This week I am catching up after a busier than normal holiday week with some week 12 and week 13 film breakdowns, starting with the Green Bay Packers’ defensive performance in Week 12.
The Minnesota Vikings
ducked out of Lambeau after a Sunday afternoon loss 23-6 loss at Lambeau to the Packers and a game in which quarterback J.J. McCarty allegedly suffered a concussion that sent him back to the bench for week 13. To add insult to injury, the defense intercepted him twice in the fourth quarter and sacked him five times throughout the course of the game. McCarthy also had a fumble that he recovered but that could have been disastrous.
McCarthy was under pressure on 48% of his dropbacks per Pro Football Focus (12 of 25 dropbacks) and was sacked five times in week 12. Jeff Hafley’s unit did this through a combination of disguised coverages confusing the quarterback and sticky coverage on the back end, as well as a quick pressure win for Micah Parsons.
First sack
The play call on the first sack has become a staple of the Jeff Hafley defensive system with Tampa-2 simulated pressure.
On this simulated pressure, the defense brings an internal pressure through the A-gap with Isaiah McDuffie, while dropping the 3-technique defensive tackle Kinglsey Enagbare into the seam as the “wall #2” defender. Safety Evan Williams backs up to the deep middle in the pre-snap before showing buzz rotation to the weak hook zone post snap.
Post-snap, McDuffie shoots through the A-gap and runs through the block of Aaron Jones while defensive tackle Warren Brinson loops around him, picks off Jones, and allows McDuffie to get free. McDuffie and Brinson split credit for the sack in the backfield.
As chaotic as that sounds, McCarthy has to get rid of this ball to Justin Jefferson. It looks like he’s moving the hook defender with his eyes at the top of his drop but he hesitates and doesn’t throw it. He also has a checkdown. However, the defense did a great job creating chaos with the coverage rotation here as well as the interior penetration.
Micah Parsons’ sacks
On the second sack, Micah Parsons won with a quick pressure to the inside B-gap on left tackle Christian Darrisaw. A “quick pressure” is the NFL’s NextGenStats pressure that is defined as a “pressure that occurs within the first 2.5 seconds of a play.”
Parsons beat his block to set up a relatively unimpeded path to McCarthy in under two seconds flat (in other words, this counts as a quick pressure). The contact from Darrisaw didn’t slow him down and he was in the backfield quickly for the sack.
Perhaps McCarthy could have mitigated some of this but he hung onto his first read too long post snap where coming off of it and feeling the pressure could have had him moving to his right for a throw to the flat checkdown. Easier said than done.
In fact, two of three of Parsons sacks in this game were charted as quick pressure wins.
On a sack later in the third quarter, Parsons again beat Darrisaw with quick pressure when he got around the outside edge with a club and rip move. McCarthy never really had a chance to react here as Parsons chopped his arm down from behind.
Fourth sack
With the Vikings backed up behind the chains here, the defense has free rein to pin their ears back and get after McCarthy without the threat of a run play through the defensive alignment on an obvious passing down.
The Vikings are running a deep dagger concept from a 2×2 open formation with the tight end flexed out to the slot on the right. The defense is running basic Tampa-2 coverage with no disguised rotation or pressure.
The defense is showing a 3-man defensive line with Parsons off the ball but he’s still the fourth rusher. This is becoming a common tactic because it allows Hafley to move and change the alignment of Parsons to generate pass rush wins with all eyes trying to locate Parsons.
Parsons knocks down the center and gets pressure into the backfield while causing confusion and chaos in the interior blocking and McCarthy scrambling to find an answer. With Parsons immediately in the backfield, McCarthy can’t step for a throw and runs into a Devonte Wyatt sack as he tries to escape.
The coverage was excellent on the back end too and it’s likely that even if McCarthy had time, any pass would have fallen incomplete. He probably should have just hit the checkdown to avoid a potential safety too. McDuffie, as the middle zone runner, fell off the seam from the slot receiver and closed the window on a potential throw to the dig route.
Fifth sack
On the final sack, again, McCarthy had his check-down but chose not take it. The Vikings picked up on the tendency of the middle zone runner to fall off the seam to the dig route to Kevin O’Connell called a pass play that would occupy the underneath the coverage while running Justin Jefferson into open space.
The Packers are in Tampa-2 again, no disguise, just straight zone coverage to the Vikings trips formation. Jefferson falls in behind the seam route and is wide open over the middle but McCarthy can’t get there because his left tackle got beat in the middle of McCarthy’s gather and hitch steps to throw over the middle.
He escaped the initial pressure from Devonte Wyatt and rolled to his left but Wyatt chased him down in the open field and threw him backwards halfway into the end zone. McCarthy had his checkdown but didn’t pull the trigger.
