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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.
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.
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...
