Sam Darnold, Vikings blockers got exactly what Lions planned: ‘More than they could handle’

DETROIT - After the Vikings’ 31-9 loss to the Lions on Sunday, center Garrett Bradbury and fellow offensive linemen debriefed inside the visitor’s locker room about just how aggressively Detroit’s defense played while grounding quarterback Sam Darnold and Minnesota’s prolific passing attack.

The linemen felt as bad as that score looks after Darnold took a season-worst 10 hits, two of them sacks.

Detroit delivered blow after blow while blitzing Darnold on nearly 56% of his dropbacks and generating pressure 49% of the time. NFL Next Gen Stats show that as the third-highest pressure rate Darnold has faced all season.

The Lions often used the most aggressive form of blitz, called “Cover 0,” in which every defender rushes the quarterback except those in solo man-to-man coverage on receivers. According to the NFL, nobody sent more zero blitzes in a game than the 14 Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn called in the 272nd and final game of the regular season.

“They brought a lot,” Bradbury said. “They brought everything. I think they brought ‘Saw’ — double [blitzers] off each edge — three times in the first two drives, a lot of twists, a lot of different pressures, safeties, bringing all-out [pressure]. The frustrating thing is I didn’t feel like they got home on a lot of those. Obviously, they affected the plays. But there’s just — we didn’t play good enough offensively.”

In the first half alone, Darnold took seven hits from all angles: Bradbury was pushed backward into Darnold on the first hit; a delayed rush by Lions linebacker Jack Campbell landed another; a D-line twist got by right tackle Brian O’Neill and right guard Dalton Risner for the third hit (and first sack); Darnold beat a zero blitz on a 31-yard toss to Justin Jefferson on third down but got tagged by Lions safety Kerby Joseph in the process; left guard Blake Brandel lost a matchup with Lions defensive end Josh Paschal for another hit.

Unlike the Oct. 20 loss to the Lions, Vikings blockers were protecting against a little bit of everything.

“It was just the variety of looks we saw,” O’Neill said. “Where the first game, they did one or two or three things over and over again. This week we kind of saw the whole Rolodex of things, so that might’ve had something to do with it.”

Lions coach Dan Campbell said his defense’s focus was to not allow Darnold time in the pocket to “pick us apart.”

“Darnold has really played better and better every week,” Campbell said. “It feels like he’s just continued to make this gradual climb and continued to improve. And what you really see is, man, when he gets the play-action pass and they nudge the edges, or they’ll max protect on some of this stuff, two-receiver routes, three-receiver routes, and he can see it and has time, he’s deadly. And we could not allow that to happen. We didn’t feel like there was any way we could let him sit back there, because we did think he would pick us apart.”

“We tried to bring more than they could handle,” he added.

The outcome could’ve been different, coach Kevin O’Connell said, had the Vikings capitalized on three red-zone trips in the second quarter that amounted to two field goals and a turnover on downs.

Pressure on Darnold was a factor near the goal line.

“There were some stunts and some picks and things where they were able to get to us and maybe limit our chances to truly attack the man coverage,” O’Connell said.

O’Connell and Darnold typically enjoy attacking man-to-man coverage, which the Lions played on two of every three snaps (66.7%) — the second-highest rate by a defense in a game this season, per the NFL.

But Darnold’s inaccuracy didn’t give the Vikings much hope of taking advantage. And some of his misplaced passes could be tied to happy feet as he tried to evade the rush.

“Just looking at my feet, feeling like on some of those red-zone plays, could’ve been a little more grounded instead of trying to backpedal or escape,” Darnold said. “But again, those are some throws that I’ve made before — a lot in my career. So, just not going to look too deep into it, but just got to be better.”

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