By Matthew Coller
Well, Sunday’s loss by the Minnesota Vikings to the Philadelphia Eagles was a rough ride. Let’s dive into all the statistical and film takeaways from the game…
What went wrong
Jalen Hurts’ deep ball
On throws that traveled more than 10 yards through the air, Hurts went 9-for-12 with 284 yards and three touchdowns. Whew.
His deep destruction against the Vikings started on the opening drive when he hit AJ Brown for a 37-yard touchdown.
Two things on the play stand out. First that Josh Metellus was on Brown from the start of the play. That’s not an ideal scenario considering Brown is one of the elite receivers in the game. Still, Metellus did a good job for the first four seconds of the play. With the veteran safety locked up on the receiver, Hurts stood in the pocket like it was 7-on-7 and pointed for Brown to go vertical. That’s when Metellus lost ahold of him and the receiver motored to the end zone.
This also shows the impact of Hurts’ legs on a fourth-and-4 type play. The Vikings only rushed three because they had to dedicate Blake Cashman to a spy role. He essentially stood in place watching Hurts scan and scan until he had his man.
The other deep ball from the pocket that Hurts crushed the Vikings with was his 79-yard touchdown to DeVonta Smith.
What happened was pure route running excellence from the receiver and what happens when the QB has all day. Smith was isolated with Isaiah Rodgers and took off at full speed at the corner playing off coverage with outside leverage. Smith looked like he was going to run a corner route to the sideline but then snapped it back inside and turned around Rodgers. Hurts wouldn’t have been able to make the throw if not for a flawless pocket to step up into and launch the bomb high up into the US Bank Stadium air. It dropped right out of the sky into Smith’s hands.
This deep shot is also brought to you by the blitz. The Vikings sent six rushers but the Eagles had the perfect setup for that: Six linemen. Metellus ended up matched up with the Eagles’ star left tackle. There was no way he was winning that matchup.
When Hurts was blitzed, he went 14-for-17 for 246 yards and two touchdowns. It was clear that Philly had a plan for Flores’ pressures.
Hurts escaping the rush
Of course, it’s easier to gameplan when you have a QB who can escape the rush when the pocket collapses. Hurts was nothing short of marvelous when he went off schedule on Sunday. On this deep completion, he stepped up in the pocket to evade Jonathan Allen’s win through a double team and then jolted away from Jonathan Greenard while keeping his eyes downfield. Smith was running a deep route but came back toward the QB when he began to run around and Hurts put the ball where only he could get it.
Jeff Okudah was only on the field for 11 plays but was the victim of two of these big-time throws from Hurts.
The back-breaking one came late in the game on third-and-13. The pocket totally submerges Hurts but he escapes out of the back and finds Brown downfield. What we can see on the all-22 is Brown’s instincts. He begins to work vertical as if he’s going deep and then turns back toward Hurts, keeping Okudah at bay behind him to make the play.
While the Eagles offense hadn’t been at its best coming into the game, it wasn’t hard to figure out how this group won the Super Bowl last year. The two receivers are as difficult to slow down as any pairing in the NFL and the quarterback can cause endless headaches when he’s able to push the ball deep.
Carson Wentz under pressure
Wentz’s performance under duress was nowhere good enough to win. He had 19 total pressured drop-backs (40.4%) and completed seven passes for 103 yards with two sacks and two interceptions.
On the pick-six, the Eagles ran a simulated pressure with four rushers. Wentz appeared to think it was a blitz but the outside linebacker Jalyx Hunt dropped back in coverage rather than rushing. When Blake Brandel gets beat cleanly by superstar Jalen Carter, Wentz rushes the throw to Justin Jefferson and tosses it right into Hunt’s arms.
Wentz acknowledged after the game that he needed to just take a sack there. It has been part of his DNA as a quarterback to try to be a playmaker and we have seen too often that he will look to make throws under pressure that aren’t there. Even if Hunt wasn’t waiting for the ball, the throw might have been so far behind Jefferson that it turned into an INT anyway.
The unfortunate part of the play is that Jefferson would have been wide open if there was enough time to throw.
Our next pressured play was a sack late in the game in the red zone. You can see the instant loss by the center again. Brandel allowed six total pressures and had a PFF pass blocking grade of 35.6.
There is a moment where Wentz flinches and it seems he’s going to throw the out route to Jefferson but his confidence was probably shaken by the hits he had taken along the way and he elected to just go down.
Maybe he thought Jefferson didn’t have the leverage.
No matter the reason, it’s tough to thrive as an offense when interior pressure is coming that quickly.
Red Zone troubles
There are so many plays that went wrong in the red zone, where do you even start?
How about with a forgotten one. After Jefferson couldn’t bring in a fade route — notoriously a low-percentage play, by the way — the Vikings run Addison into the flat and Jalen Nailor with an out route behind him. Jefferson is one-on-one. Nailor is reasonably open with the right throw and instead the ball flies over everyone’s head and out of the back of the end zone.
There was also a reasonable argument that the Vikings should have tried to run more often in the red zone. But Wentz moved the ball so effectively between the 20s and Mason was only averaging 3.8 yards per carry, it’s possible they felt there were better chances to win with quick throws rather than pounding forward against Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis etc.
The red zone woes also included some bad luck courtesy of the referees. Brandel gets flagged for holding on a blatant “trap” technique in which he slaps the arms down of the defensive tackle. It also looks like No. 97 may have just tripped to the ground. The ref tossing the flag didn’t look like he had a good angle to see what happened.
The real shame was that Nailor wasn’t rewarded for selling a run block so well. It was a perfectly drawn up play.
Another play that the Vikings were enraged about was TJ Hockenson’s non-catch in the end zone. While there doesn’t seem to be a possible way to grab the ball on a full dive without some part of the football touching the ground and moving slightly in 4K mega zoom review, the problem could have been avoided with an accurate throw.
The offensive line blocks this one up effectively and Wentz bails on a mostly clean pocket (O’Neill is pushing his man past the QB, which probably distracted Wentz) but he finds Hockenson running free into the end zone. Not that it’s an easy thing to throw the ball 25 yards downfield accurately into the end zone but anything closer would have been a TD grab because no other defender was in the area.
In the end, it was a no-good rotten day in the red zone where every almost player, ref and play caller took their turn with missteps that cased them not to reach the goal. It was reminiscent of the Week 18 game against the Lions.
What went right
Stopping the run with Jalen Redmond
At this point, we can say it: Redmond is becoming a key player for the Vikings. He has played more than 35 snaps in each of the last three weeks and been a legit difference maker all season. Against Philly, he had some of the most impressive reps of anyone on the field and played a major role in shutting down Saquon Barkley.
On this handoff, the Eagles thought they could reach block him with the center. They did not realize how quick Redmond gets off the line of scrimmage. He was in the backfield in an instant.
In total this season, Redmond has a 73.7 PFF grade with 12 QB pressures at the 15th best grade versus the run. You can see why the coaching staff has given him a heavy workload.
Redmond isn’t the biggest guy but he does have great strength. On this run, he sticks the center in place and controls him, leaving no room for Barkley to cut up field.
The Vikings will need more efforts like this one against the run in the coming weeks when they face a number of run-focused clubs like the Chargers, Eagles and Ravens.
Harrison Smith played 50 snaps
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