
“I thought Gink being back just provides such an unbelievable presence in their football IQ communication,” O’Connell said.
The DTs
Between Hargrave, Allen, Rodriguez and Redmond, they totaled nine pressures. Hargrave graded 81.4 by PFF grade, including his best mark as a run defender. He registered five run stops.
You also saw flashes of Allen’s ability to straight up beat guards when he’s isolated in pass-rush situations. Here he gets a hit on Goff:
Here’s what O’Connell said about his DTs on Monday:
“I think those two guys, just the feeling that you got when they were I thought making early-down contributions with physicality and knock back, and just you felt them. And then, they were big as far as getting Jared [Goff] off the spot…those guys were able to have disruption that I think was felt for four quarters. I think Jalen Redmond also played another really good football game.”
Top notch Harry, Fabian Moreau stepping in
Harrison Smith looked like himself on Sunday, lining up in the box for 21 snaps, creating one pressure and making two tackles.
With Jeff Okudah out and Theo Jackson only playing 16 snaps, Fabian Moreau had to come off the bench and play 24 snaps. He was targeted just once in 21 coverage reps and did not allow a completion.
JJ McCarthy’s arm, athletic traits
The box score wasn’t the craziest thing you’ve ever seen from McCarthy but you saw all of the reasons that he was a first-round draft pick.
One of those traits was speed. He was an impact scrambler at Michigan and has taken that to the pro level in all three starts. McCarthy’s touchdown run was as impressive of a scramble as you will see. Aidan Hutchinson went on a stunt and forced McCarthy out of the pocket. He saw open space and decided to take off. But Alex Anzalone, who was responsible for spying Lamar Jackson a few weeks ago, had a free path to the QB. McCarthy attacked him and then cut hard right and had the top speed to beat the safety to the corner of the end zone.
How’s everyone feel about letting McCarthy’s ankle fully heal before he returned?
McCarthy’s arm strength was on display on numerous occasions. The most impressive of which was this deep out route to Jordan Addison, which O’Connell referenced on Monday.
They run a levels type concept with Jefferson coming from the backfield on an out route and Addison also breaking out on the same side. Just as Addison is hitting his break, McCarthy cocks his arm and lets it rip. The throw didn’t have the same type of anticipation that you might see from some other throwers but due to the velocity, it hit Addison bang on the numbers.
One of the biggest points of discussion with McCarthy through this offseason was his growth when it comes to throwing with touch. There were numerous times in the game where he threw flaming 99 mph fastballs where it wasn’t really required but in the biggest moment of the game he tossed the ball with brilliant touch.
The Vikings needed one first down to put the game on ice. They lined up with trips right and had Jefferson and Addison both run in-breaking routes while Jalen Nailor ran a fade. McCarthy tossed the ball up for grabs and his receiver made an excellent catch.
You can see from the end zone angle how much McCarthy slowed down his us usual throwing motion. He’s still learning that the ball will travel pretty well through the air without having to gun it.
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