Eagles vs. Vikings: Philly Preparing for Drastically Different Defense

PHILADELPHIA - The first real sign that the Philadelphia Eagles were going to be very difficult to deal with last season probably came in Week 2 against Minnesota when Nick Sirianni’s team completely dominated what ultimately became a 13-win Vikings club, 24-7, behind a Jalen Hurts’ performance of 390 total yards on offense and three touchdowns.

Fast forward and the 1-0 Eagles again welcome the talented but flawed 0-1 Vikings to Lincoln Financial Field in Week 2.

Expecting a sequel, though, might be foolhardy after Minnesota’s drastic change in defensive philosophy from Ed Donatell’s bend-before-too-often-breaking mindset that allowed Hurts to rest in comfort in the pocket to Brian Flores’ relentless sentiment designed to dictate to the offense.

“Obviously, everything’s different,” Hurts said. “Coached by a really good coach, and they’ve always had great players. So it’ll be a test for us.”

Sirianni also affirmed that the Vikings' defensive “schemes are obviously very different,” when talking to SI.com’s Eagles Today on Wednesday.

The Eagles coach compared it to Week 1 at New England when it came to the other side of the football where the significant change was from Matt Patricia and Joe Judge to Bill O’Brien.

“You look at where (Flores has) been, you look at obviously the games that he's coached for Minnesota, which hasn't been many, as we know, where he's been, Miami, and then also where his roots are from New England. So, you look at all those things,” said Sirianni.

The goal is to get answers in the shift from the Vic Fangio-inspired thought of passivity to Flores’ constant attack mode.

“You're trying to get your answers that way as much as you possibly can,” Sirianni said. “... We've watched a lot of tape in these three days and then obviously before these three days too when we were preparing, from different teams. But that's just what you do. It's not all that different than our defense last week watching Alabama tape or Houston Texans tape for Coach O'Brien.

“Yeah, very similar on the offensive side of the ball this week preparing for the Minnesota defense.”

Offensive coordinator Brian Johnson had an uneven debut against Flores’ mentor, Bill Belichick in what was a 25-20 Eagles win.

“I mean, it was too sloppy,” Johnson said. “From just the standpoint of -- I think for me, the thing that was really most frustrating is we had an opportunity up 16-0 with the ball in the minus territory, three possessions in a row, and we couldn't get much going.

“Obviously, we've just got to continue to clean up those corrections, make those corrections, and put ourselves in a position to go out there and have some success.”

As far as the Minnesota defense, Johnson also understands you can throw Week 2 last season in the circular file.

“It's a completely different operation in terms of their scheme,” Johnson said. “Some of the personnel is still there, obviously, but when you talk about our game from Week 2 last year, I think it's a completely different scheme than obviously what we'll be facing on Thursday night.”

Johnson even hesitated to connect Flores back to Belichick because the former’s personality demands more aggressiveness.

“There are definitely some similarities,” Johnson said. “But I think in terms of just personality and how guys call games individually, there are some differences, but in terms of just the tree of the defense of the origin and the roots of it, there are some similarities.

“For us, I think that's one of the beautiful things about this league is that you get guys who kind of grow up together or grow up under a certain tree and build that foundation of a certain way that they do things, and you get to see it evolve into their own personalities.”