The Vikings are well equipped to run (and stop) the NFL's most dangerous route

Some see the Vikings as old school but old is new in the NFL with deep crossing routes

Sign up for Purple Insider for $5.60 per month or $56 per year to get credentialed access inside the Vikings, from in-depth analysis to behind-the-scenes features to the ever-popular Friday Mailbag. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings

---

Around the NFL, the Minnesota Vikings do not often get mentioned in the conversation for most forward-thinking team on offense.

Their reputation for having an antiquated scheme comes largely from head coach Mike Zimmer’s commitment to the run game in a league that has been steadily increasing in pass volume and efficiency. In 2018, Zimmer’s appreciation for the ground game came under scrutiny when he made public comments about the offense’s lack of rushing success. He eventually fired offensive coordinator John DeFilippo and turned things over to up-and-comer Kevin Stefanski. With the first-time OC operating the Gary Kubiak scheme (with Kubiak on the staff), the Vikings had the third highest rate of run plays at just over 50%.

But the Vikings run-pass ration doesn’t exactly confirm that they are behind the times.

The Vikings run a similar offensive scheme to the San Francisco 49ers (who were second in rush rate). When the Vikings use a fullback, it’s 1990s football. When the 49ers use one, it’s the creative genius of Kyle Shanahan.

Former offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur put it this way:

"I was telling our guys, having been up there for two years and coached with Zim, I know their mindset. I know how they function," Shurmur said. "This is an old-school team. They have a progressive mindset, certainly, but they're old school.”

That’s probably the most accurate characterization of the Vikings’ offense. While it isn’t cutting edge on everything — they run too often on second-and-10 and should use more motion — some of the Vikings’ old school concepts have shown to have a high rate of success by the modern data.

Perhaps the best example is their use of deep crossing routes.

It’s a route combination that has been around forever but its usage against modern defenses is highly effective.

Pro Football Focus’s Seth Galina wrote about crossing routes earlier this offseason (and joined the Purple Insider podcast to discuss the increase in crossers). This chart from his article shows the steady jump in usage in crossers league wide:

*(Graphic via PFF)

Galina explained that they are a response to the league shifting to cover-1 defenses (one deep safety) to copycat the dominant Seattle Seahawks teams of the early-to-mid 2010s.

Mike Zimmer explained during a Zoom conference call during training camp.

“When there's single-high safety, guys are having to run all the way across the formation or linebackers are going to have to get depth,” Zimmer said. “It creates problems for the defense.”

Galina wrote that 76% of all deep crossing routes are thrown against single-high safety defenses.

The versatility of crossing routes is valuable. Offenses have what they call “man beaters” and “zone beaters,” which are designed specifically to attack certain coverages. Crossers can beat both.

“If it's man coverage, you're running away from them a long way away, so that can create a problem,” Zimmer said. “If it's zone coverage you've got to make sure -- because typically when you've got an over route you've also got some kind of deep post with it so you're going to have to…be able to pass all those zones and make sure you can get a defender underneath the first over route.”

Here is an example used by the 49ers against the Vikings in the NFC Divisional playoff game. We see the Vikings in a single-high safety coverage and the 49ers run a play-action, which brings linebacker Anthony Barr up toward the line of scrimmage. He has to stop and “robot” around, identify the route combination and get depth in order to challenge the throw.

Barr plays this perfectly and the 49ers still complete the pass for a big gain. As an aside, the Vikings have argued for years that Barr’s value is understated by Pro Football Focus and traditional numbers like sacks and interceptions because of plays like this. It takes quick processing and intelligence to read the route and unique athleticism to chase it down.

Notice only two receivers go out for a pattern on the play. Co-defensive coordinator Adam Zimmer said extra blockers make it particularly difficult to pressure the quarterback despite the extra time needed from snap to throw.

“They’re blocking up with seven or eight offensive linemen and tight ends and running backs, so the quarterback has a lot of time to throw and the receivers have a lot of time to run on safeties and corners,” Adam said. “Having the linebackers be able to bust out and get underneath some of those routes is critical in today’s game.”

He added that plays like deep crossers influence the type of linebackers the Vikings target in the draft.

“We were talking during the draft about what we want in an linebacker – we want athletic linebackers who can run, because there’s no two-down Mike linebacker anymore where you’re just running down to the A-gap and you’re taking on a fullback all the time,” Adam said.

Per Galina’s article, the Vikings pair deep crossers with play-action 83% of the time. This is another modern angle as the NFL has gone to a vast increase in play-action, discovering that quarterbacks simply perform better with the benefit of a play-fake. Kirk Cousins had a 129.2 rating when using play-action last season.

Here’s an example from Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons in which the play-action gives Cousins time to set his feet and deliver a perfectly accurate pass to Stefon Diggs running the crosser. The Falcons’ linebacker gets depth, just as Barr did, but still can’t get there in time with a good throw.

Here’s what the play looks like on paper.

One thing to notice is that the Vikings give a run blocking look. All the linemen block as if it’s a run to the right and tight end Kyle Rudolph comes under the formation to seal off the backside. Atlanta’s linebackers are confused from the play-fake and then scramble to find who’s going out on a pattern.

The non-crossing receiver (Adam Thielen in the clip above) almost always runs something deep to clear out for the deep cross. That pattern is usually game-planned specifically toward that week’s opponent.

For example, in Week 2 the Vikings sent Stefon Diggs on a deep post with Thielen running underneath. When the safety played Chad Beebe’s crosser, Cousins went over the top for a touchdown.

This play also included an underneath route by Thielen that gives Cousins an option if the Packers switched up the coverage at the last second. The running back and tight end both stay in to block, giving Cousins places to throw at all three levels and seven blockers.

“[Crossing routes] put a lot of pressure on not just the guys deep but the guys underneath to kind of get underneath some of those routes and lift the ball a little bit so it's not necessarily in a dead area,” Anthony Harris said. “There's a ton of different aspects and different wrinkles that offenses try to put in there each year or week to week to try to keep the defense on its toes, so that's something that as a defensive player you have to be aware of.”

While the Vikings were highly successful on crossing routes, they weren’t perfect. Cousins tried to hit on the same exact read against Green Bay in Week 16 and threw an interception.

Part of the miscue was on the throw, which is supposed to stay toward the left hash, and the other part was the Packers’ cornerback recognized what was coming after seeing the safety play the underneath route.

“There’s a lot of technique that goes into it,” Galina said. “There’s all these sharks in the middle of the field and landmines you have to go around. Underneath this guy, above this guy but at the end of the day you need to get across the field.”

Receiver Bisi Johnson said a key part of the technique can be disguising breaks off the line.

“The biggest thing is just selling the run,” Johnson said. “You want to keep your routes disguised, so it’s always setting it up off something else we do in our offense, whether that’s run blocking or another route we run a similar way. That’s definitely the hardest part. I feel like I see some of these young guys and they want to get open and get open. But in order to get open, you really have to sell different parts of our offense. That’s the hardest part.”

It gives you an idea of how much goes on within a single play.

But Gary Kubiak has a way of being able to explain things in the very digestible terms.

“Giving people with ability and speed a chance to run and run away from people,” Kubiak said. “Trying to create mismatches, from that standpoint, I think has kind of always been part of the game.”

So while one of the key concepts of the Vikings’ offense is old school and doesn’t seem to have any secret recipes from the offensive coordinator, the team’s usage of deep crossers keeps them ahead of defensive advancements.

Kubiak probably doesn’t care whether the league thinks it’s modern as long as it works.

*Bobby Peters contributed to this article with his offensive expertise. His books breaking down offenses around the NFL are an invaluable resource*

---

Check out our sponsor SotaStick and their Minnesota-inspired gear by clicking the logo. Use the code PurpleInsider for free shipping