Week Five Film Review

After a very strong start, the Vikings offense took a step back against a good Jets’ defense in week five and fans are rightfully very concerned. Some of that was just because the Jets defense is very good, some of it might be because of the time change and change of venue, and some of it was just poor play by the offense. The good news? Rewatching the all-22, most of the issues are correctable and the Jets did not do anything to the Vikings that other teams will be able to easily replicate, and even if they manage to cover as well as the Jets did, just slightly better play from the QB and Oline would still make them pay.

Below are seven plays to highlight what I mean:

1st drive of the 2nd half, 3rd and 8:



Nailor is the short WR option early on this play(#2), and Darnold is smart not to throw to him with tight coverage and no shot of picking up the first. Mundt (#1) leaks out after chipping and struggles to get separation. JJ (#3) is just about to get open, but immediately after this screenshot Darnold is forced to roll to his right, missing the opportunity to pick up a big chunk of yards.

Darnold eventually runs around escaping a sack and throws the ball away. Just good coverage on this play and can’t really knock the Vikings players or coaches on this one.

2nd drive of the 2nd half, 2nd and 10:



The Jets drop 8 guys into coverage on this play, rushing 3. The Vikings have a shot to pick up a chunk of yards, possibly even a 1st down if Darnold is able to hold the ball just a half a second longer. Oliver (circled) is about to get wide open as the CB near him runs with Powell. Instead, we have 3 blockers failing to block one guy as Bradbury just gets steamrolled backwards into Darnold, while Brandel attempts to help and Ingram just stands there blocking the air.

Honestly a solid play design that gets someone open relatively quickly against 8 in coverage, it is just too bad our center is a liability in pass blocking. I do think Darnold still had a shot to chuck it to Oliver as he ran back towards the QB when he saw he was in trouble, but this is not really a bad play on him.

Darnold gets sacked for a loss of 5, it is 3rd and 15, and the next play is a short dump off, forcing a punt.

3rd drive, 2nd half, 1st and 10 after 27 yard PI:



Looking at this screenshot, which player do you think the QB threw too? Player A, Johnny Mundt who is open already, but about to be as wide open as Johnny Mundt can get, or player B, JJ who is not only being covered tightly by the CB, but has safety help shading over the middle? Darnold chose player B, and not only is that a poor choice, but he also makes a poor throw, throwing towards the middle where the safety help is sitting.

This is the first real poor decision by Darnold that I am showing here, and it is a brutal one. He had to look past his open TE to throw to JJ, and there is really no reason to attempt this throw when there is a huge chunk of yardage just sitting there if he just attempts a relatively easy throw.

3rd drive, 2nd half, 3rd and 10 :



This play really demonstrates how poor a RG Ingram is and also how much the Vikings need Hockenson. Ingram (arrow) for obvious reasons, as it does not appear he makes it out of his stance and the guy he is blocking is already barreling down on Darnold. Eventually Darnold does a great job escaping the pressure up the middle, and runs to his left. Mundt (circled) recognizes this too late or he would have had the opportunity to shadow Darnold across the field and likely picks up the first down when Darnold throws to him on the run. I think Hock would have seen this sooner and would have given us a chance for a first on this play.

Not a bad play from Darnold here at all, and notice there are two shorter options (circled) even though it was 3rd and 10.

4th drive, 2nd half, 1st and 10:



This is the one play that I think a lot of people could point to as KOC forcing the deep ball. The Jets send everyone on this play and the two TEs had to stay in to block instead of running routes. Gaskin does eventually leak out of the backfield, but doesn’t get any separation from the LBer and the only shorter option is easily taken away.

I am not really sure what the design was for this play. Addison (circled) actually does get open early and Darnold is looking that way first, but Addison never really looks back for the ball before sprinting up the field. JJ just runs a go route and while normally creating a one-on-one matchup is a win, in this case the coverage is great and Darnold ends up making a really bad throw to a covered JJ 50 yards downfield.

5th drive, 2nd half, 1st and 10:



The Jets blitz on this play and Chandler does enough in blitz pickup to really make them pay for it. Unfortunately, despite Addison blowing past his defender like he was standing still, Darnold makes a really bad throw underthrowing Addison by about 5 yards. This was the correct read for Darnold, he just threw it poorly.

5th drive, 2nd half, 3rd and 15:



Just a real head scratcher on this play. You could argue KOC should have called a screen to just pick up some yards and punt, and there is an argument for that considering how poorly Darnold was playing. Instead, we see Darnold throwing to Addison (#2) who is bracketed by defenders with absolutely no pressure and no reason to attempt that throw. Mundt (#1) and maybe even Jefferson at the bottom are much better options on this play. Stupid play from the QB.

These are just seven of the 15+ bad plays from the offense week five, but they are a good sample of the things that went wrong against the Jets. Some of it was the QB, some of it was the offensive line and the perfect play was not always called. If however, Darnold makes a good throw to Addison in the 6th play above, I don’t know if we are all that worried about the offense. If Ingram manages to actually block his man or Hockenson is playing, this game also isn’t close and no one is worried about the offense. If Darnold doesn’t look past his wide open TE to make a poor throw deep, again, this game ends very differently. All of this is correctable, all of this will be worked on during the bye, and I have a lot of hope that this offense that torched Detroit’s defense last year with Mullens at QB, will get back in its groove this coming Sunday.

One final note after re-watching the tape was that Jailen Nailor got no separation all game. I think he is a good deep threat and when asked to run some of those underneath routes he just doesn’t have them in his route tree. He appears to be a competent backup if Addison or JJ go down, but he is not a good compliment to those two when they are both out there with him.