What Brian Flores Brings to the Vikings
The Vikings managed to go 13-4 and win the NFC North last season despite a defense that was a huge liability. Passive would be the best way to describe them. They were towards the bottom of the league in blitz frequency and specialized in soft zone coverage. The results spoke for themselves as the Vikings finished 28th in points allowed and 31st in total yards allowed.
This offseason, the firing of defensive coordinator Ed Donatell and the hiring of Brian Flores signaled a philosophical shift. During his 3 years as the Dolphins head coach and defensive architect, Flores flat out attacked offenses.
In 2020 and 2021, his Dolphins ranked 2nd in the NFL in blitz frequency. And they played as much man coverage as any team in the league. According to PFF data, Miami had 3 cornerbacks in the top-10 in man-coverage frequency in 2019, 4 in the top-8 in 2020, and 4 in the top-6 in 2021.
Flores’ calling cards were his 6 and 7-man fronts that threatened pressure on 3rd downs or in obvious passing situations (e.g. vs. empty sets). These looks would dictate the protection to the offense, ensure free rushers to the quarterback, and take away quick throws inside.
This play against the Rams during the 2020 season is a great example. L.A. aligned in an empty formation and Miami responded with a 6-man front:
You can see the numbers issue this presented immediately. If all 6 defenders rushed, the Rams did not have enough blockers to pick them up.
The front also forced the Rams into a full slide. Here, the Rams would slide right, leaving the edge rusher to the left as quarterback Jared Goff’s responsibility. Not ideal:
A few moments after the snap, the Dolphins appeared to be bringing all 6, and that indeed left a free rusher coming in on Goff:
Only this wouldn’t end up as a 6-man rush. The design of this pressure was to have the four interior pass rushers read and react to the slide. The two defenders to the side of the slide would drop out into coverage after an initial rush, as illustrated below:
Goff didn’t see the defensive tackle drop out, and since he was reacting to the free rusher bearing down on him, he looked to get the ball out quickly underneath. Which he did. Just to the wrong team:
The genius of this play was that the Dolphins forced the Rams to use 5 offensive linemen to block 3 pass rushers, and they ultimately got a free runner in on the quarterback while rushing just 4.
In case you were wondering, these pressure looks were generally paired with a soft cover-0 behind them. Defenders were in position to play the deep ball while also ready to sit and drive on anything underneath:
I’m sure Jared Goff absolutely loves that Flores is in his division and he’ll have to face him two times a year now.
For what it’s worth, this particular pressure scheme from Flores doesn’t just give pocket quarterbacks like Goff trouble. It works just fine against QBs with mobility too (which should come in handy this season against Justin Fields and Jordan Love).
In Week 10 of the 2021 season, Flores used it to perfection against Lamar Jackson, generating 4 sacks, forcing an interception, and holding Baltimore to a season-low 10 points.
On the below example from that game, watch how the offense was again forced into a full slide, which triggered the two interior pass rushers to the side of the slide to drop out and take away any underneath routes: