Minnesota's Third-and-Long Defensive Packages Highlight the Promise Of Flores' Defense

Last year, the Minnesota Vikings' defense experienced a resurgence under first-year defensive coordinator Brian Flores. His defensive philosophy is unique in the NFL; nobody blitzed more than Minnesota's defense in 2023. That led to a modicum of success. Early in the season, the Vikings ranked as a top-15 defense in most categories.

These numbers were vast improvements over what the defense had shown in 2022 under Ed Donatell’s more conservative approach.  While those numbers didn’t survive the rest of the season, it shows the promise that Flores’ scheme holds. Perhaps without Kirk Cousins' injury last year, the defense would have been able to hold up better than it did in the latter half of the season. Without their fiery signal-caller on the other side of the ball, Minnesota's defense often faced difficult game situations in which the offense failed to move the ball, control the clock, or put points on the board. The hope for all Vikings fans is that, with a year under his belt, Flores’ defense can take another step forward.

I looked closely at one of the better defensive efforts of 2023, their 24-10 win over the Green Bay Packers in Week 8. The defense was stellar in this game. They held the Packers to 74 yards rushing and Jordan Love to only 229 passing yards. Much of this had to do with Flores out-scheming the Packers. Love and his crew often seemed confused and out-of-sorts, any defensive signal-caller's goal.

Flores had a pattern in this game: on first downs and most second downs, the defense would predominantly play a “base” defense with a four-man rush and little window dressing. By playing defense like this, Flores is allowing the defenders to read and react in their role -- hoping to eliminate the big play. Then, if the Vikings defense held its own in first- and second-down situations, Flores would play his cards on third down, choosing a defense designed to take away what he thought the Packers’ offensive coaches would attempt.

Third-and-short? Bring everyone and play man-to-man behind it. Third-and-long? Rush three and drop eight into coverage.

Of course, it's not quite that simple. But it was pretty close in this game.

Flores looked like a savant in this matchup, and he and the defense consistently seemed one step ahead of the Packer crew.

Let’s get into the details of the third downs of this decisive Vikings victory over their NFC central rival by looking at some of these plays:

[video width=1280" height="720" mp4="https://zonecoverage.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/GB-3D1.mp4]

Early in the game, Flores dials up a six-man pressure on third-and-short, bringing Josh Metellus off the edge and bringing in an extra defensive lineman.  Green Bay is not ready, and Harrison Phillips comes through unblocked, making a tackle for loss (TFL) in a key situation.

[video width=1280" height="720" mp4="https://zonecoverage.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/3rd-Downs-v-GB.great-stem-by-Harrison-convert-by-GB.mp4]

The clip above highlights Harrison Smith's amazing flexibility on third-and-three. It looks like he is going to bring pressure, but at the last minute, Smith stems back to deep third coverage (as does Byron Murphy on the other side). The Vikings then play a "3 Cloud" coverage with both corners hard in the flats and a three-man rush. It's a perfect call because Green Bay is running a quick-game concept. However, Akayleb Evans follows his man too far inside, leaving Green Bay's flat route open for the first.

Flores again brings pressure in this next clip, with the Vikings playing Cover 1 on third-and-six. The pressure doesn't get home, but it forces Love to get rid of the ball earlier than he would like, and Josh Metellus does an outstanding job staying with his man and making a great play on the ball.

[video width=1280" height="720" mp4="https://zonecoverage.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/GB-3D-44-knockdown.mp4]

In the clip below, in a "third-and-forever" situation, Flores again dials up a three-man rush and 3-Cloud coverage -- this time with a wrinkle.  Harrison Smith initially lines up in a deep third position and rolls post-snap into a "robber" position, taking away the intermediate throw over the middle. Jordan Love takes what this defense's main weakness is, the QB run, and he gains a chunk of yards, but he still comes up short of the first.

[video width=1280" height="720" mp4="https://zonecoverage.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/3rd-Long-Love-Run-short-3.mp4]

In the clip below, the first third down of the second half, Green Bay faces a third-and-10. The Vikings give an "AA" look, with two LBers at the line of scrimmage in each A gap. That poses problems for most offensive pass-protection schemes because there is no way to tell which defenders are coming and which are dropping. Therefore, the offense is forced into a guessing game of which way to slide protection and which way to send the RB.

Green Bay moves their RB up to a three-yard deep position, committing him fully to pass protection. The Vikings show Cover 0 pre-snap, but despite the pre-snap look, rush three and drop into Cover 2 coverage. Metellus makes an amazing play to stay with Green Bay's route up the middle and then to steal the ball away and make a big return.

[video width=1280" height="720" mp4="https://zonecoverage.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2nd-half-3d1-both-angles-1.mp4]

[video width=1280" height="720" mp4="https://zonecoverage.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/8-3d-2nd-half.mp4]

The clip above shows another wrinkle in Flores' situational third-down retinue. They rush three again, but then they play a 3-Lock coverage, with three deep safeties with man underneath.  Every defensive scheme has a weakness, and Love takes off to run here (one of the weaknesses of 3 Lock). However, Flores made the call because he knew it was fourth-and-long. Harrison Smith, savvy vet that he is, comes off his responsibility and makes the tackle short of the first down.

Lastly, to truly close the game out:

[video width=1280" height="720" mp4="https://zonecoverage.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Last-3rd-down.mp4]

The Vikings once again play 3 Lock, but this time, they bring a four-man rush, with Danielle Hunter rushing and spying the back. Jordan Hicks makes an amazing play, beating his man with a speed move and swiping the ball out of Love's hands to end any Green Bay threat.

If the Vikings are going to be competitive in the upcoming season, they'll need more situational mastery from coach Flores.