Vikings mailbag: Are players or scheme to blame for pass defense woes?

As part of our expanded Vikings playoff coverage this week, we will answer daily reader questions. You can email your questions to ben.goessling@startribune.com, or send them to @BenGoessling on Twitter.

Q: Are the Vikings players to blame for the middle of the field being wide open and getting gashed, or is it the scheme? —Jamie, Minneapolis

Thanks for the question, Jamie. Let's start with the scheme: In a general sense, you can break defensive coverages into two categories based on where the safeties are aligned: Middle-of-the-field open (MOFO) with two safeties on either side of the hash marks or middle-of-the-field closed (MOFC) with one safety over the middle. Many teams that adopted Vic Fangio's popular scheme, like the Vikings, play lots of MOFO coverages with two safeties deep; the idea is to keep teams from throwing the ball downfield, and defenses can also counter play action by starting with two deep safeties and rotating to change the look while the quarterback's back is turned. The Vikings, especially in the first three months of the season, played more MOFO coverages than almost any team in the league.

But some of the issues had to do with execution as much as the scheme, and especially after coach Kevin O'Connell called for more aggressive coverage after the loss to the Lions on Dec. 11, you've seen the Vikings play tighter to the receivers in recent weeks, employing a few more MOFC schemes and lining Patrick Peterson up on the short side of the field to take away easy throws for opposing QBs. On Dec. 24, the Giants actually ran lots of crossing routes designed to test Peterson in man coverage; we'll see if the Vikings employ a similar strategy on Sunday, or lean more heavily on zone looks against quarterback Daniel Jones. Either way, they'll need to be tighter in coverage to win, after Jones threw for 334 yards against them in December.