'Our Time to Shine:' Ed Donatell Believes Vikings' Defense Will Step Up in the Playoffs
It's been a weird season for the Vikings' defense.
Employing a brand new scheme in the first year under coordinator Ed Donatell, Minnesota allowed more yards than all but one team and more points than all but two. From weeks 10 to 16, they gave up over 400 yards in six of seven games. And yet, they finished right in the middle of the league — 16th — in defensive EPA, largely because they created takeaways at a high level and stepped up on third downs.
It's a defense that seemingly should be better than it has been, given the veteran talent at all three levels. Star pass rushers Za'Darius Smith and Danielle Hunter, who were two of eight players to reach 70 pressures this season, get after the quarterback. Dalvin Tomlinson and Harrison Phillips are stout in the middle of the line. Eighth-year linebackers Eric Kendricks and Jordan Hicks fly around at the second level. And potential future Hall of Famers Harrison Smith and Patrick Peterson, who are tied for the interceptions lead among active players, patrol the back end.
The 13-4 Vikings open the playoffs with a home game against the Giants on Sunday. Despite coming off an up-and-down regular season, Donatell is confident that his group will take its play to another level in the postseason.
"It's our time to shine as a defense, now that we're hitting the playoffs," he said. "Really love the overall team chemistry of this football team. We've been put in a lot of big moments and it's hardened us for these times that are coming."
Just three weeks separate two meetings between these teams. The Vikings' defensive performance against the Giants in their dramatic Week 16 victory was right in line with their norm for most of the season. They gave up 445 total yards, a season-high for the Giants, and allowed Daniel Jones to throw for 334. But they also forced two takeaways, sacked Jones three times, and held New York to a 3-of-11 success rate on third down. And that was enough to win.
"It's a great opportunity to dig into their tendencies, 'cause it's fresh in our mind, and get a competitive edge," Donatell said about this week's rematch.
For the past eight years, the Vikings ran a 4-3 defense under Mike Zimmer. When Kevin O'Connell was hired as head coach this offseason, he brought along Donatell — who is in his 32nd season of NFL coaching and his fifth stint as a defensive coordinator — because he knew, from experience, how hard it was to play against the defense Donatell and Vic Fangio developed over the past decade.
It's a 3-4 scheme that utilizes similar two-high looks pre-snap and then rotates into various shells to muddy the post-snap process for quarterbacks. In theory, it should limit explosive plays and force offenses to lead long, methodical drives to score points. Getting comfortable in the scheme has been a long process for the Vikings, whose execution and statistics haven't been where they'd like.
"We love the process," Donatell said. "We get to learn so much about each other and being in tight games and (having) setbacks. This team never lost two games in a row. And then you're also forging your team and all parts of your defense, your run defense, your pass defense, the chemistry, your calls, your pressures. You accumulate that and you get a chance to go to the tournament."
The Vikings' defense gave up plenty of long, methodical drives this season, but there were also far too many big plays, sometimes as a result of miscommunications in coverage. The pass rush was OK, but far too reliant on its two star edge rushers. The run defense was fine, but not exactly good.
What the Vikings did well was force turnovers (25, tied for eighth-most) and stiffen on third down (38.1 percent conversion rate, 12th-best). They picked up their blitz rate down the stretch and had some success with those designed pressures. And unlike your average struggling defense, they have a lot of veteran talent across the board, which suggests that reaching a higher ceiling of play-to-play consistency is feasible.
"When I go in our locker room and when I go to practice yesterday, these guys built the confidence for me," Donatell said. "Eric Kendricks, Pat Peterson, Za'Darius, Danielle, Hicks, I can just about name anybody, but they're kind of taking over our team (this week). I think you'll like the way we play."
The playoffs are a different animal, and experience in those situations is important. The Vikings' defense has a lot of that, with six of 11 starters having at least five career postseason games under their belt. That doesn't even include Peterson, a 12th-year veteran making his first playoff appearance since 2015, or Hicks, who was on the Eagles' injured reserve when they won the Super Bowl.
"Our veteran players, they've all been through the process," Donatell said. "And what I like is we have guys that have been through the process in different environments, on different teams. Jordan Hicks has been all the way through to the Super Bowl. Za'Darius has been on a different team, Pat Pete has been on a different teams. Eric and Harry and Harrison (with) Buffalo, they can bring those experiences to the younger players. Ultimately, they create confidence that you can put your schemes out there and play and execute."
Starting this weekend, the urgency has to be higher than ever. This is win-or-go-home football. The Vikings' offense will play a huge role in determining how far this team can go, but they're going to be counting on their defense too. If they can play complementary football, cut down on some of the yards they've allowed, and continue to make impactful plays, this team could be difficult to beat.
"We've had some times where we gave up more big plays than we wanted to," Donatell said. "OK, well, what are you going to learn from that? Now that we're in the tournament, you want to have those things cleared up. But there's some really positive things. Down the line, this is an A-plus defense, how many times we've closed out games. Third down, we're a top-ten group, red zone, when we needed it in big games, it was great down there. Those are good things. We can stop the run when we need to. Putting it all together is what we intend to do this week."
It's now or never.
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