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| Antoine Winfield Disrupts A Pass Thrown By Aaron rodgers Last Year |
During recent history, time floated by and members of the Vikings defense changed, but one stinging reality always remained: Minnesota was the toughest team in the League to run on, but they could easily be beat through the air.
How could you expect anything different entering the 2010 season? The front seven stayed the same and the secondary might’ve been even more of a question mark than years before. Antoine Winfield was a year older, Cedric Griffin was recovering from an ACL injury (and then proceeded to injure his other ACL) and the remaining players, Husain Abdullah, Tyrell Johnson, Madieu Williams, Jamarca Sanford, Asher Allen and Chris Cook were either inexperienced or failed to instill confidence in any fan.
But Minnesota has the sixth-best pass defense in the NFL and has allowed less than 200 yards per game for the first time since 1996. Since freaking 1996.
Granted, the season’s not over yet and the pass defense could take a complete nose-dive during the last 11 games. But the Vikings have played Drew Brees and the Saints and Tony Romo and the Cowboys and still have come out relatively unscathed.
How on earth, then, has Minnesota pulled this off?
For one, that invincible rush defense led by the Williams’ Wall has shown a few chinks in its armor through five games. The Vikings uncharacteristically allow 102 yards per game and are No. 11 in the NFL. It used to be weird to see Minnesota outside of the top-three spots in that category.
Running backs have had mixed success on the ground and it changes on a game-by-game basis. Pierre Thomas ran for 71 yards in the season opener and Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams had success in week two — combining for 131 yards. LaDainian Tomlinson and Shonn Greene also ripped the Vikings for 151 yards. Those are the three games Minnesota has lost this season. When teams get ahead, they haven’t had to throw the ball anymore and can instead rely on the run game.
It’s disturbing how many times some of those backs were able to break past that front seven and get chunks of yards with ease. There wasn’t the feeling that Minnesota had this unstoppable force up front. So teams didn’t have to pass — for once they had a choice.
Another reason for the pass defense’s rise is the fact that the Vikings haven’t been prone to many big plays through the air. They’ll bend all right, but Minnesota won’t break. Every Sunday you’ve probably pulled your hair out with some of the pass plays that cornerbacks allow, but there aren’t giving up any 50-yard bombs.
And when teams reach the red zone, the Vikings aren’t letting teams just walk right in. Minnesota has held opponents to just five touchdowns in 13 red zone trips this season. That’s the best part of the unit, that the Vikings haven’t given up a lot of points — just 17.6 points per game. But if you just account for the touchdowns that the defense has allowed — and not the touchdowns from the offense’s turnovers — Minnesota has allowed 14.8 points per game, which would only trail Pittsburgh’s average of 12 points allowed per game.
It doesn’t matter how many yards the opposing team racks up — it’s who has the most points at the end of the game, no ifs ands or buts about it.
In the past, other teams would just throw in the red zone because of the Vikings’ rush defense. Now it seems that neither is a weakness inside the 20.
Maybe the scheme that Leslie Frazier has in place is working exactly how he wants it. It seems to be working so far, and there hasn’t been a loss that anyone could blame on the defense. That’s encouraging. And despite a lack of talent, on paper, in the secondary the pass defense seems to be getting the job done.
Vikings fans haven’t been able to say that in 15 years.
