Brian Flores-led Vikings defense presents new challenge for Jordan Love
Coaching matters, and Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores is a good example of that. After one season with Ed Donatell and his two-high coverage-based scheme, the unit has been transformed under the former Miami Dolphins head coach. And that's a new challenge for the Green Bay Packers on Sunday: it's a kind of aggressive […]
Coaching matters, and Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores is a good example of that. After one season with Ed Donatell and his two-high coverage-based scheme, the unit has been transformed under the former Miami Dolphins head coach. And that's a new challenge for the Green Bay Packers on Sunday: it's a kind of aggressive style that quarterback Jordan Love hasn't handled this season.
"I haven’t really faced a defense like Minnesota, the way they run it," Love said. "It's about getting the ball to our playmakers and letting them make plays, make people miss."
And that's because the Vikings blitz at an absurd level. Their blitz rate going into the Packers game is 57.9%, which comfortably leads the NFL. Only one other team has blitzed on more than 50% of its plays over the last six years, the 2019 Baltimore Ravens, at 54.9%. It's a real outlier, and something important for a defense in reconstruction.
Additionally, the coverage schemes are also aggressive. Going into week 7, the Vikings led the league in cover 0 percentage, at 14.2%. No other team in the league reaches 10%. They also use cover 2 and cover 3 fairly frequently, but they are one of the teams that don't use quarters coverage very much. At the same time, no other team drops eight players into coverage more than them.
"They're doing an outstanding job," Packers head coach Matt LaFleur mentioned. "Coach (Brian) Flores has a very aggressive scheme. They're starting to get their footing more and more the more they play. I think that was pretty evident against San Francisco."
Over the past three seasons, the Vikings have gone through severe schematic changes, from Mike Zimmer's double-A gap to Donatell's shells to Flores man and blitz-heavy defense. This year, with an intentional process of getting younger and cheaper from general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, the Vikings lost Eric Kendricks, Patrick Peterson, Za'Darius Smith, and Dalvin Tomlinson, for example.
And it's not like the defense was good before. In 2022, the team was 27th in defensive DVOA, which led Kevin O'Connell to act fast to change his coordinator after one season — Packers fans might be jealous at this point.
Even adding just supporting pieces with high upside, like Byron Murphy and Marcus Davenport, and role players like former Packer Dean Lowry and Troy Reeder, the results are clear. The Vikings are now 15th in DVOA. It's not an elite defense, and not close to it, but it's evident that the unit has played beyond its talent level. The thought process is something like "if we are not good, we are going to generate chaos". For the most part, it's working as well as it could.
The good news for the Packers is that the Vikings secondary isn't talented whatsoever. The team is 15th in defensive rush EPA, but 23rd in dropback EPA. It's a good opportunity to see if Jordan Love can handle so much pressure, something he couldn't do in his first career start, when Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo sent the house over the entire game. It was a totally different circumstance, though, and now Love is more prepared and developed to attack these scenarios.
So far this season, the Packers have had three games decided by two or fewer points. All Vikings games were decided by one score. Expect an emotional fourth quarter, and Love's ability to face a different and unique style of defense will be another important checkpoint to his evaluation.
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