The Lions may not see the exotic blitzes they’re used to seeing from Brian Flores and the Vikings, here’s why
This may not be chess match we’re used to seeing
The Detroit Lions will play their third NFC North divisional matchup on Sunday when they take on the Minnesota Vikings. These games always tend to be a good time and a bit of a chess match between Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores and Ben Johnson.
Now Johnson is gone, and it’s John Morton’s go this time. The thing is, the Lions may not be seeing the usual looks from Flores in this one.
Injuries are changing the way the Vikings blitz
“The blitzes have been really interesting this year compared to last. There are some exotic blitzes that he’s using, but a lot of the blitz numbers that are recorded are coming from sending five rushers, with all of them being edge rushers or defensive linemen.” Our Viking beat writer, Tyler Forness said. “The other reason why we haven’t seen as many exotic rushes is due to Andrew Van Ginkel missing five full games and playing just eight snaps of another, not to mention Blake Cashman missed four games with a hamstring injury.
“With just Dallas Turner to run those exotic pressures, it limits what Flores can do from that perspective. With Van Ginkel hopefully coming back, that will change with the ability to be more versatile.”
The good news for the Vikings is that Van Ginkel was a full participant at practice on Tuesday. So he should be playing on Sunday if things trend that way. So, should Lions fans then expect the Vikings to return to their normal ways of getting after the quarterback? Not necessarily. As Forness noted earlier this week, the Vikings have been trying to send a lot of interior rushers, and it’s just not working out.
Still, the Vikings are getting healthy at the right time, and they have some key pieces back that will allow them to play chess a little more effectively. So we may not see an overload of exotic stuff like we’re used to, but we should still see the Vikings try to get after Jared Goff.
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