I don’t have to tell you about all the problems the Minnesota Vikings’ defense has had in 2022. Their scheme is under heavy fire. The numbers are glaring. Every quarterback, from Andy Dalton to Josh Allen, has shredded their secondary. It has been a disaster. But Saturday’s comeback win against the Colts may have been their turning point. But before going into that, we must look at what was wrong. So let’s first rewind to the Week 14 loss in Detroit.
While there were a lot of coverage issues against the Detroit Lions, Minnesota leaned into a different base coverage than they have been using all season. While that game was a defensive disaster, staying the course could save them from certain postseason doom.
The Vikings have based their coverage in what they call Quarter-Quarter-Half, but you probably know it better as Cover 6. One side of the field plays quarters; one side plays halves. Here’s a guide to the specifics. This is one of the fastest-rising coverages in the league, but Minnesota runs it a little differently than anyone else. In a standard QQH coverage, the quarters side goes on the passing strength, with more deep zones over more passing threats. The Vikings flip this around more often than other teams, calling HQQ — the half side is over the passing strength.
Think about why that might be. NFL offenses love to put their best receiver on the weak side, so this subversion puts more deep defenders on the weak side. It also often leaves one of those deep defenders without a job since it’s not common to see two vertical routes come from the weak side of a play. That freed-up defender, often Harrison Smith, can freelance and try to generate turnovers.
The problem is one of timing. That safety has to read his side of the play before helping over the middle of the field, which will delay him. Further, Donatell’s four-man stunt-heavy pressure system is great at generating pressure but not at generating pressure quickly. Any offense that can get the ball quickly over the middle of the field can negate the stunts and require superhuman efforts from the safeties and linebackers.
To fix this, I previously suggested more middle-of-field coverages. That would close up those skinny posts and dig routes and ask a little more of the corners on the outside. The Vikings may have agreed, calling more of those against Detroit, but it didn’t work out as well as I would have guessed.
These single-high coverages just move the problem around. While their HQQ base asks too much of their linebackers and safeties, single-high coverages ask more of the cornerbacks than they can handle. It’s a rock and a hard place. Pick your poison.
The Vikings also tried using more pure quarters looks. With two inside safeties, there is no need for Smith to be responsible for saving everything on the other side of the play. They can cover each other’s bases. It asks a little more of the cornerbacks as they have to play quarters all the time now instead of the easier role of a cover 2 corner. But that strikes a good balance between asking a little more of them and asking so much of them that you give up long-bomb touchdowns to D.J. Chark.
Quads didn’t always work. Here’s a coverage bust where Cam Bynum got caught trying to make a greedy play.
Quads didn’t work. QQH didn’t work. Cover 3 didn’t work. Man-to-man cover 1 didn’t work. Nothing was working. We spent an entire week slamming Ed Donatell’s defense and waiting for his demise. Donatell had to find a way to make one of these things work. And he did just that against the Indianapolis Colts. We’ll handle that in Part 2.
For a video breakdown of these plays, you can find me on Patreon at Patreon.com/LukeBraunNFL. There, I broke down these plays and several others in more detail.
