Minnesota Vikings cornerback Bashaud Breeland had high praise for new teammate Patrick Peterson earlier this week when asked about Minnesota’s Week 1 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. “I ain’t never played with nobody like Patrick,” he said. “A corner on that side, they don’t even look his way. It really showed me I gotta buckle my cleats up, buckle my chin strap week in and week out.”
Breeland’s quote is spot on, as Joe Burrow only threw at former All-Pro Patrick Peterson three times last week, per Pro Football Focus.
While it’s encouraging to see Peterson live up to his legendary status as a shutdown corner, your secondary is only as good as your weakest link. Unfortunately for the Vikings, Peterson can’t cover both sides of the field. And as Burrow and the Bengals showed us last week, teams will not hesitate to take their chances against anyone other than Minnesota’s best cornerback.
With Peterson’s lockdown presence, Breeland served as Burrow’s glorified “X marks the spot.” The former Kansas City Chiefs corner was targeted eight times by Burrow, and the results were abysmal.
On both of his touchdown passes, Breeland was the corner that Burrow went after to close the first half. Tee Higgins initially outmuscled Breeland at the goal line, as Breeland left his man-coverage assignment and tried to help out on Peterson’s matchup against Ja’Marr Chase, leaving Higgins wide open in the end zone.
Burrow looked Breeland’s way on the following possession as he found him matched up against Chase in one-on-one coverage with under a minute remaining. Burrow connected with Chase for a 50-yard bomb — similar to Breeland’s matchup against former teammate Tyreek Hill in man-coverage in the final preseason game — and the Bengals took a 14-7 lead into the break.
While Cincinnati boasts a respectable group of young receivers with Chase, Higgins, and Tyler Boyd, Arizona’s wide receiver room of DeAndre Hopkins, A.J. Green, Christian Kirk, and dynamic second-round rookie Rondale Moore presents far more significant problems for Minnesota’s secondary. The same can be said about Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray. With head coach Kliff Kingsbury‘s air-raid scheme, Arizona’s offense is built entirely around taking full advantage of the matchups that the opposing defense gives them.
Hopkins is undoubtedly one of the best wide receivers on the planet. He commands extra attention every week from defensive coordinators. With Hopkins being the primary focus on opposing defenses’ scouting reports, Arizona’s other receivers benefit from favorable matchups across the board.
Specifically for this week’s matchup, Hopkins and Peterson will likely face off against one another on the left side of the field — where Hopkins has historically operated — and last week was no different.
This means Breeland will be tasked with matching up against Green, with occasional looks against Kirk and Moore when they’re lined up out wide.
And as we saw last week at Tennessee, Murray and Kingsbury do not hesitate whatsoever to take their chances when opposing defenses load up on Hopkins. Murray had a perfect passer rating of 158.3 on his five targets to Kirk, which included two touchdowns.
Whether it’s Green outside and/or Kirk and Moore in the slot, opportunities will be there for Arizona to take their matchups against Minnesota’s secondary, Breeland in particular.
Best believe that Kingsbury and Murray are well aware that Breeland had an opposing passer rating of 145.8 when he was targeted during last week’s loss at Cincinnati. And they will look to expose him for the third consecutive game.
