How Camryn Bynum and a Filipino rugby player helped make the stop that jump-started the Vikings' season

A sheepish grin spread across Camryn Bynum's face when a reporter requested his thoughts on fellow safety Harrison Smith receiving credit for the forced fumble on the textbook tackle Bynum initiated to launch the Vikings toward a prime-time upset of the 49ers and an about-face on this team's season ahead of Sunday's game at Green Bay and Tuesday's trade deadline.

"I appealed it," laughed the guy who might rank last in the league in bragging. "I sent it to my agent. I told him, 'Harry has enough turnovers. Give me a few.' "

Bynum initially was credited with forcing the Christian McCaffrey fumble at the Vikings 12-yard line five plays after the Vikings offense had once again turned the ball over less than 90 seconds into the contest Monday night. By the time the game ended, credit had been shifted to Smith, who assisted on the tackle.

"The back of my helmet knocked the ball out," Bynum said.

Replays appear to confirm Bynum's take. Then again …

"Whoa," Smith said. "I disagree. My right hand comes underneath, kind of sneaky like, and bumps it out."

Rebuttal, Cam?

"Harry's already been paid," said the 25-year-old still laboring under his rookie contract.

Harry?

"That's true," said the 34-year-old owner of 42 takeaways and 12 forced fumbles. "But Cam got those two picks in the fourth quarter, so."

The NFL reviews all key stats and makes corrections if necessary. In this case, the league sided with Smith, who got to keep his league-leading third forced fumble.

As teammates and friends, Bynum and Smith agreed to playfully disagree as joy has returned to a Vikings team that only days earlier was staring into the abyss of a lost season. Other teams were circling like vultures eyeballing the trade deadline as a way to pluck away at least one star player like NFL sack leader Danielle Hunter.

Bynum had a team-high nine tackles while winning NFC defensive player of the week. His team-leading 69 tackles — while extending his consecutive snap streak by 467 to 1,628 over the past two seasons — rank first among NFL defensive backs and sixth overall.

"Cam made it a point of emphasis in the offseason to become a better tackler," Smith said. "And it's shown from Day One."

The McCaffrey tackle was a classic.

"Old school," said linebacker Jordan Hicks. "Head up and across. Drive the shoulder through the midsection. Wrap up the leg. Nothing fancy. Get the guy on the ground. Perfect."

Former Vikings linebacker Eric Kendricks, a mentor to Bynum, called his young protégé last week to tell him he was impressed and to encourage him to continue what he's doing. Not a bad call from the Vikings' leading tackler in seven out of the last eight seasons.

"I learned a lot about tackling from EK," Bynum said.

He's also learned from Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, who loved all 11 moving parts of the McCaffrey tackle, including Hicks forcing the play to the sideline. And Bynum has learned from defensive backs coach Daronte Jones.

And, of course, Paul Luces.

Wait, who?

Paul Luces, a 27-year-old football fan and amateur rugby player living in the Philippines. Luces befriended Bynum while working as a director at Bynum's offseason football camp — Camp Beezy — in the Philippines. Bynum is of Filipino descent, lives in the Philippines in the offseason with his new wife, Lalaine, and does outreach work there through the Bynum Faith Foundation.

Luces and Bynum were at a friend's house after a workout one day when Bynum said he wanted to become the best tackler in the NFL. Luces suggested he study rugby-style tackling.

"I was lucky enough to train under Joe Dawson, a prominent figure in Philippine Rugby and one of the captains of the Philippine Volcanoes, the rugby national team," Luces said. "It's actually [Dawson's] cues that I ended up teaching Cam."

Bynum liked what he heard, assembled "a scout team around me" and drilled the fundamentals of open-field tackling over and over like he was in season and at TCO Performance Center in Eagan.

"You obviously can't go full speed all the way to the ground," Bynum said. "But you see rugby players, they tackle without pads, so they have to really work at doing it in a healthy way to keep their head out of it.

"I would learn their approach and where their eyes are and where to strike. Just little things they do because they tackle the right way, by the book."

Who would have thought a college cornerback at Cal had the potential to become the NFL's top tackler among defensive backs? Rick Spielman, for one, when he picked Bynum in the fourth round of 2021, Spielman's final season as Vikings general manager.

"That was the year I actually announced the pick on TV during the draft," Spielman said this past week. "I went out there and announced him as 'Camryn Bynum, safety.' Not a corner.

"We had already told Cam we were moving him to safety. We felt real good about that pick because he was a smart, instinctive, very good football player, really good as a run-support corner, who really only lacked the burner speed to play outside corner at this level."

The Philippines is 13 hours ahead of Central time. For Luces, kickoff for the 49ers game was 8:15 a.m. Tuesday.

"There are definitely NFL fans here, but the Philippines is a basketball country," Luces said. "Cam had a career game, and his clips made the rounds in the local football community. Everyone was hyped. I honestly had the same vibes watching him as watching a [Manny] Pacquiao fight, where the whole country just stops what they're doing and tunes in and celebrates together. Except on a smaller scale."

Speaking of boxing, while on a vacation in Palawan to relax before the football camp, "Cam really wanted to learn boxing," Luces said, "so we looked for a nearby boxing gym so we could get workouts in while we were there.

"We soon find out that the [boxing] coach was a pastor in the local community. He trains local kids so they can compete outside Palawan and hopefully get a brighter future. The coach even built the gym himself. Cam starts thinking of potential plans of action to help the pastor out."

As for football, Luces' favorite play from Tuesday Morning Football?

"His forced fumble against McCaffrey," Luces said.

Sorry, Harrison.

"It was a beautiful tackle against one of the best running backs in the league," Luces said.

Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell sure appreciated the timing of Bynum's rugby-style tackling fundamentals.

"Especially on Christian because you saw a couple of other plays where he was able to get out from some tackles and either earn the big play for the touchdown or steal another couple first downs," O'Connell said.

Certainly, it was a game-changing play. Whether it was a ground zero moment in changing a season depends on what the Vikings do with this newfound life going forward on Sunday against the 2-4 Packers at Lambeau Field and beyond.

"I wasn't around for the first two games and the turnovers we had, but I know the timing of that takeaway sure changed things after we had turned the ball over," left guard Dalton Risner said. "Then the offense went down and scored to take the lead. That's what great teams do."

The Vikings have hardly been a great team. But the upset did lift a down-in-the-dumps team that couldn't help but hear all the trade rumors.

"Everywhere I go, people are asking me if I'm getting traded," Hunter said the Friday before the 49ers game. "I don't know where that's coming from. I don't pay attention to it. I just go to work. Put in the work."

Teams did reach out to the Vikings to see if Hunter was available. So far, he's still a Viking with nine sacks heading to Green Bay to face a fledgling young quarterback (Jordan Love) rather than a first-ballot Hall of Famer (Aaron Rodgers). A victory would raise the Vikings' record to 4-4 overall and 2-0 in the NFC North, and it presumably squash talks of a fire sale before the trade deadline.

And it all started when Bynum's helmet or/and Smith's right hand forced a fumble that Dean Lowry recovered.

"I saw the ball come out, and it was a big mess," Bynum said. "Guys all over each other. I'm just glad we fell on it. Earlier in the season, the ball wasn't bouncing our way."

Or, as Smith puts it, "Honestly, I don't care who gets the credit. We needed someone to get that ball out."

And someone did.