What’s Going on With the Defense?
Sam Neumann
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1. So…what happened to the defense?
It’s not just a one- or two-game fluke, it’s now a legitimate problem; the defense has gone from great to average, and that’s as big a reason for the losing streak as anything else. Looking at the season split in two—the five wins versus the four losses—paints a clear picture of how dramatically this defense has lost its punch.
- In the Vikings’ five wins, they never gave up more than 16 points. They’ve given up at least 20 in each of their four losses, and the 26 points surrendered to Washington was the most of the season.
- The tackling has gone from sound to bad, and at times it’s been downright horrendous. Harrison Smith and Anthony Barr—usually textbook tacklers—have routinely whiffed on ballcarriers in recent weeks. I cannot count the number of times I have seen a Vikings defender meet a running back in the backfield, only to somehow let the runner escape for a three to four yard gain. It’s alarming how much the team has regressed in simple fundamental football.
- The unit isn’t forcing turnovers. The Vikings forced 12 in the first five games, but only six in the four losses. If you remove the Philadelphia game—which was basically an offensive slop-fest on both sides—Minnesota has only gotten two total turnovers in the last three games.
- Perhaps most perplexing about the defensive breakdown is the lack of a pass rush; in the last four games, the Vikings pass rush has all but dried up. After averaging 3.8 sacks per game in the five wins, the Vikings have gotten 0.75 sacks per game in the four losses. Yes, only three sacks in the last four games. Even against the Bears,–a bad team with a patchwork offensive line–the Vikings were only able to muster a single sack, and didn’t do much to harass the quarterback otherwise. It’s hard to put a finger on exactly why they’ve had the massive falloff in sacks and quarterback pressures, but in short, players simply aren’t making plays. Danielle Hunter has been conspicuously absent. Everson Griffen seems curiously unable to get off blocks, even against ordinary offensive tackles. Yes, teams have been employing quick drops and short routes to get the ball out of the quarterback’s hands, but increasingly, passers have been able to settle into the pocket against the Vikings and look to downfield routes. This happened a number of times against the Redskins, and even when blitzing, Minnesota didn’t seem to be able to do much about it.
So here we are. The once vaunted Minnesota Vikings defense has been rendered pedestrian. If Mike Zimmer is really a defensive mastermind—a sentiment that has been echoed enough to make us believe it, and one that was shouted from the rooftops during the five-game winning streak—he needs to find a way to inject some juice back into the pass rush and get this defense making plays again. If he’s unable to do that with the Vikings’ talented defensive roster, maybe the talks of Zimmer the savant were premature.
2. This might be the week they part ways with Blair Walsh.
Another missed extra point. No, it didn’t cost the team the game, but we have to be nearing Mike Zimmer’s breaking point. If the Vikings had been able to get into the end zone on that final drive, it would have tied the score at 26 with the extra point looming. In that situation, I cannot imagine anyone on the Vikings sideline would have full confidence in Walsh to make the kick. When, on a week to week basis, you have to bite your nails over every extra point, much less every field goal, it becomes very hard to justify standing pat at the kicker position. I know the names on the open market aren’t exactly exciting, but there has to be someone out there who can consistently make extra points.
3. Jake Long, we hardly knew ye.
It looks like Jake Long is done for the season with a torn Achilles. It’s a real bummer, because after a rough start with the team, Long looked much better in the past two games. The offensive line had been playing some of its best football of the season (for what it’s worth). Now, the unit loses yet another man, and we’re down to Clemmings and Sirles as the starting tackles. If one of those guys misses significant time…well, God help us.
You also have to feel bad for Jake Long on personal level. After a promising start to his career, things went off the rails with numerous injuries, and his stint with the Vikings was a comeback of sorts. Now that that’s ostensibly over, it seems like Long’s career might be done as well.
4. The secondary is thinner than it seems.
On paper, it would look like the Vikings’ secondary is fairly deep; Trae Waynes, last year’s number one pick who has made great strides in his second season, is basically the team’s fourth corner. In front of him are three talented and capable veterans. Behind him is Mackensie Alexander, a rookie second rounder who is being groomed for the future. All in all, there’s a good amount of talent in those five positions.
What I learned Sunday, however, is that the Vikings can withstand one injury to the corner group, but not two, especially if the second is to Xavier Rhodes. The team started the game down a man, with Captain Munnerlyn inactive, and while the secondary played (in my opinion) worse than they should have, they generally held it together for most of the game. Then, when Rhodes went out in the second half, Alexander was forced into action, and Kirk Cousins targeted him early and often. The Redskins were able to move the sticks easily with Rhodes out, picking up crucial first downs and getting into scoring position. This, without DeSean Jackson, their best receiver.
Rhodes has developed into a very good corner, and the defense looks completely different when he is off the field. Let’s hope the concussion doesn’t keep him out long, especially if Munnerlyn is to miss more time—a nickel package of Newman, Waynes, and Alexander is not going to help the Vikings cure what ails them on defense.
5. The offense is playing better, at least.
The 20 points against Washington was the Vikings best output since the bye, and their offense has been given life with the insertion of Pat Shurmur as the interim coordinator. Shurmur is utilizing the quick-strike, short-passing offense fans have been clamoring for, and that has masked the offensive line problems to a reasonable extent. As the team gets more comfortable in the scheme, it seems likely they’ll continue creating more and more scoring opportunities. And if they can stop shooting themselves in the foot, we might be seeing a competent offense in the second half of the season. They still can’t run the ball, but we’ll take what we can get.
Etc.
- Speaking of not being able to run the ball, have you ever seen a team struggle to pick up one yard more than the 2016 Vikings? At this point, I think they need to ditch the Asiata-dive-jumbo-package altogether and run their normal offense in short yardage situations. It can’t be any worse than running straight ahead for no gain, time after time.
- I’ve been mostly complimentary of Sam Bradford this year, and I think he played a solid game on Sunday. But the sack he took in the red zonenear the end of the game was an absolute killer. Bradford had plenty of time to recognize the coverage was good and throw the ball away, but instead he held the ball until the pocket collapsed. Terrible decision.
- Stefon Diggs became the first player in NFL history to have back-to-back games with 13+ catches. Cool, but feels hollow.
- Vikings Territory boss Adam Warwas keeps giving me crap about my assertion a month ago that Sam Bradford had been the league MVP through the first four games of the season. I still stand by the reasoning, because “has been” and “will definitely continue to be” are two different assertions. Bradford was great through three games, and he has seen a moderate regression since then, which everyone (myself included) saw coming a mile away. That doesn’t invalidate what he did through the first quarter of the season. And anyway, Bradford is nowhere near the Vikings’ biggest problem.
- I don’t know where we go from here. This season has gone from super fun to super Vikings-like. Which is, to say, not fun. At all. I imagine the frustration at Winter Park has to be boiling over after the fourth straight loss, and my biggest hope is that they’ve reached rock bottom. Because from there, there’s nowhere to go but up. (I’ll come up with more positive clichés given the time.) This is still not a bad team, no matter how many times I yell that at the TV every Sunday. Mike Zimmer spoke after the game about “getting over the hump,” and if they can do that, the Vikings can get back to playing like they were the first five games. We’ll see if Zimmer can pull this thing together.