Vikings LB Za'Darius Smith 'No. 1 Playmaker,' Says Commanders OC Scott Turner
ASHBURN, Va. -- The Washington Commanders have a challenging contest coming up this weekend against the visiting Minnesota Vikings.
Looking to extend their three-game winning streak, with two of those led by backup quarterback Taylor Heinicke, the Commanders know the importance of continuing to stack victories.
They also know the team on the other side of this matchup is a good one. As evidenced by their 6-1 record while riding a five-game winning streak themselves.
As good as the Vikings have been, however, there are some that are better than others.
One of those is linebacker Za'Darius Smith.
"Every time you go into a game week (we ask), 'Who are the playmakers?', and he's the number one guy that you circle," Commanders offensive coordinator Scott Turner said about Smith. "But we're going to have our eyes on him and make sure that he doesn't wreck the game."
Wreck the game is exactly what Smith can do, and did last week against the Arizona Cardinals, taking full advantage of center, Billy Price.
Making just his second start of the season, Price was victimized multiple times by Smith who racked up three sacks on Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray and was a problem all game long.
"The Vikings did a really good job against Arizona of getting Za'Darius Smith one-on-one with a backup center," Luke Braun of the Locked On Vikings podcast shared on his recent appearance on the Locked On Commanders podcast. "So I wonder if they can just sort of copy (and) paste some of that game plan and get those one-on-ones, Za'Darius Smith against Tyler Larsen with no help. That's what the Vikings are going to want to do."
It makes sense to think the Vikings would want to duplicate that production on the defensive side.
And because of that fact, Turner is well aware of what Minnesota likes to do with their star pass rusher.
"They move him around. Most of the time he'll line up to our left, but they do this (package) where he goes and lines up over top of the center," Turner said when asked about Minnesota's ability to get Smith into beneficial matchups. "We're going to do some stuff to help as much as we can where we don't have him singled, really on anybody, but definitely on the center."
Obviously, Turner isn't going to tip his hand to us, or anyone publicly, about what the Commanders plan to do to mitigate Smith's impact.
But this matchup of Minnesota's top defensive playmaker against Washington's pass protection scheme is likely to be the catalyst for whichever side wins.
Making Smith arguably the player Commanders fans should have their eyes on, at FedEx Field on Sunday.
You can follow David Harrison on Twitter @DHarrison82.
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