Vikings' Pass Rush. What happened to it?

[TBro]

Since Griffin injured his foot in London, our pass rush has not been the same after the team returned
from the bye week. It's great that we are still beating teams, but I believe we will need that dominate
Pass Rush to regain its form in the Playoffs to make our SB run. Our Sack numbers are down, QB Hits
are down, and there appears to be a noticeable lack of pressure on the QB the past several weeks putting
more responsibility on our secondary and linebackers to make plays in coverage. On a positive note, the
defense forcing turnovers has been excellent over that same period, especially interceptions. 

Is this all a grand plan by Zimmer focusing his game strategy more on coverage, or is this something we
need to be concerned about when we start our playoff run in January? 

[Guest]

cross your fingers for a Panthers loss so some of these guys can sit out or limit their minutes/exposure.

[Guest]

I think Griff can't really cut and spin with a jacked foot but he is still playing the run pretty good so he gets the reps.  Hopefully it comes around after a little more rest.  I think I saw Weatherly taking some reps last night.

[Guest]

Dunno, but tell ya what...I've sure enjoyed seeing a bunch of goose eggs every quarter the last two games.  Whatever they're doing / not doing....keep doing / not doing it..

frustrating is watching QBs run it on us though

[Guest]

I wonder if we will see more pressure against less mobile QBs?

[Guest]

It's called three blind mice---they called like one hold  and that was when the OT nearly took griff to the ground stretching his jersey.   Holding all night long was horrible

[Guest]

i watched the lineman in the last several series against the Packers (when there was zero pressure) and it appeared everbody was taking a strqight ahead bull rush.  No spins, no stunts or twists, nothing but stand and dance with man in front of you.  

Not sure what was going on but like Jimmy said, contaiment was important last night against the Packers.

[Guest]

@ThunderGod said:
i watched the lineman in the last several series against the Packers (when there was zero pressure) and it appeared everbody was taking a strqight ahead bull rush.  No spins, no stunts or twists, nothing but stand and dance with man in front of you.  

Not sure what was going on but like Jimmy said, contaiment was important last night against the Packers.

I wonder if they were concerned about losing footing if they spun, stunted or twisted.

[Guest]

There was a slow motion replay during the second half I think that showed every D lineman being held by the outside of their shoulder pads. I saw our guys look at the refs multiple times when Huntley scrambled. Holding could have been called every play, but it’s the packers so it wasn’t.  But at the same time, it seemed contain was top on the list last night. 

[Guest]

I agree with OP and called this out weeks ago...That pass-rush has not been there with the same frequency and ferocity we've seen it in years past. And yah, it could potentially hurt us post season.

Exotic blitz packages Zimm likes are even better with a solid down 4 rush or even better when you dont have to use em.

Last night imo took the lack of pass rush to extreme - and they were down some starters on their OL too.

Hundley had a lot of time back there (a lot) and Bahktiari pretty much OWNED Everson last night. Griffen is not the same and it's probably highly correlated with his plantar fasciitis, the field sucked and we had to move the DL from more rush to contain after those Hundley runs.

Bigger pix? We are sorely missing a healthy Floyd @ 3T. 

Not sure moving to Danielle over is proving to be a slam-dunk move either. Wonder if he's destined to backfill EG eventually at RDE?

It is what it is this year and they held a toothless Packer offense to a goose-egg so there is that. Faster track, warmer climes and the din of USB will be a big help as will a bye week.