Film Study: Van Ginkel's motor and KOC's motion

The OLB starred in many ways outside of his touchdown and big plays were created by pre-snap motion

© Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

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By Matthew Coller

Welcome to the Minnesota Vikings, Andrew Van Ginkel.

In his first game with the Vikings, the former Dolphin played 41 snaps, registered a tremendous 90.6 PFF grade and had three pressures, two run stops and an interception for touchdown.

Naturally his big play that put the 28-6 win over the Giants on ice was the most memorable of his debut but he made a number of other impact plays that stood out on the All-22 film. Let’s have a look…

Our first play came on the opening drive for the Giants, which started deep in Vikings territory following a fumble by fullback CJ Ham. On third-and-goal, quarterback Daniel Jones had a chance to scramble for a score but Van Ginkel came from the other side of the line to make a tackle at the line of scrimmage. Despite being engaged with the right guard, he spots Jones stepping up, disengages and then all-out dives toward Jones’ legs and takes him down.

Van Ginkel has consistently graded well above averaged as a run defender throughout his career. It’s not hard to see why that’s the case. Midway through the second quarter the Giants were down 14-3 with the ball at midfield. They put in an extra offensive lineman and Jones handed the ball to speedster Devin Singletary, who broke to the outside with room for a potential explosive play. Van Ginkel tossed his blocker away and pulled down the runner for a short gain. The Giants ended up having to punt.

And they had to punt in large part due to another physical play by Van Ginkel.

On third-and-2, the G-Men called for a Jones run to the right side. Right before the play, Van Ginkel adjusted the D-line’s alignment and then as the play came his way he launched himself into the guard, allowing Jonathan Bullard to make an easy tackle and forced fourth down.

Later in the game as the Giants were trying to create anything through the air, Van Ginkel created a pressure that put his motor and bendiness on display. He started wide outside and then rushed inside, found a huge gap and chased Jones from the middle of the field at full speed all the way to the side line and dove on him as he threw the ball away.

Van Ginkel’s signing didn’t make too many headlines but he could turn out to be one of the biggest difference-making free agent additions off the offseason because of plays like this.

Oh, and plays like the next clip.

There isn’t much that needs to be said about his pick-six other than that Van Ginkel said after the game that he learned a tip from 2023 Dolphins DC Vic Fangio about reading receiver screens and executed it perfectly. You can see that he starts his rush very wide and stays up field rather heading toward the quarterback and then has the ball skills to pull in the interception and walk it in for a touchdown.

On the offensive side, one thing about some of the Vikings’ explosive plays stood out: pre-snap motion.