KO's 2023 Offense - Improvement or more of the same?

[Purple Pain]

Let's dive in.

Sept 9, 2023 22:53:16 GMT -6 Funkytown said:

Something to watch for tomorrow and beyond:

Purple Insider's Film review: Play-action hits, run-game misses and Bynum's tackling

Play-actions

The Vikings talked during the offseason about wanting to mix up personnel packages and it turned out they weren’t kidding. Tight end Josh Oliver played 30 snaps, rookie receiver Jordan Addison was in for 36 plays and CJ Ham saw the field on 22 snaps. Part of getting heavier groupings in there was improving the play-action game, which was middling last season despite Kirk Cousins’s history of success running play-fakes.

Against the Bucs, Cousins ran play-action on 34% of his drop backs and went 11-for-14 with 93 yards. While a couple plays were blown up by the Bucs forcing a short pass, there were a handful of Kubiak-style effective plays with Oliver in the game.

The first features fullback CJ Ham going in motion and Oliver pulling, giving the look of a misdirection run in which the offensive line blocks to the right and Alex Mattison looks like he’s going to take a handoff to the edge. Instead Cousins pulls the ball back and uses the wide open middle of the field for a chunk gain.



Notice at the top of the screen that Jefferson keeps two defenders occupied.

Our next play-action pass is an oldie but goodie. The O-line and motion sell an outside zone run to the right and Oliver starts off blocking and then sneaks into the flat wide open to set the Vikings up with first-and-goal.



Nothing about either of these plays is sexy but they are examples of low stress completions that the Vikings must scheme up in order to take pressure off Cousins. There may be some pull for O’Connell to go back toward the 11 personnel that he leaned on last year but simple play-actions like this often mitigate pressure and create open looks without too many moving parts.

Cousins was fifth for most play-action used in Week 1 by the way.

...

Run game struggles

The Vikings’ play-action game may have gained some traction using bigger personnel but the rushing attack did not as they picked up just 2.4 yards per attempt. Oliver was in for 13 of the 16 rushing snaps while Ham was on the field for six and third tight end Johnny Mundt for three plays.

The problem with rushing the ball without a prime Dalvin Cook-level back is that if someone misses a block, the play probably isn’t going anywhere. Here’s an example of the left guard getting pushed aside and Ham getting stopped in place by Tampa’s defensive end. Mattison did not make up for the blocking L’s by running right into the defenders rather than cutting up the middle. Of all RBs with 10 or more carries in Week 1, Mattison ranked fifth worst in Rushing Yards Over Expected based on blocking. NFL NextGen stats estimated he lost 1.04 yards vs. expectation per run.



Some runs had no chance though. Ty Chandler’s 3-yard loss was an instant defeat by the defensive tackle.



Here’s how everyone not named Brian O’Neill and Christian Darrisaw graded in run blocking vs. Tampa Bay.

Vikings mailbag: Can the offensive line improve? What about Justin Jefferson's second half?

Q: What happened to receiver Justin Jefferson in the second half? He seemed to be on pace for another record day. — Jordan

AK: Jefferson had two grabs for 12 yards after halftime. The Vikings only had 22 plays, in which Cousins attempted 15 throws. So there wasn't a ton of reps with which to work.

Sept 10, 2023 17:31:02 GMT -6 Reignman said:

How dare you pin this loss to a lottery team on the SIX 3-in-outs. That was barely 50% of our drives (6/11).

Sept 10, 2023 17:35:01 GMT -6 Reignman said:

73% of our drives (8/11) were either a 3-n-out (6) or a turnover (3), completely normal offensive day.

[Purple Pain]

Alec Lewis: Vikings’ loss to Eagles raises question: What happened to running the football efficiently?

Since 2000, only 21 teams have been minus-6 or worse in turnover margin through their first two games of the season. Those teams are a combined 4-38 in those games. Retaining possession offensively while using the defense to create extra possessions is where the Vikings’ attempt at stemming the tide on their 0-2 start must begin.

However, there is another factor in Minnesota’s early season struggles: Through two games, the Vikings have been putrid in their attempts to run the football.

“We’ve got to do a better job,” head coach Kevin O’Connell said Thursday night. “We’ve got to do a better job coaching it. It’s on me.”

Minnesota has carried the ball 27 times this season for just 69 yards (2.7 yards per carry). Additionally, the team’s expected points added per rush ranks 31st in the NFL through two games. If these underwhelming metrics sound familiar, they should.

In O’Connell’s first season as the Vikings’ head coach, the team ranked in the bottom third in the NFL in most meaningful rushing categories. The lack of success on the ground put the Minnesota offense in more third-and-7 or longer situations than all but five other teams in the league. Being in third-and-long, then, allowed defenses to pin their ears back and attack both the Vikings’ offensive line and Cousins. In addition, failed rushing attempts mitigated some of the benefits that can be gained from play-action passes.

These issues spurred an offseason task: Build a better run game.

O’Connell mentioned this explicitly at the 2023 combine, then again multiple times at the league meetings.

“When we run the football better,” he said, “we can give ourselves a lot more friendly circumstances to try to attack.”

Last season, one of the Vikings’ biggest issues on offense was their inability to create breathing room for their backs. The team ranked 25th in the NFL in yards created before contact per rush, according to TruMedia. Year-over-year improvement, in the team’s eyes, hinged on personnel changes, schematic alterations and technique refinement.

[Funkytown]

[Funkytown]

The full video:

[Drank]

Man I wish I had better computer savvy. I can't even begin to see how y'all do these EPA, PFF, game tape stuff. I wish I could provide better quality and provide content. I have more to give, just flat out have trouble with to much technology. No lie I wish I could provide more quality to the forum.

[Drank]

If anybody has any helpful tips on how to find content message me. I can’t even line up stuff in a column. It comes up all messed up. I just want to do better and bring more to the table. Real talk!

[diehardtwinsfan]

from the looks of things, KOC forgot what he was doing in the 1st Q of last season and fixed what he was doing in the 2nd Q of last season.

And everyone seems to have forgotten how to hold on to the ball.

[Funkytown]

The Vikings had 14 rushes by running backs in their Week 1 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, tied for the third-fewest in the NFL, and then followed it up with nine such carries in Thursday night's 34-28 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Running back Alexander Mattison, who was promoted this offseason to replace Dalvin Cook, has played on 74% of their offensive snaps but has 62 rushing yards on 19 carries.

All told, the Vikings have dropped back on 79% of their offensive plays this season. Speaking to reporters Friday afternoon, coach Kevin O'Connell had a succinct explanation for why.

"We need to run the football more," O'Connell said, "but our yards per carry is not justifying that other than just the overall landscape of how that does help our team."

O'Connell would face far more scrutiny if he had forced additional run plays at the expense of a passing game that is stocked with playmakers and is producing an average of 337 yards and three touchdowns per game. The Vikings scheme is built around receiver Justin Jefferson, who already has 20 receptions for 309 yards himself this season. Pass-catchers Jordan Addison, K.J. Osborn and T.J. Hockenson are all benefitting from the cascading effects of the attention opponents pay to Jefferson.

But it's also easier to play defense against a one-dimensional offense, no matter how explosive that one dimension might be, and that narrow focus can be particularly debilitating in key moments of games.

"It becomes a question you've got to ask yourself, knowing that I'll get asked the question about the number of rushing attempts," O'Connell said. "My ultimate goal is to try to move the football and score points and overcome those turnovers, which make it more of a dire need but more of a necessity to have success on that drive however we see fit. Overall, we're not going to abandon the run. We've got to run the football more. It'll help our whole entire team and our whole entire offense."

Indeed, the Vikings have already started seven different offensive linemen this season because of injuries, and some of their original five struggle when facing power-based defensive tackles. O'Connell said his schematic decisions have been based in part on helping "those sixth, seventh or eighth linemen" with personnel groupings that minimize those mismatches. For instance, No. 2 tight end Josh Oliver, signed this offseason to provide the Vikings heftier blocking help in the run game, has been on the field for 19 of the 23 carries that either Mattison or backup Ty Chandler have taken this season.

But Oliver alone hasn't been able to clean up muddled run lanes. No one expected Mattison to match the production of Cook in his prime, but a closer look at his carries this season -- albeit in a small sample size -- suggests he has not had much room to run. Mattison, in fact, is averaging 0.95 yards before contact on his 19 carries, which currently ranks No. 43 in the NFL. The league average is 2.17 yards. And he has produced more than twice as many yards after contact (44) as before (18).

While the run game's struggles have been apparent in both weeks this season, the Vikings' defensive issues Thursday night were new. They had held Buccaneers running back Rachaad White to 39 yards on 17 carries in Week 1, but a complex series of schematic decisions left them vulnerable Thursday night. The Eagles ran for 259 yards, including 175 from tailback D'Andre Swift.

[Purple Pain]

Purple Insider:

Running issues and the run-pass ratio

The inefficiency of the Vikings’ rushing game over the first two weeks has been startling, particularly since they aimed in the offseason to improve it from last season. Through two games they have run 26 times for 69 yards and the longest run is nine yards.

“It’s definitely a huge area of focus,” O’Connell said. “When you turn on the tape it’s something where you see a lot of plays where it’s the coulda-shoulda-woulda, one block away here or there from not only being more efficient but having more significant gains, which is what we need to find. We need the run the football more but our yards per carry is not justifying doing that.”

ESPN’s Kevin Seifert noted that RB Alexander Mattison has more than twice as many rushing yards this season after first contact (44) than he does before contact (18). That might indicate blocking as the central issue. PFF graded center Austin Schlottmann and guard Ed Ingram both under 50 against Philly. However, the underlying data is not kind to Mattison either. He has gained negative 1.16 yards over expected per NFLNextGen stats — meaning that based on the locations of blockers he would have been expected to average around 4.4 yards per carry instead of his actual 3.3 mark.

O’Connell acknowledged that the struggles to get rolling on the ground influenced his decision making with play calls.

“Third-and-7 on the road is not something I’m going to continue to hunt when our execution level is not what we need it to be,” O’Connell said. “That’s schematics, player techniques and details, understanding where the run is supposed to hit.”

[diehardtwinsfan]

I guess I'm curious as to how defenders are lining up against us... because if we aren't running the ball well against 6/7 man fronts... that's a real problem. If they're putting 8 in the box and KOC is opting to throw, whatever.

[Funkytown]

[vikingpwr]

How much of our running game do you think has been negatively affected by not having all of the starters on the field at the same time? That continuity the team was looking for this season is not there. I can only hope we don't have a repeat of 2016. Do you remember that?  Darrisaw has played only 58 out of 122 snaps and Bradbury only 7 snaps. Oli is out............. 

[Funkytown]

[Funkytown]

[Purple Pain]

Purple Insider's Film Study: The passing concepts that make the Vikings' offense tick

There can’t be many times in NFL history that a quarterback has averaged 354 yards passing with a 114.2 quarterback rating in back-to-back games and lost both but that is the case for Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins.

Certainly you can argue that some of the stats were inflated by game situation but even the advanced metrics agree on Cousins’s performances to open the 2023 season. ESPN’s QBR and PFF’s grading system both rank him as the seventh best QB in the league to start the year and only two QBs are averaging more yards per pass attempt.

The prolific passing by Cousins is rooted in the intersection between scheme and execution. PFF’s Judah Fortgang tweeted this chart showing how often QBs have thrown to wide open receivers and how accurate they have been when receivers are unguarded. As you can see both Kevin O’Connell’s schemes and Cousins’s throws have been elite.



If you were looking for justification of O’Connell’s positivity toward the future if the Vikings stop fumbling, well, this would be it.

So let’s take a closer look at how it’s working…

What better place to begin than with play-action? Per PFF, Cousins has 25 play-action drop-backs so far this season and he’s completed 20 passes and has a 122.3 QB rating. Early in the game O’Connell dialed up a classic: The deep crossing pattern. The idea is simple: Clear out one side of the field and have Justin Jefferson run into the vacated area.

Jefferson pushes vertically like he might be running a deep pattern straight down the middle of the field and then breaks toward the opposite sideline of where he lined up. There aren’t too many cornerbacks in the world who can track Jefferson across the field that far so if the protection holds up the play is automatic. The design up front has a lot of moving parts and they all come together well with tight end Josh Oliver coming underneath the formation and CJ Ham cutting the defensive end and then going out for a route. All that movement causes the Eagles to pay a lot of attention to the backfield with their linebackers and box safety. The O-line blocks effectively, giving Jordan Addison time to race far enough downfield to draw the single high safety over and Cousins throws an accurate ball at a difficult angle. Bang, first down.



This wasn’t the only time the Vikings used play-action to get Jefferson moving from side to side. Inside the red zone O’Connell got him the ball in a very simple way. Jefferson lines up on Cousins’s left side and goes behind the offensive line as Cousins is faking an outside zone look with the offensive line and running back. The defenders crash toward the run and when Jefferson arrives on the right side the cornerback’s momentum is already taking him toward the running back. Jefferson cruises past him and has an easy first down.



A notable detail of this play is using Oliver to run to the end zone as a clear out. He takes the corner with him and attracts the safety as well.

...

The next play is Addison’s touchdown.

On Monday I asked O’Connell to explain the play. Here’s what he said:

“We’ve run that concept before frontside where we are really simulating where we’re going to throw a quick screen out there, trying to get the defense to engage. I liked that call in that moment, just because of the snap-in, snap-out, one, two, sometimes three, defenders responsible for Justin [Jefferson], so putting Jordan on the backside allowed Kirk [Cousins] to kind of simulate that to see if we can get defenders to engage and possibly get K.J. [Osborn] down the sideline or T.J. [Hockenson] down the middle, but there were so many defenders on that side of the field, it was built in a way that we would isolate with good leverage and a chance to get vertical on the backside. I actually had C.J. Ham in there for a protection. He helped Ed [Ingram] on that right side solidify what was then a great, premier, step-up-inthe-pocket quarterback movement and launch for Kirk, which was a huge play in the game, I thought by our guys. That was a good example of all 11 guys executing and something really good happening, even in tough circumstances, but a big play in the game to help us get back in it.”

Here’s the play:



It is clear how the safety was put in a bind by Hockenson running over the middle, which gave Addison a one-on-one matchup. If you look closely at Addison on his route there is a subtle break toward the sideline that swings the defender slightly wide and creates separation. It can’t be understated that O’Connell has lots of very shiny toys to execute his concepts.

A few more at the link above. ^