Empowered by an early 21-0 lead, the Green Bay Packers invited the Minnesota Vikings to run the ball back in the Packers’ Week 2 victory at Lambeau Field. As a tradeoff, Green Bay committed to stopping Kirk Cousins’ play-action.
It was that commitment that ultimately foiled the Vikings. Despite a comeback effort that brought Minnesota within five points at 21-16, Kirk Cousins’ normally-reliable bootleg abandoned him with Minnesota on the doorstep of taking the lead.
With the Vikings facing first and goal at the Packers’ 8-yard line, defensive lineman Dean Lowry anticipated play-action and charged at Cousins. The quarterback backpedaled and threw up a wobbly, off-balance pass that Kevin King intercepted, one of Cousins’ worst throws in a Vikings uniform. That was the story throughout the day as the Packers took away Cousins’ best attribute, holding him to 4 of 9 passing on play-action for just 23 yards.
Few opponents have shut down the Vikings’ play-action like Green Bay did that day over three months ago. Through 14 games, Cousins has a league-best play-action passer rating (135.3) among quarterbacks with at least 100 attempts. Of those quarterbacks, only MVP favorite Lamar Jackson uses play-action at a higher percentage.
Eliminate the Green Bay game, and Cousins’ play-action numbers look like this: 96 of 128, 75%, 10.4 yards per attempt, 14 touchdowns, zero interceptions. Did the Packers create a repeatable formula to shut it down? Head coach Matt LaFleur doesn’t see it that way.
“I just think it was early in the season,” he said Thursday. “I think there was a lot of unknowns from both teams probably at that point, so I don’t think you can put too much stock into that. We’re going to have a great challenge in front of us, and we’ve got to make sure we try to control the line of scrimmage, control the run game, so that they can’t keep us as off-balance as they’ve been able to keep everybody else.”
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In that game, the Packers sacrificed some larger running plays, hoping to reduce big-chunk passing plays in exchange. They were mostly successful, but the Vikings nonetheless used the running game to climb out of a 21-point hole. Dalvin Cook scored from 75 yards out in the second quarter and ended with 154 yards on 7.3 yards per attempt. Before Cousins’ interception, the Vikings had run the ball seven of eight times to move 52 yards down the field.
“The run was effective because they weren’t challenging the run a lot of times,” head coach Mike Zimmer said after the Week 2 game. “The outside guys weren’t rushing or they weren’t squeezing down on the runs, so the cut back lanes were there. We’ll take the runs all day if they’re going to play pass.”
When asked again Thursday about the Packers’ tactic, Zimmer said the Vikings should be able to counter it by attacking up the middle.
“We have to be able to attack them back to the inside of some of this stuff,” he said, “so if they’re going to be out there wide, we’re going to be able to take advantage of that as well.”
The Packers have been good defending play-action all season, not just against the Vikings. Opposing starters are 67 of 105 (64%) for 987 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. That’s roughly the equivalent of what Sam Darnold has produced on the play-action this season, and Darnold has the eighth-lowest passer rating on play-action among qualified quarterbacks.
The week following Cousins’ performance, Denver attempted just two play-action throws against the Packers defense, both unsuccessful. Two weeks after that, Dak Prescott threw two play-action interceptions against the Packers in Green Bay’s 34-24 victory.
Only the Bears have played the Packers twice this year, and Mitch Trubisky saw play-action improvement off their first meeting. In Week 1, he was 3 of 5 for 46 yards. In Week 15, he went 6 of 7 for 91 yards, nearly double the output. Cousins is also looking for better results; anything to eradicate the memory of his Week 2 performance.
“Well, you want plays that complement one another so that if a team tries to defend you a certain way you have an answer,” he said. “Defenses can defend you a variety of ways, but you just always want to have that response. We don’t know how a team will defend us going into a game. You have an idea, but then you have to go play the game and get a feel for it, and then have that answer. I think each week we don’t know, and then you have to react accordingly. But we’ll see what the Packers have for us come Monday night.”
BACKS OUT
An important piece of the Vikings’ play-action game has been the threat of Cook, but the Vikings’ running back is in danger of missing his first game of the season with two upper-body injuries. After suffering a chest injury versus Denver that he played through for several weeks, Cook suffered a different shoulder injury against the Chargers. He was present at Thursday’s practice but did not participate.
“It’s just about getting healthy,” Cook said. “Pain and all that comes with the game. You can bare so much. You can do much. But it’s all about being healthy and I think that’s when I’m at my best for the team.”
His backup Alexander Mattison also remains out with an ankle injury sustained against the Detroit Lions. That leaves Mike Boone as the possible starter versus Green Bay. Boone rushed for 56 yards and two touchdowns last week in relief.
“That’s why we trust all our guys,” said Cook, “and we got guys in the backfield that can shoulder the load.”
