12 minute read
The Minnesota Vikings remain undefeated after a 15-10 victory over the Miami Dolphins last Sunday. The offensive production was lackluster, but a win is a win. However, there were some positive trends this week, and momentum that should carry over through the coming weeks.
What many viewed as a “get right game” against a weaker opponent, it was anything but that for the Vikings offense. The game started with a big return from Myles Price, bringing instant excitement and hope for a fast start…
It then quickly became the Dolphins football, after a poor first series and the Dolphins getting their first sack of the season. This was followed by many procedural penalties and injuries, making the first half frustrating, even with a two-score lead at half.
The adjustments and changes in the second half clicked, and the offense was able to move the ball more successfully, and dominated time of possession. There was a good amount of schemes and throws from Murray and the offense that should carry over in the coming weeks, even if they did not end up in the end zone all afternoon.
From watching the tape back, there were some new wrinkles in the run game, and the second half passing game was modified to better attack the split safety shell coverage that the Dolphins were playing. Let’s get into the details.
Jump ahead:
Offensive Stats & Key Metrics
Total Offense:
- 15 offensive points
- 72 total plays
- 41 passing plays
- 31 rushing plays
- 336 total yards
- 213 passing yards
- 123 rushing yards
- 4 sacks allowed
- 4.0 yards per rush
- 20 first downs
- 8/18 (44%) on third down
- 1/1 (100%) on fourth down
- 3 red zone trips
- 3 red zone field goals
- 39:11 T.O.P.
- 0 giveaways
Personnel Splits:
- 72 total plays
- 48 (67%) in 11 personnel
- 9 (13%) in 12 personnel
- 6 (8%) in jumbo (Caleb Tiernan at TE)
- 4 (6%) in 21 personnel
Note: this does not include kneel down plays
Key Callouts:
The offense was shaky coming out of the gate. They put points on the board, three field goals in the first half, but they were setup close to midfield multiple times after great returns by Myles Price. They just couldn’t stack anything together and get into the end zone and take advantage of the short field.
The first half was also filled with penalties by the offense, including the second drive where they had two chunk plays and immediately followed it up with a false start and a holding penalty that killed their momentum.
There was also turnover on the left side of the offensive line, including Donovan Jackson’s season ending meniscus injury, and Christian Darrisaw’s neck and concussion injury. Ryan Van Demark and Joe Huber both had highs and lows in stepping up in their absences. I was impressed with the stunt pickups by Huber, especially as the o-line struggled in this area early on.
The run game was up and down all afternoon. There was some nice chunk plays, but many that only resulted in a small gain. The primary run concept is zone scheme runs, however, the Vikings have good results with gap scheme runs, and I’d like to see this be incorporated more often. The o-line appears to fire off the ball and control blocks in their gap better than the nature of step and stretch blocks in zone schemes.
The Vikings had nice chunks with counter, duo, and power runs, but this was in a small sample. However, it is something to watch, as the success has reflected similarly from the previous weeks this season. It’s a highlight from Frank Smith’s time in Miami last year, and should be leaned into for this year’s run game.
The play action game has positive returns when faking gap scheme runs. The Dolphins defense bit multiple times when the Vikings pulled a guard on a play action fake, opening up holes in the defense for easy pitch and catches.
Sunday’s running offense wasn’t extremely efficient:
This is not all that surprising with the turnover on the left side of the o-line. This week against the Saints will be worth monitoring, especially with RVD and Huber as the presumed starters on the left side of the line, and against a weaker run defense.
Passing wise, Murray got much more comfortable in the second half, and overall played good. There were a couple of drops, but overall, I only accounted for one true miss: the dig to Jordan Addison in the second quarter. Other than that, he made some strong throws and got more comfortable in the pocket as the game progressed.
He kept the ball out of harms way, and attacked the middle short-to-intermediate areas of the field. There was not as much pushing the ball down the field, but that is more due to the Dolphins scheme. They ran a lot of split zone coverages and put a shell over the top to prevent the big plays, opening up more opportunities in front of their coverage shells.
One area of improvement that needs to be addressed is in when they get 0-blitzed. Murray has been dropping too far back, making the o-lines life a bit harder than what it already is. I’ll go into more detail in my Final Thoughts, but there was some quick improvement of this in the second half that I was pleased to see.
Offensive Play Breakdowns
This week, I want to highlight a couple of plays that are new wrinkles to the Vikings offense. Throughout the first quarter of the season, we haven’t seen a lot of creativity or changes from previous KOC offenses. There have been a few sprinkles, but this week was the first time we’ve seen some new packages and personnel.
Whether that’s due to injuries and available personnel, or from trends that other teams have adopted, it was refreshing to see some newer wrinkles, especially when they brought spurts of success to an offense that needs a spark. Let’s dive in!
Gun Counter Weak
The play call: 11 Gun Trey Tight Bundle L H/G Counter Weak
The concept: Weak side counter run, with Huber and Hockenson pulling and leading, with the rest of the o-line down blocking.
The breakdown:
As mentioned earlier, the Vikings offense is seeing success with gap scheme runs, and counter is one they’ve used on low volume with some quality success. This play in particular only netted a four yard gain, but it was due to a great play by the Dolphins Edge, Chop Robinson.
Pre-snap, the Vikings are in a Gun Trey formation, with Hockenson attached on the “Trey” side. The Dolphins come out in a “Over” front, with their Defensive Tackles in a 3T and a 1T towards the strength of the offense (typically the side with the TE):
All day, the Dolphins were back and forth between an Over and an Under front. For this play design, being in an Over front and running towards the weak side of the offense is an advantage for the Vikings.
Once the ball is snapped, the o-line, sans Huber, all down block to the gap on their left, with Huber and Hockenson crossing back to pickup the backside Edge and LB:
This play is nearly perfect from a blocking standpoint, as everyone locks down their gap and gives Huber and Hockenson the opportunity to get in front of Jones for a chance at an explosive.
Fortunately for the Dolphins, Chop Robinson made a great play, slipping the backside block by Huber:
Robinson crashed hard when the line went away from him, and he nearly overran the play. Huber wasn’t able to cross over fast enough, and Robinson beat him to the spot.
Robinson does crash into the rest of the offensive and defensive lines, and falls down as he attempts to slow down to trip up Jones:
This was just enough to slow Jones down, allowing the Dolphins defense to pursue and stop it for a four yard gain. Even though it was a short gain, it was one of the better blocking patterns I saw from them up front, and helps support the promising view of gap scheme runs.
The offense did call counter a few more times on Sunday, with a few resulting in good chunks on the ground, including a few pick ups of 8+ yards. As the season goes on, gap scheme runs need to be leveraged early on, especially to get the line moving and set a nasty tone.
There were some other interesting gap scheme concepts as well, including an influence trap and duo that both resulted in first down runs. This was one of the reasons why I was excited when Frank Smith came over from Miami, and these run concepts have his finger prints all over them. The o-line also carries out fakes and pickups in the play action game when faking gap scheme runs. There were a few times when the Vikings would pull a guard or have Max Bredeson do a banana motion to seal an edge. The pocket and execution of these fakes opened up opportunities in the passing game, a strong trend with a run game that has been rather underwhelming this season.
As these concepts get more unleashed throughout the season and when Jordan Mason returns, the run game should see significant improvements.
Gun Play Action Spacing
The play call: 11 Gun Trey L Jet to Ace Stack L PA Power Vertical Spacing
The concept: Play action pass, with a vertical spacing concept, with the goal of stressing the middle layer of the defense to play high or short.
The full breakdown:
In the second half, the Vikings offense played with quicker timing, and Murray was reading and taking what the defense was giving him. This play is an example of this, however, there was a bigger play left on the table that would have given the team their first touchdown of the afternoon.
The play starts in Trey Left, before Felton jets across the formation to Duo Stack Left, causing the Dolphins to shift a Safety over and show a 2-high shell:
Once the ball is snapped, the Vikings show Power Play Action, with Fries pulling and picking up the play side Edge rusher. This is another strong example of the gap scheme play action fakes:
The Linebackers get pulled in by the play action fake, and the Dolphins rotate into a Cover-2 zone:
The route concept is a spacing pattern, with Jennings running a quick hitch, Felton running a dig, and Hockenson and Addison running verticals. The Dolphins do a decent job of guarding against this, with no windows really fully open as Jones releases out of the backfield:
However, there is a missed opportunity at the top of the play: a hole shot to Addison in Cover-2. One of the weaknesses of Cover-2 is the hole shot, or the space between the Corner and Safety. This is further stretched with Addison winning to the outside:
There’s a window right as Jones is releasing that would give Addison an opportunity to make a play and score a touchdown. Murray does a good job of getting through the progression, and as he looks at Jones, the Safety starts crashing down, which further opens the window for Addison.
The play nets an 11 yard gain on first down, and keeps the chains moving. However, there was a bigger play to be made.
As I mentioned earlier, the Vikings play calling and operation has been more conservative than recent seasons. The defense and special teams has given the offense grace to play a slower game and focus on keeping the clock running and keeping the ball out of harms way.
So, while Murray didn’t take the shot this time, it is something the offense can look back on and find opportunities with. We’ve seen Murray and this offense take deep shots, especially in Tampa Bay, and it’s promising to see receivers getting open on film.
This is why I’m bullish on the Vikings offense and finding positive regression. The opportunities are there, the confidence and poise are improving, and the time on task is growing. Now, it’s about putting all the pieces together, and with Darrisaw, Jefferson, and Mason all slated to return in the next two games, the offense has an opportunity to make strides towards improvement.
Final Thoughts
I’m not as concerned as others about the offense and their overall rankings in comparison to the league just yet. Week to week, there has been improvements and it seems like the offense is getting more comfortable with one another with more time on task.
The offense has also seen a lot of volatility when it comes to keeping everyone on the field, and turbulence is expected when a few of the best players on the team exit early due to injuries.
There appears to be a more conservative approach to play calling, with more focus on runs and keeping the clock moving. It makes sense with a defense like the Vikings, and playing to the strength of the unit.
With that being said, one area that is concerning is with Kyler Murray’s drop backs when getting Cover-0 blitzed. He has a tendency to receive the snap and continue dropping back:
The o-line picks up the blitz well, and Murray has a nice pocket and time. Now, situationally, there’s only 10 seconds left before halftime, so the ball did need to get out. However, he has the opportunity to do a quick three step drop and throw how to Jauan Jennings, who is running a crossing route.
In the first three games, teams have brought a 0-blitz and Murray has defaulted to this same drop back pattern.
The good news is, this appears to have been corrected, at least in the one snap the Dolphins ran this defense in the second half. Early in the third quarter, the Dolphins came out in a 0-blitz defense, and the Vikings picked it up well. The biggest positive here was Murray’s drop back and awareness:
Murray does a quick three step drop and throws to Hockenson on the switch release out route at the top of his route. Murray looks more poised and comfortable in the pocket in comparison to earlier in the game, where he threw it away as he back peddled.
If this trend can break, and he can be more confident and poised, then 0-blitz looks against the Vikings can go from being a defenses strength, to a weakness with their playmakers on the outside. The constant drop back and throw off the back foot hasn’t resulted in any success for the offense, including his first throw as a Viking in week one.
Murray showed better poise and confidence in the pocket throughout the second half, which helped the offense move the ball between the 20s. He will need to continue to gain confidence in the line and his receivers, but this play was a promising start to the second half, and the tape shows a calmness and presence that we haven’t seem from him so far this season.
It’ll be important that this continues into week five, where the Vikings head down to New Orleans to play the Saints. Their defense is coming off a rough performance against the Falcons, and opportunities for the Vikings will be present. It’s time for the offense to put together drives that result in a touchdown, especially if they get into a shootout against a high scoring Saints offense.
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