The Vikings spam the most INSANE Blitz ever.

football is all about creating matchup advantages ideally you have better players that can win their individual one-on-one matchups but when you don't that's when those matchups have to be one with scheme from coaching by far this year's most interesting schematic Advantage is that of the Vikings defense thanks to defensive coordinator Brian Flores he took last year's 26th most efficient defense led by Ed donatell and turned it into the 14th most in the league and in the last 3 weeks they haven't allowed more than 20 points 26th to 14th doesn't sound like the craziest turnar around ever but it's the way Flores is doing it by blitzing an absolutely obscene one of every two plays he's majored in one very specific concept an exotic cover zero Blitz package which he's utilized more than any defense I have ever seen today we'll break down the nuts and bolts of what cover zero is what his version is why it's so deadly how teams try to counter it and what they can do to counter it moving forward we'll start with what their version of the concept is which will break down into three separate categories the first is what cover zero means zero deep safeties and for all cover zero Concepts because we have nobody deep we are always going to have one more Defender than the offense has blockers imagine if you're the quarterback and you're about to snap the ball but you see seven guys on on the line and you only have six to block this means you have just split seconds to completely shift your pre and post Snap strategy knowing you have an NFL pass rusher completely untouched running directly at you if offenses don't have a plan in place for cover zero and somehow some of them sometimes don't the game can be wrecked in an instant the second category which will pop up a lot is the leverage defenses use in cover zero meaning where a Defender lines up pre and post Snap in in relation to the receiver to try and funnel said receiver towards a certain area of the field in cover zero since there are no deep safeties to funnel to the defense plays inside leverage to protect against a quicker pass since the QB has to get rid of it immediately and also to force a more challenging throw outside since it's further as opposed to inside on the other hand let's say just for example the Vikings had one deep safety so cover one and had a linebacker playing in underneath Zone the defense would play outside l to force the receiver inside towards that help so we know that cover zero is bringing one more pass rusher than the offense has blockers and that the coverage Defenders play inside leverage our third category is more unique to Brian Flores which he got from Bill bich there are also some copy and Pacers throughout the league but he's really brought the usage of hot droppers typical cover zero blitzes that extra rusher but it has a flaw if you run a quick slant right behind the pass rush the deeper Defenders who have a little cushion cuz there are literally no other safeties to help them if they miss a tackle they can't really defend that area so to ensure that Flores gets his coveted Free Runner while also taking away the quick slant he's installed read elements into the concept to take away that area of the field with the Vikings running cover zero on the very first play of the game they've got the six on five Advantage watch their linebacker Jordan Hicks the Bears full slide their protection away from DJ wanam so he's the Free Runner which means that everybody else is being blocked so there's not much of a point and Hicks continuing to rush this allows him to drop out into that quick slant or hot area to give the Vikings some coverage in one of the most targeted areas underneath where offenses find their counters to cover zero you can see Fields pass up his first read and when you do that against this coverage you don't have any time to come back to a second these three categories are the 101 day one of freshman year vers version of this Flores Blitz package and we will dive into 202 how he uses it adjusts it adds wrinkles to it and best yet how he disguises it but before we do I want to thank this season sponsor prize pick prize pick is a daily fantasy sports site where you can play players numbers every day they have any sort of sport you can think of you can predict a ton of different stats if you want to make Sports even more fun and win money doing it prize picks it's the place to be to play you choose two to six players and select whether they go more or less than their projection this week I'll take the under on DJ Moore cuz bears and for the hilarious projection of the week I'll take the under on tasm Hill since he alternates every week with and without a pass attempt last week was a throw week prize pick has the fastest withdrawals of any daily fantasy app I've used you load up the app you're done in like a second and they're doing a deal where if you use my promo code Rollins they will match your first deposit up to $100 put in a 100 bucks boom you've got 200 to understand how Flores utilizes the package in different settings we need to go deeper into how teams attack it then how he counters those attacks first off offenses are going to of course run a lot of screens where they'll use their receivers to block you break a tackle nobody is behind to help but the Vikings are one of the best tackling teams in the league and rarely miss the first time you could not run this system if your secondary doesn't tackle as well as theirs does if screen don't work teams will also try short passes like pseudo screens to get their guide the ball quick and have them make a play but Flores has answers for that too since cover zero is straight man coverage offenses try and switch their assignments to create space with Justin Watson motioning across look at Cameron bham he knows the Chiefs want to force him to fly up to guard the flat route and Makai Blackman would have to handle this slant oneon-one so even in man coverage Flores coaches his guys to have the ability to Zone things off when needed which is unheard of in cover zero on an early third and two the Bears try the same exact thing where they know the defense has to play off the line of scrimmage but also know that they just need two yards Kat runs a flat route against Harrison Smith cuz he's eight yards off the ball so Smith and a Caleb Evans switch him and Evans makes the tackle before the Bears can convert the Chargers had a nice wrinkle themselves where they motioned Josh Palmer across cuz it made bham and Josh matelis have to hesitate if matelis is supposed to switch on to Palmer going to the flat there's a bit more distance now for Keenan Allen but because the Vikings are good tacklers they hold them to just seven yards when they try it again but instead actually throw the screen once again the Vikings can take down anybody faster than what fox will have to do with Chris Bru Arc offenses are constantly game planning to try and find more cracks in the armor of the coverage even though it's pretty airtight but Flores always has more answers up his sleeve he can show this exact coverage look with his secondary at about 10 yards deep and these pass rushers all bunched at the line showing one more than the offense can block but then he has multiple options to drop everybody out into different coverages and throw a total curveball at the quarterback if you're the QB staring pre- snap at an extra pass rusher coming unblocked you're at Peak anxiety then suddenly you have to completely relax when eight drop into coverage it's taxing on your post Snap process it messes with your head throughout the play hell it messes with your head for the next 60 minutes after sacking fields on the first play of the game now they again show him cover zero with eight on the line of scrimmage but then fall back into drop eight cover two Zone invert and completely throw him off cover to Zone invert just means they're playing Zone coverage with two Defenders deep but instead of two safeties deep they're switching it up and dropping two corners deep they'll also have their nickel corner matelis on the line to play Tampa to two Zone to guard the Deep middle part of the field this is essentially three Deep Cover three Zone honestly but with his speed off the line he's able to fly back deep and force Mahomes into making a bad throw down the field they can disguise cover zero pre- snap in other ways too where they're showing a safety in the dead middle of the field indicating its one Deep Cover one which wouldn't bring an extra free rusher like cover zero Herbert can then relax knowing he'll have everybody blocked up there's no way you'd bring a safety from 15 yards way to guard somebody one-on-one but Brian Flores is a sick sick individual and Keenan Allen doesn't realize he's getting the ball in.3 seconds one of my favorite aspects of this defense is how Flores has given them the freedom to audible when necessary it's way way harder to audible on defense than it is offense since every single last player needs to know his new assignment there's tons of crowd noise you don't know when the offense is going to snap the ball but the Vikes are coached really well and do a great job when Baker se's cover zero and audibles to a corner route remember there is inside leverage so you want to throw out Breakers since that's what they're giving you but the Vikings drop into Zone coverage and Baker is cooked in extra bonus chef's kiss since offenses need to account for your extra pass rusher they'll Slide the wrong way so when you're just rushing your typical three or four you can still get the freerunner with tons of coverage behind it schematically the main way to beat it something the NFL refuses to lean into which I will never understand is motioning a receiver across to kick out the Free Runner since Flores tells his guys to add on to the pressure if their assignment goes into block so they always have the free runner Harrison Smith can't know if his receiver is motioning to the other side for a screen and he's so far away he can't also blitz so this leaves the offense protected the last thing you can afford in cover Zero from a non- schematic way to beat it you need an elite quarterback which I know is the exact kind of hard-hitting analysis you guys come to this channel for the quarterbacks who have had the most success against him have been Herbert momes Jaylen Herz where the Vikes average a 30 burger to those three quarterbacks but in their other five games against Baker Bryce young fields pery and love they've given up just 14.6 it's a defensive scheme where you're really testing the quarterback to see if he has quick answers and can handle getting punched in the mouth 10 times a game so it makes sense they've struggled against the better ones this defense has a pretty limited supply of talent especially outside of denil Hunter and a 34-year-old Harrison Smith but Flores has them playing at a really high level giving up just 13 points per game over the last three weeks which is including the explosive 49ers offense by utilizing cover zero Far and Away the most in the league the Vikings have created a unique schematic advantage to make up for their talent to efficiency in a league where you hear about offensive schemes propping up players all the time you don't really hear about defensive schemes that do the same Brian Flores is for my money the front runner for assistant coach of the year cuz what he's doing in Minnesota is otherworldly Innovation is rare in today's NFL but right now in the freezing blistering cold North it is a stone cold reality [Music] my

Channel: AlexRollinsNFL

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Keywords: vikings, nfl, minnesota vikings, vikings defense, vikings defense film, vikings defense highlights, vikings defense scheme, vikings defense breakdown, vikings blitz, harrison smith, brian flores, blitz, alex rollins, alexrollinsnfl

Id: bpQmtwSPjYo

Length: 11min 38sec (698 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 04 2023