Film review: Adams presence had Vikings "trying to do too much" vs. Packers
Minnesota gave up 481 yards in the loss
By Sam Ekstrom
Reminiscent to last year, the Vikings are rapidly plunging down defensive stat boards in the closing weeks of the season.
After allowing 37 points to the Packers on Sunday night, they are 25th in points allowed and 31st in yards allowed with one meaningless game remaining. Their rushing defense is dead last in the league in expected points and 30th in yards per attempt against, while their pass defense is 20th in expected points and 26th in yards allowed.
Any hope of the Vikings building even an average defense after some decent mid-season glimpses has gone out the window and given way to a resignation that very little is different from last year’s unit that Mike Zimmer called the worse he’d ever had.
“I would just say we weren’t consistent,” said safety Xavier Woods. “Not just through the last stretch, but throughout the entire year. It showed throughout the season, we were giving up points in the last two minutes of the half and the game. You can point to that for our inconsistencies throughout the year as far as defense.”
Sunday’s performance encapsulated all the bad stuff we’d witness during the season. The Vikings didn’t do a good job accounting for absent players, loosened up in the closing minutes of the first half and had no answers for their opponent’s running game.
If there’s a modicum of defensive credit to be given in the 37-10 loss, it stems from the Packers’ first four drives where they were held to two field goals, punted once and turned the ball over on downs in the red zone, keeping it a competitive football game for about 25 minutes. But Green Bay also gained 6.3 yards per play during those drives, a better rate than their season average, so it’s not as if the Vikings were flexing their muscles.
The Packers had just a 40% run success rate on those opening four drives, but two of the successful runs went for 27 and 28 yards. On the 27-yarder, Aaron Jones got to the edge and rambled down the sideline when Patrick Peterson got blocked out of the play by a tight end. Later, on the 28-yarder, Eric Kendricks over-commits to defend the edge, loses his fit and allows Jones to run free.
Without nose tackle Michael Pierce playing, the Packers ended the game with a sterling 174 yards on the ground and the fifth-best run success rate in the NFL last week, so things obviously came together for them after getting stopped a handful of times in the early going.
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