Film study: Hitting on motions, missing on blitzes

Looking closer at how KOC drew up some big plays and how the Vikings failed to get to Goff

© Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

---

By Matthew Coller

The Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions went back and forth on Sunday, putting up nearly identical totals on the score board and in the box score. From the All-22 tape, three particular areas of the Vikings loss stood out: The use of pre-snap motion to get receivers open, the Lions answers to blitzes and the couple missed opportunities that might have changed the outcome.

Let’s dive in…

Hitting on motions

On the second drive of the game, the Vikings faced third-and-1 with a 7-0 lead and a chance to jump all over the Lions from the outset. As we know, Kevin O’Connell prefers to use short yardage situations as opportunities to be aggressive and he did just that with a shotgun throw over the middle for 18 yards to Justin Jefferson.

At the line of scrimmage, Jordan Addison starts out lined up at the numbers and then motions in between Justin Jefferson and Jalen Nalior at the snap. Addison goes flying across the middle of the field. Because the Lions are in zone coverage, they have him covered with their linebackers but Nailor and Jefferson are left one-on-one. It appears to be cover-1 with one safety closing down the middle of the field but the safety starts the play lined up on the defense’s left side and can’t make his way back in time to break up the play. Jefferson, as per usual, makes a tremendous catch.

This play is proof that Jefferson doesn’t always have to be the man in motion in order for him to benefit from the motion.

However, sometimes it does work to get JJ moving around before the snap, whether it’s to get Sam Darnold a coverage indicator or cause confusion.

In the case of our next play, the Lions were forced to show their hand as Jefferson moved around. The defensive back follows him back and forth, showing man coverage. That means it’s going to be nearly impossible to cover him running a crossing route when the corner is playing off coverage. Nailor runs vertically, getting in the DB’s way and the rest of the routes take the man-to-man defenders deep while Jefferson flies wide open under them.

Those are the types of easy plays that the Vikings did a good job of giving Darnold against the Lions. He completed 14-of-15 throws that traveled less than 10 yards in the air.

Of course, he also completed some downfield throws as well, including a beautiful pitch and catch to Jefferson to put on the highlight reel for the season.

Again Detroit is playing one high safety and Addison goes in short motion. It becomes clear that it’s man coverage when the corner goes along with Addison. Darnold quickly surmised that the single safety had no chance to get outside the numbers, where Jefferson was taking his route. The QB put the ball up for grabs and Jefferson came down with a diving touchdown.

It’s possible that the Lions personnel simply wasn’t as good as the New York Jets but it seemed that O’Connell did a very good job of mixing and matching motions better versus Detroit in order to give Darnold clearer options.

Missing on blitzes

When the opposing quarterback goes 22-for-25, that means nothing worked. But the Vikings blitzes have been so successful this year that it was startling that the Lions were able to easily handle them. What happened?

Well, it was a combination of different strategies. One of them was screens and swing passes. On throws that went behind the line of scrimmage, Jared Goff was 7-for-7 with 47 yards. Here is an example of a first down throw to Amon-Ra St. Brown that took advantage of the Vikings aggression.

The Vikings put five men on the line of scrimmage and Ivan Pace Jr. comes on a blitz, leaving only two defenders on the entire left side of the field. The outside receiver blocks, leaving Cam Bynum as the only man to make a play on the ball carrier.

There isn’t a blitz in the world that would have thrown off Goff there. Also worth noting that the Lions ran that play away from Andrew Van Ginkel’s side.

Another way that the Lions combatted the blitz was running routes over the middle out of condensed sets, getting the receiver into the vacated spot quickly. On this play, the running back picks up Pace Jr. and Detroit’s two outside receivers run vertical routes, allowing St. Brown to cut inside behind Josh Metellus. Goff is accurate and on time.

It’s possible that Metellus could have gotten more depth considering the RB stayed in to block and the TE went to the flat. Another thing that stood out was that there seemed to be a little less chaos at the line of scrimmage. That might have been because of Blake Cashman’s absence or because the Vikings had to respect the run.

Sometimes you have to tip your cap to a great idea. That was the case on St. Brown’s long touchdown catch. On this one the Lions sent a receiver in motion to hit Van Ginkel off the edge and shifted the protection to the left, blocking up all the Vikings other rushers. It seemed there was confusion from the Vikings secondary as they expected No. 17 Tim Patrick to go out for a route. Metellus and Bynum were left looking at each other as St. Brown raced by.