PHILADELPHIA -- The Minnesota Vikings traveled east on Saturday as the toast of the NFL, taking their status as the league’s only undefeated team to Philadelphia for a game chock–full of subplots.
The team’s 5-0 start despite injuries to Teddy Bridgewater and Adrian Peterson, along with the ingenuity of the Vikings’ September trade for Sam Bradford, sent plaudits raining down on the club as Bradford prepared to face his old team. The fact that it was the Eagles waiting for the quarterback, though, might have been the worst thing for him, in retrospect.
No defense was likely to know more about how to defeat the early MVP candidate than the one who had been practicing against him until the trade that sent him to Minnesota only seven weeks ago. And if it’s true that losses create templates for future opponents to follow, what the Eagles did Sunday could confront the Vikings again -- until they solve their pass-protection issues.
A team that had blitzed less than any in the NFL through the first six weeks strafed the Vikings with extra pressure on Sunday, putting Bradford under duress on a season-high 36 percent of his dropbacks. According to ESPN Stats & Information data, the Eagles on Sunday blitzed a defensive back on 13 snaps -- matching their total from their first five games combined -- as coordinator Jim Schwartz called for the zone pressures and trap coverage he knew would vex Bradford. On eight of those 13 blitzes, the Eagles put pressure on their former quarterback.
“There was one or two looks that we know Sam didn’t like,” Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins said. “It was based off of practicing against him and knowing some things that he couldn’t pick up in camp. I think we only ran two of those throughout the game. One ended up being a sack, and I think the other one, he threw it away. Other than that, a lot of them were guys on the back end disguising things -- showing one thing and pressuring up the other, and then showing the same look and then the zone. It is tough to figure that out.”
Not every opponent will have the ability to play the Vikings the way the Eagles did on Sunday, and the next team on the schedule -- the Chicago Bears -- has blitzed opponents less than all but one team through seven weeks. However, the following two opponents -- the Detroit Lions and Washington Redskins -- like to bring extra pressure. And the Arizona Cardinals will come to Minneapolis with their heavy blitz packages on Nov. 20.
No matter a team's tendencies, though, the Vikings will likely see more treatment like what they received Sunday, unless they prove they can stop it. In addition to handing the Vikings a loss on Sunday, the Eagles provided what will surely be a much-studied piece of game film.
"I would [blitz] too," Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. "We didn’t pick up anybody, so you might as well.
"You kind of know going into the game that they’re going to come after Bradford. I didn’t go to Harvard, but I can probably figure that out. We didn’t get it done.”