
The Vikings entered Sunday night with a track record of struggling to cover underneath targets, particularly running backs. They watched as backs have broken off big plays including 56-yard catch and runs ranging from San Francisco's Kyle Juszczyk to L.A.'s Todd Gurley.
One of the Saints' primary weapons, running back Alvin Kamara, was primed to continue this trend. And he did in the first half, when Kamara took 11 touches for 59 yards and two touchdowns.
But head coach Mike Zimmer made a key adjustment for the Vikings at halftime, removing linebackers Eric Kendricks and Eric Wilson from their assignments on Kamara in favor of faster defensive backs like Jayron Kearse and Harrison Smith. The results: Kamara took his nine touches in the second half for just 27 yards, including two catches for only five yards.
Of course, team-wide matchups will vary greatly depending on the opponent. But it's a tactic the Vikings should consider deploying again, especially with Chicago's Tarik Cohen (30 catches for 398 yards) and New England's James White (55 catches for 459 yards) coming up on the schedule.
Below we'll look at the Vikings' defense on Kamara, and other relevant takeaways from the 30-20 loss to the Saints.
1. Pressure report: This was not a good protection game from a Vikings offensive line facing a Saints defense that had struggled to take down the quarterback in its first six games of 2018. The Saints doubled their sack average with four on Kirk Cousins. There was plenty of blame to go around. Guard Danny Isidora, making his second NFL start, was beat badly by Sheldon Rankins on an inside move for the first sack. Cousins failed to throw it away and nearly fumbled on the second sack, by Marcus Davenport. Center Pat Elflein was worked into the backfield by Rankins on the third sack. Davenport then beat Rashod Hill for the fourth sack.
Receivers Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs are so good at getting open, the Vikings can — and probably should more often — deploy 7-man protections like they did on Cousins' 4th-goal touchdown to Diggs and his 14-yard connection to Thielen. But they moved away from those heavy protections later in the game, and rookie Brian O'Neill particularly struggled when he was left alone against Saints star Cameron Jordan.
On defense, the Vikings did not sack the quarterback for the first time since last year's Week 13 win in Atlanta, a stretch spanning 13 games. The Saints rarely took the time to throw a deep ball with quarterback Drew Brees, whose 2.47-second average time before throwing was the seventh fastest among all quarterbacks in Week 8, according to PFF.