Film Study: Shells, picks and stops

A deeper look at how the Jags played defense, where Sam Darnold went wrong on the INTs and some big defensive plays

© Morgan Tencza-Imagn Images

---

By Matthew Coller

Some of you may never want to think about Vikings-Jaguars ever again but there’s always something to learn so let’s give it a shot…

The shells

We begin with an extreme approach deployed by the Jaguars: Playing their safeties 50 miles from the line of scrimmage.

Of course, every team plays deep safeties over the top of Justin Jefferson because playing single coverage results in getting crushed but Jacksonville took it to the extreme. Not only did they play both safeties back, they played them way, way back and they did it on every play. Jacksonville blitzed a grand total of one time in the entire game, daring the Vikings to use an underneath passing game all day and other weapons than Jefferson.

In the final results, you will see that Sam Darnold completed a ton of underneath passes but a lot of the plays still featured deep routes. At the beginning of the game it seemed to throw Darnold for a bit of a loop. On one of the oping plays, the Vikings rate deep routes with Trent Sherfield and Jefferson against seven defenders in zone coverage. The play seemed to be designed to push the safeties back and run TJ Hockenson over top of the linebackers. Darnold forgot about one player though. The outside corner sat down underneath Jefferson and nearly picked off the pass to Hockenson.

Later in the game, Darnold was forced to scramble for a solid gain when the Jags doubled Jefferson on a deep route and dropped the middle linebacker 10 yards away from the line of scrimmage, which took away a crossing route by Hockenson.

Even on plays where Jefferson ran short routes, the Jaguars defenders weren’t taking any chances. On this play, a completion to Hockenson in traffic, Jefferson stops in space between zone defenders and the deep safety is still running 30 yards away from where Darnold has the ball.

There were still opportunities to hit downfield shots despite Jacksonville’s approach. Darnold completed five throws that traveled more than 10 yards but he also missed on several that were there for the taking, including this one to Jordan Addison.

One of the best ways to attack two-high safeties is to run routes in between the zone defenders. Addison did just that as both Jalen Nailor and Hockenson stopped at about seven yards to occupy the underneath zone players and Addison ran behind them wide open. The pocket was collapsing on Darnold and he overthrew his target. Again, notice the safety playing at the 40 yard line while the QB is throwing from the 10.

Playing that far back has more drawbacks than advantages, especially if the offense can create one-on-ones underneath. On one of the biggest plays of the day, Darnold delivered a strike to Hockenson as he was singled up with a linebacker. The Jags LB had no chance against the quick Pro Bowl tight end and the nearest safety to help with tackling was 15 yards away.

Will opponents copycat what the Jags did against the Vikings? On one hand, making Darnold sit in the pocket and pick teams apart is an enticing strategy. Forcing O’Connell to stick with the run is also something that makes sense considering he wants to push the envelope all the time. But it didn’t really work. Because of Aaron Jones and TJ Hockenson, the Vikings were able to put together long drives that put them in position to score much more than they actually did.

You have to expect that the Vikings will plan for other teams trying the extreme measures. They always go against “shells” but if opponents are going to play the safeties in the parking lot, then Jefferson will likely be called upon to pick them apart rather than trying to hit deep repeatedly. It will be worth watching closely to see if this happens again.

The INTS

Everyone in football says that “every interception has its own story.” That was certainly the case on Sunday. The first one is hard to put too much blame on the quarterback. Jefferson runs a quick in-breaking route and is getting mauled by the cornerback. Is an entire left arm of the corner around JJ’s body considered holding? That’s for Roger Goodell to decide. But normally you would expect Jefferson to get enough space and/or box out the corner for a short gain. Instead the ball gets tipped in the air and directly into the defender’s hands.

It would be hard to say that Darnold should have done anything different on the play, particularly with the guard being pushed back into his lap.