Film study: An O-line effort to build on

The Vikings' offensive line played their best game in years against Green Bay

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Whether Sunday’s win by the Minnesota Vikings over the Green Bay Packers was a blip on the radar or the start of a magical run, the Vikings’ win featured a number of performances that pointed toward process, especially along the offensive line.

In years past, Dalvin Cook has often been asked to overcome his offensive line but on Sunday he succeeded because of the players up front.

Let’s have a look at some of the ways in which the O-line — specifically Ezra Cleveland and Garrett Bradbury — played their best games (along with a few other interesting things on tape from the win.

Cleveland’s emergence

Following a decent debut against the Atlanta Falcons in which the Vikings’ second-round pick navigated some difficult circumstances, he played at an above average level at Lambeau Field and had a major role in some of Cook’s best runs.

On the first drive of the game, Cleveland and tackle Brian O’Neill eliminate nose tackle Kenny Clark and drive him back five yards, creating a huge hole for the Vikings’ star running back.

The nitpick might be his explosion off the line of scrimmage but he got lower than Clark and worked in conjunction with the tackle effectively.

Later in the drive, Cleveland has a key block on Cook’s 21-yard touchdown run. While he was given a leverage advantage by the Packers’ D-line shift, again he got low and underneath the DT’s pads and kept his feet moving, driving him all the way to the ground and leaving room for recovery.

While every week won’t go this week, Cleveland flashed the athleticism that made him a second-round pick and an NFL Combine darling and he showed progress from game to game, which we have not seen from every Vikings rookie this year.

Glaney’s nightmare start

Life is tough as a rookie cornerback but it’s even tougher when the same issues keep cropping up week to week. On the first two drives of the game, rookie Jeff Gladney gave up touchdowns to Davante Adams. If you read Monday’s piece, Mike Zimmer went in great detail about what happened on both. Now you can put a visual to his description.

You will see in the clip that safety Anthony Harris has inside leverage on Adams, which should allow Gladney to play the out route. Instead his hips are turned inside and he gives Adams space to make an outside move, which he gladly does for a touchdown.

Two weeks ago against Atlanta, Cam Dantzler made the same mistake on Julio Jones’s touchdown. He had a safety inside and still let the receiver get outside.

Another classic coaching point is about the eyes and avoiding staring into the backfield and getting fooled on play-actions. On the second touchdown, Gladney takes a big step toward the running back when the play-action is running the other direction.

It’s not a complicated concept: Adams is a top 10 receiver in the NFL, you can’t give him any help.

Bradbury’s strong showing

Last year in Week 16, the Vikings’ center was smooshed by Kenny Clark. Pro Football Focus gave him a 0.0 passing grade against Clark in that game.

But this time around it was a different story, even the few times he was isolated on Clark. On the play below, the Vikings run a play action and the Packers’ rush scheme put three rushers on the three lineman to Cousins’s left. On a slow developing play, Bradbury was able to get low and wrestle with Clark, despite a couple of violent attempts by the DT to disengage.

Some of Bradbury’s other quality plays came down to simply seeing the right thing.

On the play below, Green Bay runs a stunt with defensive end Za’Darius Smith and outside linebacker Preston Smith. Bradbury lets Cleveland take the nose tackle and spots the stunt, then waits in his spot for Preston Smith to arrive rather than following Za’Darius.

On the play above, Bradbury spots the blitzing corner and helps Dakota Dozier with the defensive tackle so Dozier can come off his man and stop the blitz.

These aren’t wildly complicated O-line concepts but they are things that every defense in the NFL runs and that the Vikings haven’t always been able to handle.

In order to become an above average center with some size shortcomings, Bradbury has to knock the technical parts out of the park. On Sunday he did that.

Eric Kendricks is good

Here’s a look at another one of the plays Mike Zimmer pointed out. Take a look at Kendricks reading the play right from the start and waiting for the tight end to come underneath the formation. Zimmer said that Kendricks saw the same look earlier in the game and instinctually spotted it.

Also worth noting that Jalyn Holmes read the same thing and shot upfield rather than chasing the run down the line. Holmes had four pressures total in the game, his best mark of the year.

Mata’afa, defensive end?

The Vikings waived Hercules Mata’afa, put him on the practice squad and then brought him back up to play against the Packers but at a different position. Now he is apparently a defensive end. He also finished the game with four pressures. This was his best pass rush rep in which he converted speed to power in order to slam back right tackle Rick Wagner and then he ripped through Wagner’s arms and pushed him to the ground to force Rodgers out of the pocket.

The Vikings used this defensive line combination of Ifeadi Odenigbo, Jalyn Holmes, DJ Wonnum and Mata’afa numerous times down the stretch. It wouldn’t be surprising if we saw more of it on third downs and obvious passing situations.

Since Day 1 the Vikings have been looking for the right role for Mata’afa. One decent goes does not mean he’ll become the situational rusher they dreamed about when he came out of Washington State but it’s the most potential he’s shown since arriving in 2018.

The screen

The Vikings play of the year thus far was their 50-yard screen for a touchdown on Sunday. Two things to point out: 1) Garrett Bradbury destroys a Packers defender with a cut block to get things rolling and tackle Brian O’Neill hustles after being completely uninvolved with the play to slow down Preston Smith, who might have been able to track down Cook from behind.

Put this under the same category as many of the plays involving the Vikings’ O-line in which you might say: Where has that been?

A few explanations: The Vikings had two weeks to prepare and came in fresh. They played a good chunk of the game either close or from ahead and ran the ball so effectively they were in favorable situations. Cleveland is clearly better than his predecessor and Cook makes every good O-line play into a great O-line play.

Will it sustain? At least for the next few weeks the Vikings do not face many monster D-lines outside of Chicago. They were also given the chance by not trading Riley Reiff to continue to gel together and maybe repeat this performance on a regular basis.

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