Paul Bretl | 12/27/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Awaiting the Packers’ offense this week is a rematch with the Minnesota Vikings and their blitz-heavy defense.
The Vikings will enter Week 17 with the highest blitz rate in football, sending pressure on nearly 38% of their defensive snaps. But what can make this Vikings defense so devastating is that it’s not only that they are sending additional players after the quarterback, but it’s how they go about doing it through disguises and a willingness to blitz any player from any part of the field.
A product of that aggressive approach is a defense that has generated the fifth-highest-pressure rate this season, along with the fifth-most sacks as well.
“It’s definitely a big challenge,” said Jordan Love of facing the Vikings defense. “They do a lot of really good stuff on defense. They throw a lot of different looks at you, a lot of different personnel and a lot of different pressures. They make it hard for offenses, make you kinda have to study everything and be prepared for whatever they might throw at you.”
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Handling those pressures, or attempting to, begins pre-snap with the offensive line. It starts with center Josh Myers communicating blocking assignments and protections to the rest of the unit based on how the Vikings’ defense is aligned. From there, Love will have the autonomy to make protection adjustments based on any late movement from the defense.
Then, once the ball is snapped and as the Vikings’ throw different looks and players at the Packers’ offensive line, it’s about each individual offensive lineman operating within the scope of what their specific responsibilities are on a given play and knowing that the lineman next to them will do the same, creating a cohesiveness as defenders are passed off or as the protection needs to slide right or left.
Where offensive line units get in trouble is when players overextend themselves and attempt to do too much. Adding to the complexity of it all is the noise that US Bank Stadium generates from the crowd, putting an emphasis on being deliberate and loud with that pre-snap communication, along with making sure the linemen catch some portion of Love’s cadence to get off the ball quickly.
“They do it on all downs,” said Josh Myers of the Vikings’ willingness to blitz. “Typically you hear teams say they blitz a lot it’s a lot of third down blitzes. First through fourth, they’re blitzing a lot. So it’ll just have to be handling that, communicating, and handling the environment, just communicating, and passing all of it off.”
While how the Vikings send pressure and the frequency of it differs from other defenses around the NFL, Love and the Green Bay offensive line is accustomed to seeing blitzes this season. According to Pro Football Focus, Love has been blitzed at the fifth-highest rate this season. But in terms of pressure, Love has been under duress on 21% of his dropbacks, the 12th lowest rate in the NFL this season.
“I think there’s been situations where we’ve done a really nice job with it,” said Matt LaFleur on handling the blitze, “and there’s been some instances like the first time we played these guys where we had an all-out look and didn’t get the right protection and then threw one up and they picked it off.
“So, I think there’s been moments where we’ve done a really nice job with it. I would say over the course of two years there’s been more good than bad but there has been some moments where we did not handle it up to the standard that we would like to handle it.”
Along with the offensive line play, contributing to the Packers’ ability to handle the blitz this season, particularly since the bye week, has been Love’s ability to avoid negative plays. This is going to be one stark difference between where Love and the Packers’ offense is at now, compared to the first time these teams met in Week 4.
“I can’t say enough about Jordan’s ability to avoid the negative play and making those drastic moves in the pocket and getting the ball out for positive plays,” said LaFleur. “I don’t think people understand–I think it’s overlooked. Just the value of what he’s able to do in getting the ball out of his hands and not taking sacks.”
That game was Love’s first since suffering a knee injury in Week 1 against Philadelphia. Not only against Minnesota but throughout the first half of the season while also dealing with a groin injury, Love’s mobility was hampered to varying degrees. This impacted the play-calling with the Packers going under center less often, which also meant less play-action, along with effecting Love’s ability to navigate the pocket and avoid pressure.
“Definitely it played a factor because it changes the way that we call our plays and things we want to do,” said Josh Jacobs of Love’s injury in Week 4. “Because he was limited, we didn’t want him to move around, running and things like that. We were trying to call quick things to get the ball out. At the end of the day, it’s no excuses. You gotta play through injuries and do certain things and that’s on both sides of the field.”
However, since the bye week, Love’s overall decision-making has improved, specifically knowing when to push the ball downfield and when to take what’s available, along with him being much healthier during this second half of the season as well, resulting in increased mobility, and he’s greatly improved against the blitz.
From Weeks 1-9 when under pressure, Love was completing just 59% of his throws at 6.4 yards per attempt with four touchdowns and five interceptions. But since Week 11, Love’s completion rate versus the blitz has sky-rocketed to 72%–the third-best mark during that span–while he’s averaging 9.9 yards per attempt with five touchdowns to no interceptions.
“As of late, I think he’s done a really good job making decisions,” said Adam Stenavich of Love’s play against the blitz. “He’s done a really good job creating time in the pocket, getting out of trouble and finding some plays down the field. So I think that’s probably attributed to anything is just his ability to move around and make some plays.”
Success in the run game and staying ahead of the sticks can help mitigate a team’s pass rush and take some of the bite away from their pressure packages. However, this is a Vikings’ defense allowing just 3.9 yards per rush this season, the second-lowest mark in football.
The beautiful thing about football is that behind any success or failure is that there are numerous elements at play driving that result. But with that said, how the Love and the offensive line handles the Vikings’ litany of pressures will go a long way in determining the outcome of Sunday’s game in Minnesota.
“Just at the level at which they are going out there and causing problems,” said LaFleur on the Vikings’ defense. “I mean you see it all the time, whether it’s getting sacks on the quarterback, getting hits on the quarterback, getting pressures, forcing the quarterbacks to make bad decisions.
“I’ve mentioned the takeaways already and they can do it out of a variety of different personnels and they could be out there in one personnel grouping and line up five different ways. It just, it’s the interchangeable pieces and the versatility of those pieces to go play many different positions, where it’s complex, it can be complex for us but it’s easy for them.”