Brian Flores left the field at SoFi Stadium floored as his once-feared Minnesota Vikings defense was put on its back foot by Sean McVay’s quick-paced offense.
McVay recognized several tendencies of a Flores-coached defense and schemed ways to beat it. Flores’ defenses like to stack the line of scrimmage with defenders, play aggressively and he likes to run two-high safety looks.
This strategy forces offenses to play in shotgun, which limits the north-south run. Offenses must get the ball out quickly due to the pressure and the two high safeties take away a one-on-one matchup deep downfield.
By stacking the line of scrimmage, Flores disguises his coverages and who will drop back, confusing QBs. Convention says to run against two high safeties but a stacked line of scrimmage prevents that.
It’s a beautifully designed defense that has been largely used around the league, just not at the same aggression level of Flores. Mike Macdonald runs a similar defense with some of the same philosophies so Sean McVay’s use of the screen pass helped beat both defenses in back-to-back weeks.
The one weakness to a Flores defense is that the outside corner cannot play press coverage as there would be a seam between where the corner sits and where the safety is – unless it’s man coverage. However, it is rare to see man coverage run in this scenario as the receiver going inside would take the DB with him, leaving that flank exposed, especially if said flank was without a nickelback.
So the corner must play off the ball, opening up a lane for the WR screen. Being forced into shotgun means Stafford got the ball in his hands quicker and since he didn’t have to do a standard drop-back pass, he could flick it to Puka Nacua with relative ease.
Breaking tackles and a first down… Puka is BACK! #MINvsLAR on Prime Video
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Since the line of scrimmage was stacked with defenders, the leaking left tackle could seal the cornerback, opening a lane for Nacua, who had a one-on-one opportunity with the deep safety.
Recognizing that McVay planted an opportunity to get a one-on-one matchup where if the defender fails to secure the tackle, the play will go for six, Flores brought his linebackers off of the line of scrimmage into a standard nickel shell.
With only four down linemen on Minnesota’s defense, the Rams could return to putting Stafford under center and running the ball up the middle, establishing the north-south rushing attack.
It will be interesting to see how McVay uses the screen in the future, especially on third down as defenses tend to get aggressive. But it’s something to note as it broke Flores’ defensive structure, exposing Macdonald’s structure just one week later.
