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The Vikings can be thrown on
By Dagger | October 21, 2009
Don’t be afraid to dink and dunk:
My only criticism of Big Ben as a QB is his reluctance to take a check-down and dump the ball off to one of his safety valves. Every week you see Ben dancing around the pocket looking 30 yards downfield but ignoring the RB 10 yards in front of him waving his hands in the air. That inability to hit RBs in the flat could hurt the Steelers this week. Whether it’s the Vikings scheme to “bend and not break” or if the Vikings DL pressure forces teams to get rid of the ball quickly, opposing RBs and TEs are having great success against this Minnesota defense. In fact, 55% of all receptions the Vikings D has surrendered this year has been given up to RBs, FBs, and TEs.
vs Cleveland: non-WRs caught 9 of the Browns 21 completed passes
vs Detroit: non-WRs caught 11 of the Lions 18 completed passes
vs SF: non-WRs caught 9 of the Niners 15 completed passes
vs Green Bay: non-WRs caught 15 of the Packers 26 completed passes
vs STL: non-WRs caught 12 of the Rams 20 completed passes
vs Baltimore: non-WRs caught 14 of the Ravens 28 completed passes
Take a look at how the Ravens were able to attack the Vikings through the air last weekend:
Minnesota ranks #18 overall in Team Defense. 24th against the pass and 9th against the run. This could be a very favorable matchup for the Steelers offense, which currently ranks #5 overall in the NFL and #2 in the NFL in passing offense.
Cedric Griffin (CB): Thrown at 9 times and gave up 6 catches for 51 yards.
Chad Greenway (LB): Thrown at 7 times and gave up 7 catches for 122 yards.
EJ Henderson (LB): Thrown at 7 times and gave up 6 catches for 47 yards.
Karl Paymah (CB): Thrown at 7 times and gave up 3 catches for 82 yards.
Benny Sapp (CB): Thrown at 3 times and gave up 3 catches for 25 yards.
Madieu Williams (S): Thrown at 2 times and gave up 1 catch for 17 yards.
Tyrell Johnson (S): Thrown at 2 times and gave up 1 catch for 28 yards.
Jared Allen (DL): Thrown at 1 time for 1 catch and 13 yards.
If they can do it, so can Ben:
Ravens QB Joe Flacco ended up amassing nearly 400 yards passing while hitting 7 different receivers and going 28/43 for 2 TD and 0 INT.
Rams QBs Boller and Bulger combined to throw for almost 300 yards against the Vikings.
Aaron Rodgers was sacked 8 times by Minny but still went for 384 yards.
Steelers RBs and TEs a mismatch for Vikings LBs:
Last week Ray Rice caught 9 passes while being “covered” by Minnesota Linebackers. Can the Steelers implement these dump-offs into their offense on Sunday? Can we expect Mewelde Moore to have a big day against his former team? We shall see. The Steelers have never been good at hitting their RBs in the flat with dumps or swing passes but they are getting better at it each week. This weekend vs the Vikings would be a nice opportunity to spread the ball around against a suspect Viking pass defense. TE Todd Heap also was targeted 3 times last week and hauled in 3 catches. Heath Miller could be in line for a big game.
Topics: NFL, Sports, Steelers | 14 Comments »
October 21st, 2009 at 9:58 pm
The Vikings lbers just aren't that good. Can you really name a talented guy among the bunch of them? I will take Mendy/Moore against that group any day. Flacco got HUGE plays from dumping it off the Ray Rice. If the Ravens crappy wr's could push coverage downfield to make breathing room for their rb's then our far superior wr's should have the same sucess or better at giving our rb's room to operate underneath.
Of course our oline will have to give us the time to make that happen.
October 21st, 2009 at 11:33 pm
The Steelers are getting better at throwing passes to the Backs due to
the much long overdue phasing out of Willie Parker.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:23 am
the vikings pass defense is ranked 24th in yards per attempt.
stillers are ranked tied for 2nd in yards per attempt.
the big plays will be there for the stillers.
i don't know how to eliminate YAC from the calculations, but i know the big plays are there also. pass pro has been awesome for the past games, and flacco had time to throw.
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:30 am
Is it possible that the success that teams have in throwing to RB's and TE's come as a direct result of the pressure being applied by the Vikings front 4 thus not having the time to hit the wideouts?
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Now with their stud CB out too, the Passing game should be able to move the ball, fairly easily. My biggest concerns are LaWood and Old-Man-Farrior, against AP.
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I'm going out on a limb here, and I'm saying the Steelers blow out the Vikings. I'm not trying to be a homer, but this is the type of game where that happens. This is a game on the road, after a close and emotional win over Baltimore. The Vikes are 6-0 and are ready to lay a turd. I think the Vikings will have an intensity let down, not play well, and I do not think they are well coached enough to stay disciplined. I might be wrong, but that's my hunch. No more…no less.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Not to mention they go to Lambeu next week… Favre could be looking ahead.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Nice Breakdown Dagger, I saw the same things and talked about it in my show. Also you can get them down field especially if Winfield is out.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Hey Dagger – You must use ProfootBallFocus. They have nice numbers.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I think in a run first, pass 15-20 times a game scheme, Willie does pretty good. In this current scheme, where there are 30+ passes a game, he is not as effective. I really like Mendy and Moore out of the backfield. It forces the D to keep someone shallow.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Good point! Regardless of what he says, Favre cares about playing against the Packers more than anything else.
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:27 pm
My only comment. The Vikings are 6-0, why would we want to replicate what the other 6 losing teams have done. I think the Steelers would be best served identifying why teams are forced to throw to the RB's and gameplan accordingly. Could just be me, but it's tough to look too far into certain stats.
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:55 pm
You can run on them too. The Ravens ran all over their asses in the 4th quarter in that game. The Heinz Field DD Grassmaster will slow down the skill guys. If we can get a solid and consistent pass rush on them we will plant Brat Favre in the turf. If we minimize our own mistakes we got this game.
October 24th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
the vikings right side of offensive line looks like it can be abused all day with 1st year center john sullivan , right guard anthony herrera and rookie right tackle phil loadholt. browns had 4 sacks, ravens and lions sacked favre 3 times each and had 5,6,7 qb hits to go with those sacks.we will see how those 3 fair with blitzes up the middle and to the right side.