At the start of the fourth quarter of the Minnesota Vikings’ Week 15 game against the Cincinnati Bengals, the NFL Network broadcast displayed the ultimate curse for Minnesota’s defense. They put up a graphic announcing that the defense hadn’t allowed a TD in 166 minutes. So, of course, the Vikings proceeded to allow a TD immediately as we all learned that:
Tee Higgins‘ score opened the floodgates, and the Bengals scored TDs on each of their final three drives in regulation to tie the game before winning on a field goal in overtime.
It should be noted that the Vikings held the Bengals to just three points in the opening three quarters, so the defensive performance was not all bad. But the failures in the fourth quarter and overtime can provide some valuable information. Hopefully, the Vikings use that to button up some issues in the defense before facing the Detroit Lions this week.
Let’s go to the tape to see how the Bengals were able to have success.
Attacking Deep zone defense
The Vikings have received a lot of praise for the innovative defensive scheme that DC Brian Flores is running this season. His scheme relies on balancing plays that use max pressure and max coverage. The Vikings blitz six-plus players more than anyone else, and they drop eight players into coverage more than anyone else. Combined with the varied and constant mug looks the defense uses, that approach keeps the offense off-balance.
If the Vikings blitz, the offense needs a quick pass response to counter that blitz. However, if the offense throws quickly into a max coverage look, Minnesota should have it well-covered and quickly tackle the oppoonent. Even if the offense guesses right and calls a long-developing pass into the max coverage, the extra defender in coverage on a three-man rush usually helps prevent any receivers from coming open.
On a high level, the defensive structure makes a lot of sense, and it’s been very successful, as indicated by the 11-quarter stretch they went without allowing a TD and the 17 points per game the defense has allowed since Week 3. Flores’ scheme has been a difficult nut for offenses to crack. But, as we saw in Cincinnati, there are weaknesses.
The Bengals found and consistently exploited a weakness with the Vikings’ Tampa 2 looks. Minnesota’s favorite coverage this year has been a “Non-Traditional Tampa,” or NTT. These coverages have been great. They allow the Vikings’ defense to present single-high or blitz looks pre-snap and give extra bodies in the box against the run but still help with deep coverage. Like Cover 2, an NTT has two deep half safeties. However, it also has a “high hole” player who is in the middle of the field to take away any seam routes, deep crossers, or posts. In the traditional Tampa 2, this player was a linebacker like Brian Urlacher, but it’s more often Harrison Smith or Josh Metellus for the Vikings.
For more on NTTs, here is a good video explainer:
The first play that’s relevant for how the Bengals attacked this coverage came in the first half and wasn’t a completion. You probably remember Jake Browning just missing Charlie Jones on a deep ball. In the play below, the Bengals are running a Dagger concept. Byron Murphy, the deep half player, and Smith, the high hole player, drive on the dig route by Higgins.
Theoretically, this coverage has an answer for the Dagger concept. Smith must take Jones’ vertical route, and Murphy has to drive on the route by Higgins. In this case, Smith, a very smart player, is reading the concept and the QB’s eyes. He anticipates the dig route on the Dagger, which is often the intent of the play. It’s rare for a quarterback to throw to the vertical route because offenses uses it as a clear out to open space for the dig.
In this case, Smith guessed wrong, and Browning threw the clear-out route.
The Bengals clearly identified running a vertical paired with a dig as a weakness in Minnesota’s defensive zones. On the play below, Cincinnati got a strong play to Ja’Marr Chase running another dig route against the Vikings’ NTT. In this case, it’s not a Dagger because the vertical is run to the other side of the field. But that route occupies Cam Bynum, the high hole player. Ivan Pace Jr. is a little stagnant in the middle of the field, unable to get underneath the route. A curl route draws in Patrick Jones II, and Smith is playing too deep to be able to drive on the ball in time.
The last play is a great example of a spacing issue for the Vikings’ defense in the intermediate area of the field. Smith was too deep to drive on the ball, and Pace wasn’t in position to undercut the pass either. That leads to the next weakness that the Bengals found.
Poor spacing in underneath zones
Because the Vikings have a lot of funky calls on defense, their plays put stress on defenders who aren’t necessarily at home in coverage. That works well when the QB gets rid of the ball quickly because it creates confusion for the offense and is good against most instant responses, but it can fall apart when players must cover for extended periods.
Ivan Pace Jr. has been great this season, but his coaches didn’t ask him to cover a lot in college, and it’s not one of his strengths. That’s generally okay because Flores mostly asks him to move forward in this defense, but he had a couple of mishaps in coverage in this game. Players like Jones and D.J. Wonnum are primarily pass rushers. But Flores asks them to drop into coverage on a pretty regular basis, and offenses can manipulate that.
The Vikings are running Cover 3 in the play below and dropping to it from a mug look. The Bengals run Dagger again, and they have Smith covering the vertical route. However, Smith’s deep coverage leaves a void in the middle of the field. Cincinnati exacerbated that void with a deep over run by the TE. Pace looks to that route concept and moves with it. But the route is running into two other defenders, Metellus and Akayleb Evans.
In this case, it would be more productive to have Pace read the eyes of the QB as he drops, which would lead him to defend underneath the dig. As it is, the Bengals convert a critical third down that eventually leads to a TD:
On this next play, you can see the benefits and downsides of dropping non-traditional players into coverage. The Vikings are running a simulated pressure, where they rush only four defenders, but not all of them are traditional pass rushers. In this case, Smith and Pace rush the QB while Wonnum and Jones drop into coverage. Minnesota’s pressure works, and Smith has a free run at Browning. However, the coverage on the back end doesn’t hold up. The Bengals a running what looks to be a spacing concept — curl routes across the board a different widths. That really tests the integrity of a zone defense, and to defend it, all players need to be in the right spot.
It’s hard for defenders who aren’t true coverage players to cover this effectively, and the pass is completed right over the ball to the TE, who is in between Wonnum and Jones:
Blitzing will also eliminate certain zones from the defense entirely. When you take away coverage defenders, there are fewer zones a defense can put into play. The hope is that the blitz gets home, but the coverage is often exposed when it doesn’t.
The play below is a good example of that lack of a defender. The Vikings are in what appears to be a Cover 2 look, but they’re down a defender. You can see that each player underneath in coverage takes a player. However, a traditional Cover 2 would have a fifth underneath zone defender in the middle of the field.
In this case, there is no player there, and Bynum has to play further off in coverage due to the vertical threat out of the stack release by Chase/Higgins. Murphy is playing outside that stack, so neither is in position to drive on the dig that would have been thrown right over the head of the missing coverage player.
Talented players making plays
Schemes have strengths and weaknesses, and there isn’t a perfect option. Ultimately, you are relying on the players to execute the plays, so talent trumps scheme. As a play caller, the best you can do as a coordinator is to put your players in a position to succeed based on the skillsets they have. Flores has done an excellent job of that this year, as shown by breakout performances from players like Josh Metellus and Ivan Pace Jr.
The Bengals found some weaknesses in Minnesota’s coverages. However, they also needed some brilliant execution to lead them to victory. Tee Higgins is the first example of great execution. On his first TD, Bynum was simply no match for him in coverage on a corner route:
Then Higgins unleashed what is probably the catch of the year against Evans, of course. The Vikings have a great play call on this TD. They get an unblocked rusher in Jones, which forces Browning to bail and throw the ball up. Evans is in great position to intercept the pass but misplays the jump and lets Higgins get in front of him before twirling around for the TD:
Joe Mixon was another player who outperformed Minnesota’s talent. He had a TD on fourth-and-one, where he met Pace head-on in the hole and won the encounter for the TD:
However, Mixon’s pass protection might be the most impressive part of his game. Mixon stonewalled Metellus and Pace, who have been terrorizing opposing RBs all year with blitzes. The Vikings got them one-on-ones with Mixon, and they lost in this game.
The play below is excellent protection by Mixon against Metellus. He allows Browning time to move outside the pocket and then releases downfield to give him an outlet. This is a rare play from an RB:
Higgins and Mixon combined with Jake Browning to make another impressive play below. Mixon does an excellent job of blocking Pace in protection, Browning finds and hits a tight window throw (on another dig) between Bynum, Murphy, and Evans, and Higgins makes a good catch on a ball outside of his frame.
There were very tight margins on this play, and the three Bengals players needed to win on all of them for this to be a success:
Before the season, I would have been extremely confused if you had told me that Jake Browning was going to be a major reason the Bengals beat the Vikings. But it’s true. Browning played very well in this game, from processing and executing the well-designed plays to attack the Vikings’ zone to standing in and delivering under pressure to creating on his own.
On the play to get the Bengals into FG range in overtime, Hunter knocked Browning off of his spot, forcing him to move to his right. But Browning threw an accurate pass across his body to Tyler Boyd downfield. That’s an extremely difficult play to make, and it won the Bengals the game on third-and-nine:
Conclusion
The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Minnesota Vikings from a talent and scheme perspective in Week 15. Cincinnati found an exploit in Minnesota’s generally very good pass coverage by throwing dig routes, and Browning processed excellently to find open receivers through underneath zones.
Talent also shone through on the Bengals side, with no better example than Higgins’ incredible catch to tie the game. Mixon also outplayed Pace and Metellus, stonewalling them in pass protection and running over Pace for a TD. Finally, an unlikely hero, Browning, played an excellent game in the win.
The Vikings will need to work to shore up weaknesses in their zone coverages, and the talent on the field will need to work to improve as well. In particular, jump balls appear to have been an issue for the Vikings secondary, especially in the New Orleans Saints, Denver Broncos, and Bengals games. At this point in the season, that issue might be something that needs to wait for growth from young players or additional talent over the offseason.
