Vikings 3rd down defense is back

In as much as I am excited about that let's look at the QBs/offenses they faced that past three weeks. Don't get me wrong, I am excited but I just want to point out that the stats don't tell the full story.

If this were data in a vacuum that would be one thing, but it's what we do. We lead the league in it. We led the league in it last year. It's what made us the best defense in the NFL. And, yeah, the last three offenses haven't been great, but the number (12.5) is nuts. Unheard of nuts. And keep in mind Carson Wentz is in that group, too. 

Just saying that despite the fact that we're all wondering where our defense has gone, we're starting to recognize some of the faces on the milk carton. 

I am with you 100%. And also agree that 12.5 is just crazy good.

And the Vikings have the 3rd best red zone defense in the NFL...

The biggest issues the first couple weeks of the season were that we were giving up too many big plays.  If you looked deeper, you could see that situationally the Vikings defense was as dominant (or moreso) in these areas as last year, but big plays were killing us.

I think Zimmer has these guys settled down and playing smart football.  I would expect things to even out and the Vikings to be near the top of the defensive rankings by the end of the season.  Zimmer is too good of a coach and we're too loaded with talent to take a big step back defensively.

On one hand, they are doing what was needed the last 3 games. On the other hand, they've played some babies @ QB in an NFL sense - but that's the draw they got. 

I'll believe it's back or hitting its stride again maybe after the next 3 including Stafford and Brees.

And maybe I don't understand the psyche going on here...Why the hell does Zimmer have to settle these guys down on D? Get em to play smart football again? 

Its the same cast of characters, same uber talented players who have been playing together a # of seasons now.  IF anything, these guys should have been kicking ass since day 1. The fact that they've been playing together for so long, in the same scheme should have been a huge advantage over any offense except maybe the Rams. 

Maybe I am severely underestimating the impact of this seasons rule changes...

Maybe this helps explain things....

Willingness to adapt has helped Vikings right the ship on defense

The Minnesota Vikings defense has been The Minnesota Vikings defense again over the past three weeks.
Following a troublesome 465-yard passing game by Jared Goff and the Los Angeles Rams, neither the Philadelphia Eagles, Arizona Cardinals or New York Jets have put together 300 yards passing or 100 yards rushing against Mike Zimmer’s defense.

After causing zero turnovers in weeks 2-4, the Vikings have picked up eight turnovers in their last three games.
Quarterbacks Carson Wentz, Josh Rosen and Sam Darnold have combined for 57.8 percent completion percentage, three touchdowns, four picks, 10 sacks and a 73.0 quarterback rating.
Here’s the craziest stat: The last three opponents are 4-for-32 on third down against the Vikings.
Zimmer has mixed up pass rush looks on third down over the past three weeks, giving Wentz headaches and baffling the two rookie quarterbacks into submission.
It isn’t so much that the Vikings are bringing more blitzes — they ran the same number of blitzes in Week 7 as Week 2 — it’s that a number of different pressure packages, one of which includes a three-man front, have been more effective than they were earlier in the year.
“Usually with a four-down front in protection they’re identifying four guys and one more guy, and in the three-down front they have to identify three down and one other guy, that might be Barr, that might be Kendricks, that might be Wilson,” Zimmer explained Monday. “There’s different ways to rush the quarterback, but you also have other guys in coverage, so you may have a guy covering a back, covering a tight end, doubling a guy. I guess it’s a little more varied.”
The Vikings’ head coach pointed out that his calling card double-A gap (or mug) look, in which players line up on both sides of the center, is now being used all over the NFL. That means that teams are spending all offseason preparing for that look as opposed to when he first started using it in Cincinnati.
“Every team in the league now is running double A gaps, so five, six years ago, whatever it was, seven years ago when we started all that stuff, it was free runners all day long,” Zimmer said. “Now ‘OK, we’re going to block it this way. We’re going to do this, we’re going to check to that, check to a screen, do this.’ Gives us something else to work on, and at some point we’ll be back to our old self.”
As Zimmer adjusts to the adjustments, one thing he has to consider is how teams are scheming for space. Vikings offensive coordinator John DeFilippo has mentioned on numerous occasions that his goal is to create space for playmakers. In Week 4, Rams brilliantly created mismatches in space against the Vikings for their running back Toddy Gurley and top receivers Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods.
“Everything is rockets, don’t block this guy and leave this guy alone, five wide receivers,” Zimmer said. “Yesterday they came out in three wide receivers and two tight ends a lot, and they had maximum protections and they had no backs, all five guys out. It becomes a space game, really, and that’s partly why you want to get more cover guys in there if you can.”
Zimmer’s use of different personnel packages has been noticeable. Last season he used a defensive back rotation that occasionally sent Mackensie Alexander in the game for Terence Newman and used linebacker Ben Gedeon when the opposing team had two tight ends on the field. This year we have seen safety Jayron Kearse play 90 snaps as a nickel corner as part of a “big nickel” package and Eric Wilson has seen 37 snaps, often times in a look that puts Anthony Barr on the edge.
For all the adapting that’s going on, that doesn’t mean the Vikings’ defense has needed to become more complex. In fact, Barr said last week that some of the early-season issues may have been due to attempts at tweaks gone wrong and that the team has gone back to what they do best over the last few weeks.
“The offseason you have so much time to come up with all these great ideas and I think sometimes it doesn’t go exactly how you drew it up,” Barr said. “Going back to who you are, knowing your identity, doing what you do well has helped us be successful.”
Asked to be specific about which areas the defense had simplified, Barr couldn’t expand.
“Yes but I can’t share that with you,” Barr said smiling.
While the Vikings’ defense is no doubt causing more havoc than it did against Buffalo and Los Angeles, there’s something that Zimmer isn’t ignoring: The team crushed two rookie quarterbacks. Up next is no rook. Slowing down Drew Brees will require an even higher level of play from the Vikings’ defense...
“It’s different than it has been in the last few weeks,” Zimmer said of preparing for Brees. 
http://www.1500espn.com/vikings-2/2018/10/willingness-adapt-helped-vikings-right-ship-defense/

@"purplefaithful" said: Maybe I don't understand the psyche going on here...Why the hell does Zimmer have to settle these guys down? Get em to play smart football again? 

Its the same cast of characters, uber talented players who have been playing together a # of seasons now.  IF anything, these guys should have been kicking ass since day 1. 

Maybe I am severely underestimating the impact of this seasons rule changes...

It may not seem like we had much turnover on defense...  but Hughes and Alexander took over for Newman...  Robison is gone and replaced by first year starter Weatherly...  Sheldon Richardson is new to the team...  Sendejo has been out for a couple weeks...  Kearse and Harris have been playing defensive snaps after basically being special teams players the past two years...
We have a lot of new or younger guys that have had to play due to injury or roster turnover.  Zimmer said he simplified things after the Rams game to get the defense playing fast again.  It seems to have worked with some dominant defensive showings against Philly, Arizona, and the New York Jets.

Yep. If you really looked at the Defense last year there was less eye candy pre-snap than in previous years. He had already backed away from the Double A Gap looks and.was playing a lot of Nickel and trusting his Front Four to create pressures naturally. And that worked for most of the season until the D-Line wore down.

Instead of standing pat Zimmer added wrinkles to stay ahead of the League. But Alexander and Hughes were learning those wrinkles, not savvy veteran Newman. And the League started really cracking down on contact after 5 yards, which hurts Rhodes' game.

And OCs learned lessons from watching the Saints and Eagles and came out targeting all 3 LBs in coverage as well as both Safeties.

Last year teams tended to shy away from or had very little success scheming RBs, FBs and TEs on the Backers and Safeties. This year they're going right at them, with success.

And the youngsters have struggled with communication when passing off assignments, leading to a lot of wide open targets.

It's ALL fixable. The idea that Defenses are obsolete including Minnesota's is ridiculous. It's taking time to adjust to the stricter no contact after 5 yards calls for DBs. Just like t Front 7 is learning to hit the QB with pillows instead of rocks.

It's taking time for the younger DBs to learn the new wrinkles so Mike is taking some of it out. And though I'm in general an Alexander detractor he's been coming around lately.

Kearse and Iloka and Harris and Wilson are playing more to help address the coverage issues Kendricks, Barr and Harry have been experiencing.

Griff comes back to bolster a D-Line that's held it together admirably in his absence. A lot more guys are playing this year which will keep everyone fresher later in the year.

I mentioned in the offseason that if Zimmer really committed to using more players, including the lesser experienced ones, that is would lead to some growing pains but would pay off down the road. I still believe that. Just didn't expect the rule changes and loss of veteran leadership to hurt this bad this early.

It's all trending the right direction now. I do expect them to give up yards and points to the loaded Offenses like NO and NE. But I don't expect any more missteps against lesser teams going forward.

Some good points being made. Maybe the reason Iloka did not play immediately (despite being familiar with Zim's defense) is that he was not as familiar with Zim's new wrinkles as players like Harris and Kearse who'd been learning them all summer. 

Good discussion here.  Zim maybe got too innovative in the offseason, especially with the turnover in support players (Robison, Newman and such).  So kudos to him for identifying the issues and making adjustments.  Got to love having a staff capable of in game and in season adjustments.  It probably helps to have an OC like Flip to lean on as well.

The 3rd down thing is amazing.  Sounds like Zimmer is simplifying the 1st and 2nd down and then dialing up the exotic stuff on 3rd.  More DB blitzes as well, especially out of the nickle with Mac and Kearse.