While many things seemed to be going wrong during the Minnesota Vikings’ four-game losing streak between Weeks 7 and 10, one uncharacteristic concern was the defensive line.
The Vikings recorded 19 sacks through the first five games and started 5-0. They had five sacks of Aaron Rodgers, eight of Cam Newton and four of Brock Osweiler. They sacked Marcus Mariota twice and forced him into a pair of mistakes that led to defensive touchdowns. Their zero sacks against Eli Manning would have been higher had he not thrown the ball into the ground multiple times to avoid getting leveled.
After the bye, the productivity ceased. The run defense grew more porous – about 45 yards per game worse, in fact — and gave opposing quarterbacks more favorable conversions that reduced dangerous dropbacks. Minnesota earned just three sacks over the next four games and scored zero points defensively.
But over the most recent four-game stretch, the defensive line seems to have rediscovered its mojo. Minnesota is 2-2 in its last four with 13 sacks over that stretch. “This week, we rushed them the right way,” said head coach Mike Zimmer in reference to the win against Jacksonville in which the Vikings had four sacks. “We rushed the quarterback the correct way. Everybody kind of did their job, and that was important. And then, you have to win some one-on-ones.”
Again, it’s not as if the Vikings stopped rushing hard during their four-game losing streak. It was most likely a combination of a decline in rush defense, quicker passes and slightly more relaxed coverage, especially with injuries to Andrew Sendejo and Captain Munnerlyn during that stretch.
“You’ve got to get these situations where they’ve got to hold the ball and they’ve got to throw the ball,” said defensive end Brian Robison after a victory against Arizona. “Everybody’s talking about how our pass rush was kind of dismal the past three, four weeks, but it just goes to show you have to get teams in situations where they have to throw the ball in order for your pass rush to be successful. Our pass rush never left us.”
It is certainly possible to have a successful game rushing the quarterback without putting up sack numbers, as the Vikings did against Manning in Week 4. Then there’s the Week 7 game against Carson Wentz to represent the other end of the spectrum. Granted, Wentz turned the ball over multiple times in the first half thanks to some rookie mistakes, but particularly in the second half, Wentz had a clean pocket and led two scoring drives. Per ESPN’s stats, the Vikings hit Wentz twice in that game, while Sam Bradford was hit 17 (!) times. This was indicative of the Vikings’ pass rush during their losing streak: Not getting home with their pressure and not landing quarterback hits, on which they place a great deal of value.
Suddenly, though, the quarterback hits are landing again. The Vikings’ defensive end trio of Robison, Everson Griffen and Danielle Hunter has 25.5 sacks combined – the best total of any defensive end group in the league.
Interestingly, the Vikings have not been stopping the run much better of late. They’re allowing 114 rush yards per game the last four weeks versus 121 rush yards per game the previous four games. So why the improvement?
It could be more comfort in certain personnel groups. A lot of the success has come with Robison playing in a non-traditional spot. The Vikings have gotten very comfortable moving the 10-year veteran to the interior of the defensive line and standing him up next to Hunter. In seven of the Vikings’ 13 sacks during their current hot streak, Robison has been playing inside. Hunter, the team’s sack leader with 10.5 despite only being on the field for 58 percent of snaps this year, has been out there for nine of them the last four weeks.
Hunter, Robison and Griffen have had the most success when joined by defensive tackle Tom Johnson, an emerging pass-rushing specialist from the inside.
Johnson may have had the best explanation for why the pass rush has returned, even though he made the following statement when the Vikings were 5-0. In essence, Johnson says that while teams can alter their gameplan somewhat to shorten drops, eventually they’ll need to resort to more ambitious throws and give the defensive line more opportunities.
“You can see that a lot of those teams are changing what they like to do,” Johnson said. “Guys that like to be in four- or five-, six- or seven-step drops are staying shallow, three or four. Guys that like to be real deep, to have their tackles one on one with our ends, they’re not doing that. They’re chipping out, having some back up. That’s part of the respect that they’re giving us, and at some point they’re going to have to go to what they like, and that’s going to open our gameplan up.”
This puts some burden on the Vikings’ offense to score points and force the other team to play from behind, and as you might expect, the Vikings have been playing with more leads the past four weeks, which explains why most of their sacks have come in the second half. All four of their wrap-ups on Carson Palmer came after halftime, as did both of their sacks against Matthew Stafford on Thanksgiving. Two of three on Dak Prescott came in the second half; two of four against Blake Bortles.
On Sunday, the team with the third-most sacks in the league (35) gets to play the team that has allowed the second most (40).
Indianapolis should be worried.
