This Vikings game feels like it’s going to be another nail biter. While the Broncos’ pass blocking has improved this yr, the WR’s do not seem to be getting open nearly as often as we’d like. It’s led to Russ hanging onto the ball, but he made some great Runs and flicks against Buffalo to get the W. Without a stretch the field TE, it seems like we’re limited to begin with down the field.

Also, I haven’t felt too comfortable the past 1.5 yrs with Russ when Defenses have brought extra rushers. Last year it felt like on every big 3rd Down, Defenses would just bring Bomb blitzes and we’d never make the right OL checks to account for that. That same weakness reared its ugly head Monday night on that 2nd & 5 on the final drive, but thankfully, Russ got us out of that. How do you think we’ll fare against a Flores-led Vikings D that brings the most blitzes this yr in the league?

  • AnteaterIllOPBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Yeah the Vikings are blitz heavy but they are wildly ineffective at it, they run blitz on 49% of their plays 1st in the NFL but they are 20th in pressures and in the middle of the pack in hurries I think they run blitz so often because giving more time exposes some holes in their defense.

    Could this not also be attributed to the O-Lines they have faced so far? Just looking at the Vikings’ 10 games they’ve played some awesome O-Lines in KC, Philly, SF, TB. The last team they placed, NO, who I beleive have a decent O-Line, the Vikings got pressure all day and night. I think this could potentially spell trouble for us, as our Pass block is good but not SF, KC,or TB levels of good.

    • HarvardHoodieBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Sure it could be but that doesn’t discount them being miles ahead on blitz calls of every team besides the giants. You never want to be that obvious with your play calling as it makes you easy to game plan for. You know what they are calling half of the time.

      • QuackmotardBEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I’m a Vikings fan and just want to say that our defense is anything but predictable. We are first in the league in blitzing and also first in the league in 3-man rushes. Flores puts basically the same look on every 3rd down with 8 men at the line - sometimes they all rush, sometimes only 3 rush, and everything in between. The main thing that it causes is confusion, especially young QBs. Fields, bagent, Bryce young, Purdy, Carr, even Hurts had no clue what was coming at them.

        Guys like Mahomes, Herbert, and even Baker eventually figured it out and picked us apart. Also, our blitz rate is very QB dependent. We blitzed Herbert like 84% of the time and carr like 22%. All of the QBs who did well against us were also early in the season, and our players seem to be more comfortable with the scheme.

        We are missing Hicks now, who has been a vital part of our defense. If Russ is elite at one thing, it’s probably being really smart at reading defense and coverages, and Payton as seen it all, so I think that’s the biggest mismatch because when we do well it’s about confusion. It is a really tough defense to scheme for on a short week tho.

        All that being said, I have no clue what will happen but it will be fun to watch the chess match