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Week one came and went, and the Vikings offensive performance was a tale of two halves, mostly in appreciation of another elite defensive showing. The Vikings completed a second half comeback victory, defeating the Packers 39-22.
The Kyler Murray era started in the least ideal way possible. An early turnover and an unfortunate injury cut his day short, only appearing in 11 total plays. The Vikings, and KOC, didn’t get to show much, if any, of the new look offense with Murray under center.
Carson Wentz came in and the Vikings turned quickly to a run heavy offense in his first couple of series. He also had a few moments early that showed he may have been playing with a little too much excitement.
However, as the game went on, he brought a calm demeanor to the offense when they desperately needed it. The defense and special teams helped a ton, by giving the offense short fields and an opportunity to showcase the firepower they have. This resulted in an explosive touchdown pass to Justin Jefferson, and four straight TDs in the fourth quarter to close out the game.
Overall, the offense was up and down, and the game plan had a shift in the second half. Whether that’s from what the Packers were showing defensively, or due to Wentz being under center, the adjustments made were strong and resulted in a tremendous comeback.
There were a few creative plays, both in the passing and running game, and I’ll break them down more below.
Jump Ahead:
Offensive Stats & Key Metrics
Total Offense:
- 39 total offensive points
- 239 total yards
- 151 passing yards
- 107 rushing yards
- 19 first downs
- 8/15 (53%) on third down
- 1 giveaway (INT)
Personnel Splits:
The Vikings ran a lot of heavy personnel against the Packers, more than they have in the past. They used 12 (one RB/two TEs) & 21 (two RBs/one TE) personnel over 40% of offensive plays. There were also mixed of 22 (two RBs/two TEs) personnel, mostly in the low red zone (inside the 10 yard line).
A full breakdown of the splits were:
- 61 total plays
- 25 plays (41%) in 11 (one RB/one TE)
- 16 plays (26%) in 21 personnel
- 12 plays (20%) in 12 personnel
- 8 plays (13%) in 22 personnel
Key Callouts
The Vikings game plan may have been tweaked once Wentz entered the game, especially with the use of heavier personnel in the second half. Max Bredeson and Josh Oliver got a lot of playing time, and the Vikings shifted to a heavier use of the run game.
It became effective, too, especially running to the left behind Darrisaw and Jackson:
There are some concerns around running the ball to the right and up the middle. I thought the gap scheme runs, like power, worked well and I’d like to see that continue throughout the season. There were a couple of calls early on that got the lineman moving, and it should be a part of KOC’s early game script moving forward to set the tone.
I think the use of option with Kyler Murray will also help create explosive on the ground, and should make the o-lines life a little bit easier. All in all, it’s early, but something to monitor over the next couple of games.
Offensive Play Breakdowns
There were a few plays that really stood out to me over the course of the game, both in terms of creativity and the looks and concept from the offense. Below, I’m going to breakdown a couple of my favorite plays from this weekend. I’ll include the formation and play name, similar to what may be actually called on the field, with what I see in the play and how it develops. Note, the terminology is not exact, it will be translated into the offensive lingo from my playbook.
Let’s start with the rushing touchdown to Aaron Jones in the fourth quarter:
Toss to Aaron Jones for TD
The play call: 11 Singleback Tight F Retro HB Toss L
The concept: Outside toss, using wide zone blocking techniques backside and a crack block by Jennings to get Darrisaw as a lead blocker. Jones’ target is the outside shoulder of Bredeson in the pre-snap look, and it’s a race to the goal line
The full play:
This is the type of creativity that I’ve been wanting to see in the run game. The use of heavier personnel and motion can make defenses put out their run stuffers and flow with the motion. It opens up great chances to get on the edge of a defense, exactly how KOC drew it up here in the low red.
The “retro” motion by Bredeson gets the safety to shift inside, before Bredeson quickly flips course right before the snap. This is becoming a trend across the league, as other teams have put their blockers in motion right before the snap to force the defense to shift/slide and get the lead blocker full speed ahead. It could also be referred as a “banana” motion, where the blocker takes a round banana shaped motion and cuts through the line as the ball is snapped.
In this example, Bredeson’s motion forces the safety, who is playing man on Bredeson, to be out of position, giving the offense an advantage to the edge of the defense.
Darrisaw is also made a lead blocker, after Jauan Jennings crack blocks the edge defender, allowing Darrisaw to loop around and get in front to create a lane for Jones to race to the corner of the end zone.
Darrisaw and Bredeson play this beautifully, as Darrisaw gets hands on the boundary corner before passing him along to Bredeson and working up field to the trailing linebacker. The Packers actually defended this play pretty well, the difference was the strong blocking by Darrisaw and Bredeson to fight through the defenders in pursuit and giving Jones free access to the left pylon:
This is the type of motion and creativity I was excited to see with Frank Smith as the Assistant Head Coach. I’m hopeful we continue to see getting the lineman in space with lanes for the RB to cut off of and generate explosives.
Post to Hockenson for a TD
The play call: 11 Gun Trops L H Offset Fade Inney Spacing
The concept: Outside WRs run fade routes, with the primary read being the slot receiving options: Jennings & Hockenson. Jennings runs an option route, where he targets the middle linebacker and has the option to stop his route, or work back outside. His action turns into a whip route, as he shuffles back towards the sideline.
Hockenson is on a post route behind the linebacker, and the read is the triangle between the Mike Linebacker, Strong Safety (left safety in pre-snap look), and Nickel Corner.
It’s a three step drop back from Wentz, with “scat” blocking, where the o-line each has a man they are responsible for blocking if they rush the passer. Aaron Jones does a quick shuffle, then immediately releases out on a route.
The full play:
The Vikings were in the high red zone (11-20 yards from the end zone), and were facing a third and long, and needed to convert. They were trailing 22-10, and needed to cut the game to one score and get some momentum.
KOC drew up a great passing concept, especially giving the shell and look the defense was giving. The pre-snap look shows a Cover-6 look:
In a Cover-6 look, the passing strength, in this case the left side of the offense, plays Cover-4 and the backside will play Cover-2. Many defenses will run this look when facing an elite WR, especizlly when they are backside on the boundary. When that reciever is Justin Jefferson, it’s a look the Vikings may get often.
However, post snap, the defense rotates to Cover-4 across the board, with the backside corner playing one-on-one against Jefferson. The passing strength side remains Cover-4, where the safety and Mike LB are reading the second and third receiving options, in this case: Jennings & Hockenson.
When Jennings cuts in towards the Mike LB, the safety turns his attention to Hockenson, as he is the most vertical threat in his zone. This opens up perfectly for the Vikings, because Hockenson is running a post route, and the safety’s weakness is anything cutting inside of him, especially post routes.
In Cover-4, the backside safety is responsible for watching across the field to the passing strength and supporting the playside safety on anything cutting across the field. However, when the backside WR is Jefferson and is one-on-one, he may cheat and pay close attention to that side of the field.
As the play develops, the Mike LB turns his attention to Jennings briefly, which opens up the middle of the defense, making the throw a layup to Hockenson for the score:
The final result is generated partially due to the pre-snap look from the defense, and the gravity of Justin Jefferson one-on-one on a fade route. Addison also runs a fade route, taking the playside corner out of the equation.
All in all, it’s a great play drawn up given the situation. The ball needed to be a low risk throw to at least guarantee a field goal if it was to fall incomplete. This is what having elite playmakers on offense unlocks: easy completions and scoring opportunities for anyone on the field.
Final Thoughts
This game was the epitome of the Minnesota Vikings. A slow start, a quick turnover, and a roaring second half comeback kept everyone in U.S. Bank Stadium on their toes. From a game plan perspective, it’s hard to fully determine how many of the adjustments were due to Green Bay’s defense or Wentz stepping in. It’s probably a mix of the two, but it’s something to monitor as Kyler works his way back in the coming weeks.
Speaking of Kyler, I saw a lot of criticism online regarding his short stint, especially his first throw in purple:
The throw came on second down and long (11 yards to be exact), and was a Cover 0, double mug look blitz. The Vikings were in a Gun Empty formation, with the passing strength and three receiving options to Kyler’s right.
The Packers were one-on-one across the board, blitzing both mugged up linebackers. The math is on the Packer’s side, as they had six pass rushers to the Vikings five pass blockers: someone was coming free.
Typically, the O-line would block the “five most dangerous rushers” which starts inside-out. The fastest way to the QB is through the interior gaps (A & B gaps). The furtherest man on the line is the one who will typically be free, also known as the “hot” defender.
Well, the Vikings did not pick this up well, and two interior rushers were free to Kyler:
Will Fries (#76) missed his block, and the free man was untouched as expected, putting immediate pressure on Kyler. You may say, “Kylee should have thrown to Aaron Jones, he’s wide open!”. While that is true, Kyler did not have the time to go through any type of read, and from the way the line is blocking, it was expected that the right side was the hot side, and QBs are taught to throw into the blitz side.
The route combination to the top of the play was a slot fade, with the outside receiver (X) was on a quick hitch. From the pre-snap defensive alignment, the Packers gave the look of one-on-one, and Kyler trusted his playmaker in Jauan Jennings:
Unfortunately, he put too much air on the ball, partially due to throwing off his back foot and shorter structure needing to throwing it over the blitzing defenders. Keisean Nixon recognized the slot fade, and left Hockenson on the hitch. With the amount of air the throw had, Nixon was able to track the ball and make a play.
I’m not extremely concerned by this. It was an early down, early game shot at an explosive against a favorable look. Kyler has shown the ability to throw these passes with good success, and with film study and better o-line blocking, I think there will be better opportunities and success against these types of plays later in this season.
Teams won’t be able to give this look consistently against the Vikings, due to Kyler’s mobility and the weapons on the outside. The defense made a better play this time around, but I wouldn’t expect it to happen every time. It’ll be interesting to see how KOC schemes up against mugged up Cover-0 look defenses in the future, and I’m not as concerned as others on how this play happened.
All that being said, they’re off to Chicago for another matchup against a fellow NFC North foe. The offense will need to improve on their effectiveness and efficiency, especially to keep up with the high powered Bears’ offense. The scheme may be dependent on who starts under center, but either Murray or Wentz will need to be good to go and ready to make plays, as points and time of possession will be extremely important to remain undefeated. See you next week for the week two breakdown!
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