There are two sides to the coin of the Minnesota Vikings’ 3-0 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday afternoon. Brian Flores and his defense of relatively unproven fixtures dragged the Vikings across the finish line by recording the franchise’s first shutout since a trip to Lambeau Field against the Aaron Rodgers-less Green Bay Packers in Week 16 of the 2017 season. That 2017 Vikings defense was one to remember. They led the NFL in both points and yards allowed. After Sunday’s shutout, the present-day Vikings ranked fifth in points allowed and 10th in yards allowed.
If it wasn’t abundantly clear before Week 14, Minnesota’s defensive performance against the Raiders cements Flores as the leader in the clubhouse for the Associated Press NFL Assistant Coach of the Year Award. Previous winners include DeMeco Ryans, Dan Quinn, and Brian Daboll. Speaking of the 2017 Vikings, offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur won the award that season.
As much as Sunday was a banner day for Flores and his unit, it was anything but for Kevin O’Connell‘s offense. Anytime you can’t score a touchdown, there are clear shortcomings regardless of circumstance. But there was one inexcusable flaw in O’Connell’s game plan that needs to be properly addressed:
That flaw was their handling (or lack thereof) of Enemy No. 1: Maxx Crosby.
Game wreckers like Crosby require intentionality and purpose to prevent them from singlehandedly taking over. Sometimes, they even force some of the best offensive coaches the league has ever seen to deviate from their weekly scheme. To illustrate, let’s bring it back to last season.
In Week 7 of 2022, the Kansas City Chiefs traveled to Santa Clara for a matchup against the vaunted San Francisco 49ers defense. Edge rusher Nick Bosa was in the middle of his 2022 NFL Defensive Player of the Year campaign and presented serious problems for every single offense that he faced. Teams can treat game-wreckers like Bosa simply as your run-of-the-mill pass rushers, and Andy Reid made damn sure to account for him properly.
A slight tweak to Reid’s beloved 12-personnel (one running back, two tight ends, two wide receivers) allowed the Chiefs to completely eliminate Bosa (and the NFL’s No. 1 defense) that particular week. Instead of keeping passing-down running back Jerick McKinnon in the backfield alongside Patrick Mahomes in the gun, Reid moved his running back to Bosa’s side as a glorified H-back to prevent isolated matchups against his tackles.
The beauty in Reid adding a specific wrinkle for this particular week against Bosa is that it served as an opportunity for the Chiefs’ offense to set up an explosive play later in the game. After consistently peppering Bosa with additional protection using McKinnon as an H-back, Reid can use Bosa’s aggressiveness against him and dip into his patented screen-game bag.
I’ll admit that attempting to hold O’Connell to the same standard as Reid is rather foolish, considering everything that Reid has accomplished. But the type of intentionality Reid had for Bosa last season was nowhere to be found with the Vikings on Sunday against Crosby.
Instead of consistently providing additional help to Crosby’s side, O’Connell left Brian O’Neill isolated against one of the game’s premier pass rushers. And No. 98 routinely went to work.
While the Vikings give the pre-snap look of providing additional help to Crosby’s side with Alexander Mattison lined up over Crosby from the backfield, Mattison immediately leaks into the flat as a receiver. Without even a slight chip on Crosby, the Raiders’ pass-rusher freely embarks on this isolated matchup against O’Neill. And the far superior player predictably took advantage — while simultaneously being held by O’Neill.
Like the Chiefs, O’Connell’s Vikings have a propensity for getting into empty on third downs. However, by leaving Crosby isolated on this particular third-and-three out of empty, Minnesota invites him to win this one-on-one matchup against O’Neill and force the offense off the field. Which is exactly what transpires.
To make matters worse, O’Neill suffered what appeared to be a serious leg injury on the play where Crosby recorded his second sack of the first half before Crosby exited the game in the second quarter.
As a result of the Vikings treating Crosby as just another pass rusher, Mad Maxx recorded three tackles for loss, two sacks, eight pressures, and a whopping 17.4% pressure rate on his 46 pass rushes.
Yes, the Vikings were shorthanded all over the field offensively. Ed Ingram was inactive. Justin Jefferson left the game early in the second quarter, as did O’Neill. Dalton Risner injured his foot in the second half. But this only makes the treatment of Crosby on Sunday that much more difficult to rationalize. When operating at considerably less than full capacity, allocating more resources to protect the mismatch Crosby presented (with or without O’Neill) was paramount. And the Vikings never adjusted from their traditional 11-personnel scheme that puts an added emphasis on all of its eligibles as receivers instead of protectors when necessary.
While Cincinnati Bengals edge rushers Trey Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard aren’t of the same caliber as the truly elite Crosby, they can certainly take over games when opponents give them consistent isolated matchups. O’Connell’s former boss, Sean McVay, found that out the hard way earlier this season in Week 3 on Monday Night Football. McVay and the Rams routinely left Hendrickson in one-on-one situations. Hendrickson responded with two sacks, 10 pressures, and an astronomical 27.8% pressure rate on 36 pass rushes.
There are plenty of shortcomings offensively that are keeping O’Connell up at night. But correcting the big-picture failures of his offense over the past two games starts with ensuring that the opposition’s premier pass rushers are properly accounted for — even if that means that O’Connell has to deviate from his traditional 11-personnel scheme with all five eligibles immediately as receivers at the snap.
