Vikings Defense Must Get More Production from Linebackers
Contrary to the team’s offensive success, the Minnesota Vikings defense has begun to spring leaks over the last weeks. Poor play from the unit’s linebackers is the main culprit.
Minnesota’s last five opponents have achieved wild success on the ground against this defense. The Vikings allowed 152 rush yards per game over those five games and 127 per game over the course of the entire season. Each of the last three opponents have gone over the 150-yard mark on the ground.
Football Outsiders gives the Vikings a No. 24 ranking in run defense DVOA (defense-adjusted value over average), below where they stand in pass defense at No. 16.
TOP NEWS
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Colts Release Kenny Moore
Projecting Every NFL Team's Starting Lineup 🔮
Rookie WRs Who Will Outplay Their Draft Value 📈
The low ranking sounds scarier than it is. Mike Zimmer’s defenses in Cincinnati, once widely considered to be successful, earned rankings of 13, 23, 16, 25, 19 and eight by the same measure against the run from 2013 to 2008. Between 10 and 20 is the sweet spot for the Vikings defense in run defense and this year's unit is not far off.
His defense sacrifices some ground yards to solidify itself against the pass. It is built differently than previous defensive schemes in Minnesota. With less involvement from cornerbacks supporting the run, linebackers have more on their plate.
The current group of 'backers has struggled to carry that load.
| DL | 16.8 |
| LB | 4.9 |
| DB | 27.7 |
Anthony Barr is the lone ray of light in a land of darkness. His impact as a blitzer and knack for big plays changed games completely early in the season. Barr’s value in defense of the run falls short of that, though, which was to be expected of a young LB playing a new position.
A knee injury kept Barr out of Sunday’s game and continues to cloud his immediate future in the lineup, so the Vikings are left looking for answers.
Gerald Hodges replaced him at the strong-side LB position against New York and made an immediate splash, intercepting Geno Smith and returning it for a touchdown on the game’s first play. Hodges also made a few other impactful plays in an impressive performance all around. The “Sam” position has not and likely will not be the defense’s problem.
That brings us to the “Mike” LB, Jasper Brinkley, and the “Will” LB, Chad Greenway. Neither has performed particularly well in 2014.
Both were victimized on a few of the New York Jets’ bigger gains on the ground. Let’s start in the second quarter as New York drove the ball into Vikings territory.
New York runs a simple power play. The opposite guard pulls and leads while each front-side player blocks down.
With no safety on the edge and no slot CB to factor in, Greenway is the force player. That means no run should get wider than he is. If the runner bounces, he must chase it down. He knows a guard is lumbering toward him and should also know he must keep outside positioning on the blocker.
Brinkley should also be on the move already. With a guard pulling from his side and the back soon to follow, he must flow over the top. If Greenway can force the back to cut inside properly, Brinkley must be waiting for him.
None of that happens. Greenway stays too narrow, and Chris Ivory immediately bounces it to the edge. Brinkley is also nowhere near as close to making this play as the screenshot makes it seem.
Ivory scampers all the way down to the 12-yard line before Brinkley hauls him down, the damage already done. Neither LB was forced to deal with offensive linemen at the second level or fight through congested spaces. Even so, neither was able to close on Ivory with proper positioning or proper quickness.
A bigger problem is the lack of athleticism between the two. Neither Greenway nor Brinkley covers ground in a hurry, so teams can have success running the perimeter. Ask Jonathan Stewart, who tore up the Vikings around the corner two weeks ago.
The Vikings' defensive line has held its own all year. Opposing backs keep gashing the defense on the ground, though, because the linebackers do a poor job chasing down ball-carriers in space.
Minnesota’s linebackers have had issues quickly getting receivers to the ground after the catch as well. Removing Barr’s open-field tackling exploits after the catch, the Vikings are left with a horror show from Greenway and Brinkley.
On 2nd-and-9, tight coverage across the board forces Geno Smith to hit Eric Decker on the crossing route underneath, the one place Minnesota wants the Jets to go with the football if all goes as planned. It gives them an opportunity to quickly get the receiver to the ground and put the Jets in third down.
When Decker turns up the field, he has two linebackers bearing down on him. The pair cannot botch this one, right?
Greenway overruns it to the sideline, despite having Brinkley with him for support. Decker makes his cut back to the inside and picks up the first down.
Little mistakes like this from the two linebackers added up over the course of a game. Zimmer’s defense requires linebackers to cover ground against the run and to make open-field tackles against the pass. Both Greenway and Brinkley are struggling to do that reliably.
Missed tackles have also hit the radar of defensive problems. Despite a strong rookie season, Barr is a flag-bearer for missed tackles. Per Pro Football Focus premium (subscription required), he has missed 22 tackles, one for every 36 defensive snaps. So while he tends to get to the ball in a big hurry, the end product has been missing.
Greenway has missed 12 tackles, also a high mark, which is one for every 57 defensive snaps. He was as prone to missed tackles as almost any LB in the league a year ago too, as Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders entails.
Whether or not Barr reenters the fold before Sunday’s game in Detroit, both Greenway and Brinkley need to pick up some slack. The first wave, Minnesota's defensive line, is holding up its end of the bargain. The second wave is not.
Expect field days on the ground from Joique Bell, Lamar Miller and Matt Forte in the weeks to come unless some strides are made. Zimmer’s defense tasked both Greenway and Brinkley with a heavier load in 2014, though Brinkley is mostly a base player, and they have failed to answer the call.
Without positive developments over the last three games, both could be done in Minnesota sooner rather than later.
Statistics via ESPN.com unless noted otherwise.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
.png?w=480)
