The Rams Were Ready for the Vikings' Pressure
When you play a Brian Flores defense, you have to expect pressure. The Vikings were the number-1 blitzing team in the NFL this season, and that wasn’t just on passing downs. In fact, no defense blitzed more on 1st or 2nd down according to
of MatchQuarters.The Rams were ready for all of it.
Sean McVay had several answers for dealing with Minnesota’s pressure schemes, and Matthew Stafford calmly and repeatedly stared down the rush. He finished the night 10 of 16 for 156 yards, with 1 TD, 0 INTs, and a 115.6 passer rating against the blitz.
It started on L.A.’s first play from scrimmage. The Vikings would end up bringing 6 and playing cover-2 behind it:
During the regular season, the Vikings blitzed out of the most common zone coverages (cover-2, cover-3, cover-4, quarter-quarter-half) more than any other team in the league. So McVay’s knew this was a look he might see. He decided to attack it by flooding one area of the field with receivers, which is a great way to break down a zone coverage that has fewer defenders than normal.
The Rams did that here with three vertical routes originating from the left side:
The outside-release go-route on the perimeter widened the corner. The vertical from #3 pinned the linebacker in the middle. And that provided plenty of room for Puca Nacua’s deep curl:
From the end zone angle, you can see that the Rams protected this with 5 but had a tight end chip on the back side before releasing into his route. L.A. also used under-center play-action to try and force some hesitation. Stafford ultimately had time to find Nacua for 27 yards to start the game: