Brian Flores Experience
https://www.espn.com/blog/minnesota-vikings/post/_/id/32567/how-kirk-cousins-vikings-offense-cope-with-the-brian-flores-experienceEAGAN, Minn. -- Kirk Cousins heard about the Minnesota Vikings' new defensive coordinator in February via text from an NFL friend.
"You guys hired coach Flores."
Cousins texted right back.
"Training camp is going to get tough."
The
quarterback's response has proved prophetic. He and the Vikings'
offense are in Week 5 of what coach Kevin O'Connell calls the "Brian
Flores Experience," a summer of navigating an unpredictable defense that
is difficult to practice against. It has led to some "tense
conversations" in offensive meetings, Cousins said, as the team watches
film of practice reps that had little chance to succeed against the
defense as called -- even amid the hope that it will generate a
long-term benefit on both sides of the ball.
"If you were playing
him for that week, you would run a very different offense, a very
different system, have a very different plan to handle the challenges
he's throwing at you," Cousins said. "But if you just prepared to play
him, are you really getting ready for the Buccaneers in Week 1 and the
rest of your schedule? So, we've kind of had to live in that world of,
'We're going to call the plays that we're going to need for the season,
that are going to make life very difficult against his
scheme, and we just have to do our best to find the answers that are
there, even if it's a tough answer.'
"And so that's the world
we're living in and it makes us better in the long run. ... you kind of
have the big picture in mind and I think all-in-all it’s been good for
our development as a player and as an offense."
Flores' scheme has
been as advertised: blitz-heavy with large doses of man-to-man defense.
But that isn't what has made life for difficult for Cousins and the
Vikings' offense. Even when he hasn't called a traditional blitz, for
instance, Flores floods the line of scrimmage with defenders who are
threatening one.
Those players can line up in unusual positions --
an outside linebacker in a three-point stance over the center, for
instance, with a safety filling in for him on the edge -- to enhance
confusion. The chaos extends to the defensive backfield, where receiver Justin Jefferson said he sees "a lot of coverages you don't think is that coverage, but they do a lot of switching it up and disguising."
"It's a competitive camp," Flores told ESPN. "We're trying to
stop them. They're trying to score. They're trying to get first downs.
We're trying to get off the field. I think from that standpoint, you can
never really get away from that. I don't think wants us to
get away from that. I certainly don't. We just try to get together and
all get better.
" and I have had that conversation.
They're giving us enough looks. We're giving them enough looks, and
hopefully we work together and get the players what they need. As they
say, 'Together we eat.'"
After fielding a decidedly passive defense last season
with former defensive coordinator Ed Donatell, O'Connell was determined
to find a replacement who would raise the intensity and aggressiveness.
O'Connell said earlier in camp that he feels "really good about just
the alignment of our schemes and our playcallers in all three phases,"
and said he was getting exactly what he wanted from Flores' approach,
even if it adds a layer to his work as the Vikings' offensive playcaller
and schematic architect.
One vexing byproduct of that decision
has been an unusually high number of practice reps that end without full
execution of the play. The quarterback might simply hold the ball or
throw it away, or take off running. Or, in some cases, a running back
might slam into a gap that the offense had little chance to block.
"We're
calling plays that if they get in certain looks, I'm kind of
palms-upping the coaches," Cousins said. "Like, 'What do you want me to
do here? You didn't give me as many tools in the tool belt that I'd like
to have.'"
The Vikings have gradually added some additional
checks and responses to Flores' variety of calls, Cousins said, leading
to some high-level back-and-forth at the line of scrimmage. Linebacker Jordan Hicks, safety Harrison Smith and defensive lineman Harrison Phillips
all have the authority to make real-time checks based on the offense's
formation and personnel, Flores said. Cousins said "it kind of becomes
who holds the pen last" as the play clock winds down.
Ultimately,
Cousins is following the advice former Vikings offensive coordinator
Gary Kubiak once gave for handling blitz-heavy schemes: Sometimes you
have to let the defense win the play to avoid losing the game.
"So
if I get a free runner," Cousins said, "or we didn't quite get the
protection targeted correctly before the snap, that's fine. You win that
down. I'm throwing it in the dirt. But I'm not going to let you win the
game. I'm not going to have a sack-fumble. I'm not going to throw a
pick. I'm not going to do that thing that you'll look back and say,
'That's why we lost.' So there’s a little bit of practice where I have
to let Flo win the play or even win the series, but I can't let him win
the game, if you will.
"But believe me, there have been a few
practices where I come in and I say, 'I don't think we won that
practice. I think Flo won that practice.' So it’s a good challenge."
It's
a good challenge in the way eating raw kale benefits long-term health.
As unpleasant as it might be in the moment, those "losses" could prove
beneficial if they give the Vikings a bigger inventory of checks to use
against unscouted looks during the regular season.
turn, the Vikings' offense has provided a high-octane experimental
partner this summer for Flores, who has already scrapped some alignments
he didn't like and is practicing everything in the playbook. It's
highly unlikely any one Vikings opponent will see the volume of looks
that their own offense has seen this summer. Hicks, in fact, said: "I'm
excited to see what a true game plan will look like."
It wasn't until last week's joint practices with the Tennessee Titans
that some offensive players realized the full impact of the "Brian
Flores Experience" -- as well as the first sign of its potential
benefits.
"Flo's defense is so tricky," Jefferson said, "that it
makes every other defense more recognizable. Not having so many
pressures, not having so many disguises, it's definitely easier to read
what kind of coverage are in."
If this Flores experience works out, he needs to be promoted to assistant head coach or he'll be gone in a short time to another team in need of a head coach.
I'm hopeful and it all sounds encouraging, but blitzing comes at a cost and I worry that we don't have the horses on the back end to hold up. I really hope Murphy holds up and us as good as advertised because the rest of that corner group is pretty shaky for one reason or another
Zimmer was hired in 2014 and I was excited knowing the defense had to improve using his "exotic" blitzing he'd bring to the team. That was noticed almost immediately when the team defense that was ranked 32nd in 2013 jumped to 11th in Zim's first season.
If we get anywhere near that kind of improvement with the Flores hiring, this team will be fun to watch on the defensive side of the ball - Skol!
The D was so absolutely awful last year, that even a 25% improvement would be dramatic. That's why there's optimism, its not necessary to go worst to first because the offense will be effective. It just can't be historically bad like last season. Get ranked anywhere from 20th to 24th in the league and we'll be good for 2023.
@"supafreak84" said: I'm hopeful and it all sounds encouraging, but blitzing comes at a cost and I worry that we don't have the horses on the back end to hold up. I really hope Murphy holds up and us as good as advertised because the rest of that corner group is pretty shaky for one reason or anotherI think the biggest benefit from the Flores hiring is that his scheme is bigger than the sum of its parts. I think we'll be better on defense just from the general confusion of disguising coverage and mixing in exotic blitz packages, just like we saw noticable improvement when Zim came in. Sometimes the threat of a blitz can make teams call their offense differently and if we're playing faster than the offense, sometimes that's all you need.
But yes, I don't expect a shut down defense because I think we're still a little weak at some key positions and lack depth at certain spots. But if we can go from 31st to 16-18 on defense... we got a real chance to win the division again and likely cut our one score games in half this season.
@"Wetlander" said:@"supafreak84" said: I'm hopeful and it all sounds encouraging, but blitzing comes at a cost and I worry that we don't have the horses on the back end to hold up. I really hope Murphy holds up and us as good as advertised because the rest of that corner group is pretty shaky for one reason or another I think the biggest benefit from the Flores hiring is that his scheme is bigger than the sum of its parts. I think we'll be better on defense just from the general confusion of disguising coverage and mixing in exotic blitz packages, just like we saw noticable improvement when Zim came in. Sometimes the threat of a blitz can make teams call their offense differently and if we're playing faster than the offense, sometimes that's all you need.But yes, I don't expect a shut down defense because I think we're still a little weak at some key positions and lack depth at certain spots. But if we can go from 31st to 16-18 on defense... we got a real chance to win the division again and likely cut our one score games in half this season.
I think the reason we went after Flores instead of a DC who might be part of a longer term plan is because I think you can probably get some quick, albeit temporary, improvement from an ultra-aggressive scheme. Eventually teams catch on to that too, but for the first year anyway, it will likely catch some teams off guard. And that might be enough to bump the defense into the top 20 for a shot at the title before wholesale changes come in 2024.
Bflo was a great hire. If he is good enough to get a HC gig, great for him and us.
@"Wetlander" said:@"supafreak84" said: I'm hopeful and it all sounds encouraging, but blitzing comes at a cost and I worry that we don't have the horses on the back end to hold up. I really hope Murphy holds up and us as good as advertised because the rest of that corner group is pretty shaky for one reason or another I think the biggest benefit from the Flores hiring is that his scheme is bigger than the sum of its parts. I think we'll be better on defense just from the general confusion of disguising coverage and mixing in exotic blitz packages, just like we saw noticable improvement when Zim came in. Sometimes the threat of a blitz can make teams call their offense differently and if we're playing faster than the offense, sometimes that's all you need.But yes, I don't expect a shut down defense because I think we're still a little weak at some key positions and lack depth at certain spots. But if we can go from 31st to 16-18 on defense... we got a real chance to win the division again and likely cut our one score games in half this season.
I hope you are right. I guess my concern would be we heard a lot of the same talk from Donatell last season about his scheme being unpredictable, showing different looks to confuse the QB, and being able to disguise blitzes and we saw none of that. Flores has never been a DC before, so I guess we will find out along with everybody else. I'm hoping the overall scheme can mask some of our deficiencies because we have a few.
@"supafreak84" said:@"Wetlander" said:@"supafreak84" said: I'm hopeful and it all sounds encouraging, but blitzing comes at a cost and I worry that we don't have the horses on the back end to hold up. I really hope Murphy holds up and us as good as advertised because the rest of that corner group is pretty shaky for one reason or another I think the biggest benefit from the Flores hiring is that his scheme is bigger than the sum of its parts. I think we'll be better on defense just from the general confusion of disguising coverage and mixing in exotic blitz packages, just like we saw noticable improvement when Zim came in. Sometimes the threat of a blitz can make teams call their offense differently and if we're playing faster than the offense, sometimes that's all you need.But yes, I don't expect a shut down defense because I think we're still a little weak at some key positions and lack depth at certain spots. But if we can go from 31st to 16-18 on defense... we got a real chance to win the division again and likely cut our one score games in half this season.
I hope you are right. I guess my concern would be we heard a lot of the same talk from Donatell last season about his scheme being unpredictable, showing different looks to confuse the QB, and being able to disguise blitzes and we saw none of that. Flores has never been a DC before, so I guess we will find out along with everybody else. I'm hoping the overall scheme can mask some of our deficiencies because we have a few.
Yep, I'm hopeful but I also have to see it work. I'm done with the fluff.
Yes proof will be in the pudding here in a couple weeks
I think there’s a floor in terms of quality of personnel
that you can’t go below and still field a functional defense. The offense dictates what happens and can
better hide their own weaknesses while they can choose to target weaknesses in
the defense. While many people above are
referencing the turn-around the defense saw from Zimmer’s hire, Zimmer’s defense
sucked the last two years because the talent just wasn’t there to implement any
scheme (lack of pass rush combined with inability to cover is something you can’t
scheme around). I think Flores will be
able to manufacture pressure that would cover for deficiencies in the pass
rushers, but I think he’ll have much greater issues covering for weaknesses in
our secondary. I think the success of
our defense will come down to how good/bad our CBs play, which is hard to
predict because we’re depending heavily on guys with little to no experience.
I don’t think Donatell had sufficient talent for him to be
successful, but I also don’t think he is a very good DC. I think Flores will be much better at getting
the players to play at their maximum potential, but any good QB will pick apart
his defense if there’s too many exploitable CBs on the field.
@"supafreak84" said:@"Wetlander" said:@"supafreak84" said: I'm hopeful and it all sounds encouraging, but blitzing comes at a cost and I worry that we don't have the horses on the back end to hold up. I really hope Murphy holds up and us as good as advertised because the rest of that corner group is pretty shaky for one reason or another I think the biggest benefit from the Flores hiring is that his scheme is bigger than the sum of its parts. I think we'll be better on defense just from the general confusion of disguising coverage and mixing in exotic blitz packages, just like we saw noticable improvement when Zim came in. Sometimes the threat of a blitz can make teams call their offense differently and if we're playing faster than the offense, sometimes that's all you need.But yes, I don't expect a shut down defense because I think we're still a little weak at some key positions and lack depth at certain spots. But if we can go from 31st to 16-18 on defense... we got a real chance to win the division again and likely cut our one score games in half this season.
I hope you are right. I guess my concern would be we heard a lot of the same talk from Donatell last season about his scheme being unpredictable, showing different looks to confuse the QB, and being able to disguise blitzes and we saw none of that. Flores has never been a DC before, so I guess we will find out along with everybody else. I'm hoping the overall scheme can mask some of our deficiencies because we have a few.
_onatell was unpredictable. Nobody expected the D to just stand there and not have a plan. It was confusing for a bit, but seriously, as teams realized how bad it was, the offenses had a cake walk.
@"medaille" said: I think there’s a floor in terms of quality of personnel that you can’t go below and still field a functional defense. The offense dictates what happens and can better hide their own weaknesses while they can choose to target weaknesses in the defense. While many people above are referencing the turn-around the defense saw from Zimmer’s hire, Zimmer’s defense sucked the last two years because the talent just wasn’t there to implement any scheme (lack of pass rush combined with inability to cover is something you can’t scheme around). I think Flores will be able to manufacture pressure that would cover for deficiencies in the pass rushers, but I think he’ll have much greater issues covering for weaknesses in our secondary. I think the success of our defense will come down to how good/bad our CBs play, which is hard to predict because we’re depending heavily on guys with little to no experience.I don’t think Donatell had sufficient talent for him to be
successful, but I also don’t think he is a very good DC. I think Flores will be much better at getting
the players to play at their maximum potential, but any good QB will pick apart
his defense if there’s too many exploitable CBs on the field.
I actually worry more about our run defense. Our "good" LBs are small. Our D line is not that formidable.
@"greediron" said:@"medaille" said: I think there’s a floor in terms of quality of personnel that you can’t go below and still field a functional defense. The offense dictates what happens and can better hide their own weaknesses while they can choose to target weaknesses in the defense. While many people above are referencing the turn-around the defense saw from Zimmer’s hire, Zimmer’s defense sucked the last two years because the talent just wasn’t there to implement any scheme (lack of pass rush combined with inability to cover is something you can’t scheme around). I think Flores will be able to manufacture pressure that would cover for deficiencies in the pass rushers, but I think he’ll have much greater issues covering for weaknesses in our secondary. I think the success of our defense will come down to how good/bad our CBs play, which is hard to predict because we’re depending heavily on guys with little to no experience.I don’t think Donatell had sufficient talent for him to be
successful, but I also don’t think he is a very good DC. I think Flores will be much better at getting
the players to play at their maximum potential, but any good QB will pick apart
his defense if there’s too many exploitable CBs on the field.
I actually worry more about our run defense. Our "good" LBs are small. Our D line is not that formidable.
Also my biggest concern. We were not good against the run last year, but we were down right abysmal against the pass so I don't think teams exploited our run defense like they could have. We've swapped Tomlinson for Lowry (downgrade) and have actually gotten smaller at LB if we are talking about Asamoah and Pace as starters, which is the way it seems to be trending. Run defense is a huge concern. You can have the best scheme in the world but it means nothing if you don't have the horses to make it work.
@"greediron" said:@"supafreak84" said:@"Wetlander" said:@"supafreak84" said: I'm hopeful and it all sounds encouraging, but blitzing comes at a cost and I worry that we don't have the horses on the back end to hold up. I really hope Murphy holds up and us as good as advertised because the rest of that corner group is pretty shaky for one reason or another I think the biggest benefit from the Flores hiring is that his scheme is bigger than the sum of its parts. I think we'll be better on defense just from the general confusion of disguising coverage and mixing in exotic blitz packages, just like we saw noticable improvement when Zim came in. Sometimes the threat of a blitz can make teams call their offense differently and if we're playing faster than the offense, sometimes that's all you need.But yes, I don't expect a shut down defense because I think we're still a little weak at some key positions and lack depth at certain spots. But if we can go from 31st to 16-18 on defense... we got a real chance to win the division again and likely cut our one score games in half this season.
I hope you are right. I guess my concern would be we heard a lot of the same talk from Donatell last season about his scheme being unpredictable, showing different looks to confuse the QB, and being able to disguise blitzes and we saw none of that. Flores has never been a DC before, so I guess we will find out along with everybody else. I'm hoping the overall scheme can mask some of our deficiencies because we have a few.
_onatell was unpredictable. Nobody expected the D to just stand there and not have a plan. It was confusing for a bit, but seriously, as teams realized how bad it was, the offenses had a cake walk.
Kendriks and Smith were left looking confused as to what we were even running many times last year. Even as the season progressed it still wasn’t making sense. You could see it in how they moved presnap.
@"AGRforever" said:@"greediron" said:@"supafreak84" said:@"Wetlander" said:@"supafreak84" said: I'm hopeful and it all sounds encouraging, but blitzing comes at a cost and I worry that we don't have the horses on the back end to hold up. I really hope Murphy holds up and us as good as advertised because the rest of that corner group is pretty shaky for one reason or another I think the biggest benefit from the Flores hiring is that his scheme is bigger than the sum of its parts. I think we'll be better on defense just from the general confusion of disguising coverage and mixing in exotic blitz packages, just like we saw noticable improvement when Zim came in. Sometimes the threat of a blitz can make teams call their offense differently and if we're playing faster than the offense, sometimes that's all you need.But yes, I don't expect a shut down defense because I think we're still a little weak at some key positions and lack depth at certain spots. But if we can go from 31st to 16-18 on defense... we got a real chance to win the division again and likely cut our one score games in half this season.
I hope you are right. I guess my concern would be we heard a lot of the same talk from Donatell last season about his scheme being unpredictable, showing different looks to confuse the QB, and being able to disguise blitzes and we saw none of that. Flores has never been a DC before, so I guess we will find out along with everybody else. I'm hoping the overall scheme can mask some of our deficiencies because we have a few.
_onatell was unpredictable. Nobody expected the D to just stand there and not have a plan. It was confusing for a bit, but seriously, as teams realized how bad it was, the offenses had a cake walk.
Kendriks and Smith were left looking confused as to what we were even running many times last year. Even as the season progressed it still wasn’t making sense. You could see it in how they moved presnap.
What was really shocking was how much they talked about this issue over halfway through the season. They were still talking about getting on the same page and knowing assignments late in the year.
@"HappyViking" said:Exotic blitzing... I think Zim started to decline when his focus turned to erotic blitzing.Zimmer was hired in 2014 and I was excited knowing the defense had to improve using his "exotic" blitzing he'd bring to the team. That was noticed almost immediately when the team defense that was ranked 32nd in 2013 jumped to 11th in Zim's first season. If we get anywhere near that kind of improvement with the Flores hiring, this team will be fun to watch on the defensive side of the ball - Skol!
@"greediron" said:@"medaille" said: I think there’s a floor in terms of quality of personnel that you can’t go below and still field a functional defense. The offense dictates what happens and can better hide their own weaknesses while they can choose to target weaknesses in the defense. While many people above are referencing the turn-around the defense saw from Zimmer’s hire, Zimmer’s defense sucked the last two years because the talent just wasn’t there to implement any scheme (lack of pass rush combined with inability to cover is something you can’t scheme around). I think Flores will be able to manufacture pressure that would cover for deficiencies in the pass rushers, but I think he’ll have much greater issues covering for weaknesses in our secondary. I think the success of our defense will come down to how good/bad our CBs play, which is hard to predict because we’re depending heavily on guys with little to no experience.I don’t think Donatell had sufficient talent for him to be
successful, but I also don’t think he is a very good DC. I think Flores will be much better at getting
the players to play at their maximum potential, but any good QB will pick apart
his defense if there’s too many exploitable CBs on the field.
I actually worry more about our run defense. Our "good" LBs are small. Our D line is not that formidable.
It will definitely be more of a penetrating run defense than we're used to. So plenty of 2 yard losses and 20 yard gains.The key to this will be Khyiris Tonga. I'm not expecting much from Dean Lowry, who is much more of a pass rusher anyway. But Tonga at 6-4, 340 is going to be asked to plug the middle on run downs with Harrison Phillips. PFF graded Tonga surprisingly high last year--top 15 among IDLs. But in order for the run defense to take a step forward, he has to have a breakout year and impress more than just the folks at PFF.
Edit Post (mod action — author will see a notice)
Warn Poster
Suspend User (3 days)
The user will be suspended for 3 days and will receive an email with the reason and information about how to appeal.