A Case For The Defense

Eric Scott / Armchair Distillery / 8-18-2022

The 2021 defensive effort for the Minnesota Vikings was fraught with all forms of pitfalls and disasters to say the least. From the long list of injuries to a decided lack of quality depth, a shoe-throwing CB and what was apparently a major and nasty personal ongoing altercation between the HC and the GM, hindsight would have accurately predicted the meltdown that happened on this side of the ball.

Doomed from the beginning

Zimmer is a defensive specialist and had to have known that the personnel he was being handed was not capable of running his vaunted Double A Gap system to his satisfaction. One can envision him pounding the table for more defenders during the draft and repeatedly watching Rick Spielman select offensive talent. If there wasn’t a foundation for the colossal row between these two men before then, this event was probable a significant piece of the debacle.

Then the injuries began to pile up for the players that were present and bad became worse. The run-first top-10 rated offense was repeatedly put into bad field position, fighting to come from behind or involved in a last-to-have-the-ball-wins track meet every week.

Arguably, the season would have looked much different if the defense was not continually collapsing late in the halves or just not capable of putting up an adequate fight to give them a real opportunity to win consistently.

From the top…

Ed Donatell represents a decided departure in how the system will run in Minnesota. Brought in because the 3-4 brand of defense he espouses was the one that was deemed to the most difficult to face by the offensive minded Head Coach. He is highly motivational and high energy. This is not an act… I spoke to a Donatell family member and they said that he is like a motivational speaker at family events and it is just who he is. They also said that he was very dedicated to his football coaching career. If it is football season, he is at work. The remainder of the defensive coaching staff is also new to the team and the turnover is of course a significant part of the desired culture change experiment.

Up Front

The starting front has less players and several changes to boot. Michael Pierce has given way to Harrison Phillips. Harrison has been running over just about anyone that the Vikings OL has been putting in front of him in practice on a regular basis. Dalvin Tomlinson had a spectacular camp as well and these two bode well for the interior line as represented in the Green Bay game.

Jonathan Bullard is now the starting defensive end in liu of several others. Barr-ing a tweak of the arm lasting for too long this may be OK. He is backed up by Ross Blacklock who was obtained in one of the 10 Purple trades this year. Blacklock has a history with new D Line coach Chris Rumph from when they were both in Houston together. The evolution of the end position may be interesting to watch as they figure it out on the fly.

In the middle of it all

So we start with Eric Kendricks in a new system and he is still a great defender in general. Hicks is a great run stopper, but the pass coverage last week was suspect. Perhaps this tightens up, but he is decidedly more mobile and available on every down than Anthony Barr had become.

Outside line backers are one of the most intriguing points to this team. If Hunter and Smith can keep putting pressure on opponents like they did against Mr. Rogers, the secondary should have less time required to cover their opponents and it will greatly reduce the pressure on them.

Backing it up

Patrick Peterson almost gave up the early TD on Sunday, but things seemed to settle down a little after that. Yes, there were chunk plays that will happen when you play the self-agrandized King of the North, but he, Smith, Dantzler and Bynum tightened up when they needed to.

Distilled Thoughts

The game was really fun to watch and had the positive outcome that the Purple Throng craved. Sending the Acme Packing Company home with a resounding loss is ALWAYS a good time! What more to ask for?

While the integration of Lewis and a few others as they get up to speed in the new defensive scheme has yet to be Cine, the change in personnel and performance as a group is resoundingly better than the previous two years. The Vikings are not carrying Barr as a security blanket for the HC and additional improvements are very evidently coming along.

As long as the first string remains healthy… This squad should do nothing but get better

Enjoy the debate!

Skol!