Schemes could hurt Vikings

By John McMullen  |   Monday, July 21, 2008  |  Comments( 8 )

Minnesota Vikings
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If you follow the Minnesota Vikings, "zone" has become a dirty word.

In 2005, under former head coach Mike Tice, left tackle Bryant McKinnie was on the verge of turning into one of the NFL's top left tackles. Meanwhile, Steve Hutchinson was the best left guard in football with the Seattle Seahawks.

Fast forward to 2008 -- McKinnie has regressed and Hutchinson, while still dominant, has taken a step back.

The reason? When Brad Childress arrived in Minnesota, he hired Pat Morris as the offensive line coach; in turn, Morris brought a zone blocking scheme to Minnesota.

Neither McKinnie nor Hutchinson is particularly comfortable with that system, which is better suited for undersized, quick offensive linemen.

It's been even worse on the right side of the line where Artis Hicks, Anthony Herrera, Marcus Johnson and Ryan Cook have resided. Opposing teams have often overloaded that side of the line and each player has struggled to understand his assignments.

Despite the problems, Childress and Morris have not wavered, continuing to employ the flawed scheme.

On the defensive side, the one chink in the Minnesota armor is the pass 'D', which primarily consists of a Cover 2 zone.

Despite having one of the game's top front sevens, a high-level cornerback in Antoine Winfield and two ball-hawking safeties in Darren Sharper and Dwight Smith (now replaced by Madieu Williams), the Vikings have played it far too safe on the back end.

For a team that needs its defense to win games, Minnesota must take more chances and stop letting ordinary quarterbacks get in a rhythm.

The problem remains philosophy. Minnesota's version of the Tampa 2 defense if far too rigid with little room for adjustments, making things too easy for opposing coaches to game plan.

For instance, when healthy last season, Winfield lined up at left corner in the base defense and moved to the slot in the nickel. Rookie Marcus McCauley or Charles Gordon would then take over at left corner in the nickel, and Cedric Griffin would always line up at right corner.

If you were, say, Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and you wanted a McCauley-Terrell Owens matchup, you knew exactly what to do before the game even started.

It also made things painfully easy for opposing quarterbacks, who didn't have to worry about pre-snap reads and identifying players. They already knew where each player would be.

The results were often disastrous.

And it doesn't end with the secondary. You want the team's best run-stuffer (Pat Williams) or blitzer (Ben Leber) off the field? Just put in a third receiver.

Worried about the blitz? Protect the A-gaps, the Vikings come from a different angle about once a month.

It all comes down to trust and the Minnesota coaching staff just haven't shown the confidence in its players to understand more complex schemes and assignments.

If that continues in 2008, a very talented team will likely become very ordinary.
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About John McMullen

John is the managing editor of The Phanatic Magazine, the assistant managing editor of The Sports Network and the co-host of the highly rated 'Johns on Sports' radio show on WTBQ in New York. Every Saturday from 6:30-9 p.m. (et) you can hear John along with his co-host, John Gottlieb, talk to the...
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CommentsComments: 8  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
bardley80		01:20 PM
07/21/2008
The bottom line is Childress will be gone if they don't at least make the playoffs this year. The expectations are too high to...
No.2
zippy916		03:01 PM
07/21/2008
I agree bardley80. Unreal or not, expectations are expectations. I agree that on the D-Side of the ball, the zone scheme has...
No.3
Blizzardo		03:07 PM
07/21/2008
Water could hurt the Vikings. They might be drowned if they fell off a boat, and in Minnesota, the water freezes during football...
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