To some extent, the Minnesota Vikings’ 31-29 victory over the Green Bay Packers was a tale of two halves. The Vikings jumped out to a 28-0 lead, and that head start was enough to sustain Green Bay’s 29-3 comeback. However, it should be noted that after the Vikings went up 14-0 on their second drive, the Packers never got the ball when the game was within one score. While the final margin of victory was only two points, Green Bay never had a real chance to take the lead.
The Vikings scored on four of their first five drives, which helped keep the game out of reach, and they did so by consistently moving the ball on offense. Sam Darnold may have had his most up-and-down game with the Vikings despite his three passing TDs, which he matched with three turnover-worthy plays. Upon review, pass protection was the real indicator of Darnold’s success. In the first half, Green Bay only pressured Darnold three times, and he went 11 for 15 for 136 yards and three TDs, plus one scramble for nine yards on 16 dropbacks.
The line also played very well in the run and screen game. RB Aaron Jones had 139 yards from scrimmage on 26 touches against his old team at Lambeau Field. For most of the game, they dominated the Packers in both phases.
People have maligned Minnesota’s offensive line for years, and the team could never figure out an interior combination that could pass protect. However, by inserting Blake Brandel, the Vikings seem to have something clicking through four weeks. Ed Ingram had a rough game against Dexter Lawrence, but Minnesota has limited interior pressure since that first week. We know the Vikings OTs, Christian Darrisaw and Brian O’Neill, are an elite combo. However, Garrett Bradbury, Brandel, and Ingram appear to be emerging as a solid starting trio to go along with that, which is not something you could say in years past.
Let’s dive into the tape to explore how the OL contributes to Minnesota’s wins.
pass protection
Minnesota’s OL consistently gave Darnold clean pockets against the Packers. That started on the play below, which was the first third down of the game.
After a delay of game, the Vikings are in third-and-14 and need a play that hits deep downfield. That requires a long dropback, and Darnold takes a five-step drop out of shotgun. The Packers overload their rush to the right side of the OL, 3×1. Teams often do this to stress the overloaded side with a stunt and give a single rusher a one-on-one opportunity as the line slides away.
Minnesota’s protection plan is good. They use the TE and RB to chip the edges, making life easy on Darrisaw and O’Neill. However, it’s trickier the interior because the two DTs stunt. The IOL does a great job of staying on the same level. It helps Brandel pick up the looper seamlessly, and Ingram helps Bradbury with the crasher. The result is a pocket that gives Darnold what seems like five yards of space in any direction.
It’s plenty of room for Darnold to get to the top of his drop and deliver a throw to Jalen Nailor, who had roasted Eric Stokes on the play:
This happened repeatedly. The next play, a TD to Jordan Addison, is another example. The Vikings leave Darrisaw on an island against Lukas Van Ness, and the rest of the OL wads up nicely. Darnold again has a ton of room to deliver an accurate ball to another wide-open receiver.
NFL’s NextGenStats has Darnold under pressure for 10 snaps in this game. However, in reviewing the film, I don’t see that as a negative for Minnesota’s OL. A few of the pressures are not really on the offensive line, including ones where Darnold held on to the ball longer than he needed to, or heavy blitzes led to a free rusher that was not included in the protection plan.
The play below is a good example. It’s charted as a pressure because Darnold has to move off his spot. However, it turns into a nice scramble gain. I honestly think Darnold could have made, and was protected for, two throws on this play: one to Josh Oliver (his first read) and the second to Addison on the back side (his third read).
Minnesota’s OTs do a great job pushing the rushers well past the pocket, and Darnold steps up. Meanwhile, Tedarrell Slaton has compressed the interior, particularly Brandel. Getting pushed back isn’t ideal, and if the tackles had been compressed, this could have been a bad situation. However, they weren’t, and it wasn’t.
Darnold has a wide lane to scramble through, and Brandel never loses contact with his opponent, finishing with a pancake. It turns into a nice scramble pickup:
Great protection also came off of play action, like this Josh Oliver TD. Darnold was able to progress to his fourth read, checking them off one by one because the OL let up absolutely nothing. This is how you create an easy TD.
I don’t need to include every clean pocket Minnesota’s OL provided, but this was probably my favorite one, despite it being an incompletion. He had forever to throw.
The Vikings didn’t have many issues in pass pro, but they allowed two sacks. So if I’m going to praise them, I should also probably cover those. The first was definitely on Brandel, who struggled to pick up a stunt off of a blitz mug. However, this is a difficult situation. Blockers generally have to be on the same level as each other to pick up stunts.
Due to the blitz and protection, Jones has the LB while Brandel is blocking a defensive linemen. Jones needs to come forward, and it’s hard to trust that he will be on the same level. Therefore, Brandel is turned at the player outside him and doesn’t get his head around to see Quay Walker running right into him. Walker catches him off guard and knocks him off balance before continuing on to Darnold. This, and Brandel’s miss on a stunt on the first dropback of the game, were Minnesota’s two real pass-protection blemishes.
I fault Darnold on the second sack. Due to the heavy blitz look, the Vikings have to dedicate protection resources to the right side of the offense and don’t have a blocker for the DB, who blitzes off the back side. That isn’t uncommon in the NFL, and the correct answer to an unaccounted-for rusher is to get the ball out fast. In this case, Darnold has a throw to Oliver on an out route available if he wants it. For whatever reason, he clutches one before trying to throw, and the extra time is enough to lead to the strip sack.
The third-down conversion below is how you beat that kind of blitz: Get the ball out fast. Green Bay presents seven threats on the line and loops a player in, so Darrisaw is wasted in protection. That leads to a free rusher up the middle. However, Darnold knows this and releases the ball at the top of his drop, leading to a nice third-down conversion.
While technically a pressure, this is due to a concious choice by the offense — beat the blitz with a throw:
Run Game
The Vikings have also been efficient running the ball. Part of that has been the addition of Jones, who is averaging an elite five yards per carry on the year. However, the line deserves substantial credit for his high-level performance. Let’s look at some of the impressive runs from this game.
On this first play, O’Neill and Ingram have a combo on Kenny Clark up to Walker. They get huge movement on Clark, pushing him from his initial alignment about two yards outside the hash two the middle of the hashes. O’Neill then gets enough of Walker to prevent him from making the tackle. That combo created a huge void, which Oliver helped maintain by stonewalling Rashan Gary, and C.J. Ham laid a nice lead block on Isaiah McDuffie to help spring the run.
The other side of the line also got in on the fun. Here, Darrisaw does a great job of leading out in space and finding LB Edgerrin Cooper, who he easily seals off. Like everything else, Darrisaw makes this look easy, but it’s not simple for a big man to move that quickly. Brandel also executes a nice reach block, getting across his defender’s face and sealing him off to the inside quickly.
Like Darrisaw, Bradbury made a nice climb to the second level to seal off Walker. Run blocking is a team effort, and TE Johnny Mundt did a nice job on Van Ness while Justin Jefferson laid a great block downfield for a big play.
Minnesota’s OL also smoothly adjusted to moving fronts. On this play, the Packers stunted back to the left. O’Neill has a difficult task: He must prevent the hard-charging Gary from getting upfield too quickly. He can do that as Jones’ path is very wide, and then he has a relatively easy seal. Ingram and Brandel also work well, climbing to the second level, and neither LB is able to make a play because Jones is deep into the secondary before a CB and safety tackle him.
Screen game
Offensive line play also gave a little bonus in this game on screen plays. On the season, Darnold has completed all 14 of his screen passes for 128 yards, an impressive 9.1 yards/attempt average. That’s vastly outpacing the 5.8 yards/attempt Kirk Cousins averaged in his two years under Kevin O’Connell. Granted, 9.1 is probably not sustainable. It’s over a full yard more than Brock Purdy had last year, and he was the leading full-time starter in that category.
Still, it’s an impressive number. The offense has succeeded because of a combination of good timing and great execution, including the blocking. Take Minnesota’s first screen of the game as an example. Bradbury and Ingram do a great job of getting downfield and making blocks to help spring the nice gain:
O’Connell also has a great feel for the timing on screens. The Packers blitz both LBs, leading to an easy pancake for Bradbury and Ingram with almost no one to block besides the safety, which helps Jones get a first down in the red zone:
Here are Minnesota’s four screen passes on the day, all of which were successful (note: technically, the Vikings had a fifth screen that went for 14 yards, but it was mostly a give-up play on third-and-25).
Conclusion
Minnesota’s offensive line was a massive part of its victory over the Packers. It consistently left Sam Darnold with clean pockets, Aaron Jones with nice running lanes, and clearing out tons of room on screen throws. The performance is a great sign for a group that has had ups-and-downs over the years, particularly from Bradbury and Ingram.
It appears that the front office’s trust in the line’s continuity and Brandel’s ascent into a starting role is paying off. They’re being rewarded with a line that has played well enough to match Minnesota’s pristine 4-0 record.