Written by Sam Ekstrom
Head coach Mike Zimmer knows how to get his defense to hit the quarterback. Looking at the numbers, you can see that Zimmer’s Cincinnati defense was top-10 in sacks each of the last three years.
What Zimmer doesn’t care about is who gets those sacks. In fact, he doesn’t even keep track.
“Honestly, I didn’t know who had sacks. I never know,” said Zimmer on Wednesday. “I don’t know who has interceptions or anything like that, and I just asked somebody the other day, ‘Who else has sacks on the team?’ and they said, ‘Well, Tom Johnson’s got four.’ Well, that’s kind of a product of other guys doing their job as well. I’ve always felt like what’s good for everybody is good for each one of us.”
Zimmer’s 2013 Bengals had 14 different players contribute toward the team’s 43 sacks, and none had more than 7.5. Similarly in 2011, Cincinnati had 45 sacks with no players over 7.5. That makes Everson Griffen’s seven sacks through seven games a bit of an anomaly for a Zimmer-led defense.
“We at the Vikings, we’re more about the [team] sack numbers as opposed to individual sack numbers,” said Zimmer, deemphasizing the word ‘individual.’ “The other guys, when Everson gets a sack, a lot of times it’s because Sharrif Floyd did something right or Brian Robison did something right or Tom Johnson or Linval [Joseph] or the linebackers or the coverage. It’s nice for an individual to have statistics, but it’s more important to me that the team allows other guys to have things.”
The Zimmer philosophy is to show blitz from a variety of sources – say, outside linebacker and nickel corner – then bring one, both or neither at the quarterback. This strategy forces teams to remain alert pre-snap as to where the blitz could be coming from. Even if the Vikings bluff at a blitz, it still creates havoc on an opposing offensive line.
The disguised blitzes on defense create plenty of lapses on the offensive line when blockers are outnumbered and have to make split second decisions on which pass rusher to pick up. An exceptional example came late in the Week 3 matchup at New Orleans. While the end result of the play was a Captain Munnerlyn unnecessary roughness penalty, the blitz itself was brilliant and had the Saints completely off kilter.
The Vikings showed blitz from middle linebacker Chad Greenway, cornerback Captain Munnerlyn and safety Robert Blanton. At the snap, Greenway backed off into coverage while Munnerlyn and Blanton sprinted around either side of tight end Jimmy Graham. Pierre Thomas, the lone pass protector in the backfield, was lined up on the opposite side of Brees and had no chance as Munnerlyn and Blanton had the Saints quarterback in their clutches within three seconds.
The wealth definitely gets spread throughout all three levels of the defense: front four, linebackers and secondary. Zimmer likes to call it a “team concept,” which he firmly established in his years as Bengals defensive coordinator. Sunday, Zimmer will face Michael Johnson, the former Bengals lineman who signed a 5-year, $43 million deal with Tampa Bay in the offseason. According to Zimmer, Johnson exemplified the attitude he looks for in his defensive line.
“He kept doing what we were asking him to do,” said Zimmer of his experience coaching Johnson. “He kept buying into the team concept. He’s a very, very smart guy. He’s a great athlete with great length and range … My respect for Mike is more about the approach that he takes to the game. The way that he approaches practice. The way he studies and he buys into the team concept.”
Zimmer compares Johnson to Griffen in that both took a while to find their respective roles. Both experimented at playing linebacker before settling in as successful defensive linemen. Griffen, with his team-leading seven sacks, is proving his worth after signing a Johnson-esque 5-year, $42.5 million contract last March.
“Everson, since the day we walked in, he’s kind of been excited about this regime defensively a little bit,” said Zimmer. “[He’s excited] about how he can go from being an athlete to being a football player. That’s how I always got the impression with him. He’s been very, very diligent about buying into what we’re preaching, and it’s not just about running up the field and sacking quarterbacks, it’s about doing your job so other people can have success doing theirs.”
One man whose stats are suffering this season is Brian Robison, who signed a 4-year extension in 2013. Robison had been on the cusp of recording double-digit sacks each of the past three years. The veteran lineman had eight in 2011, 8.5 in 2012 and nine in 2013. Reaching double-digits was a goal of his before the season.
“I felt like I should have had that last year, like I missed too many sacks,” said Robison, “so that’s one thing I’m working on right now. We’ll go out here and just keep working and keep pushing away and hopefully it comes.”
It hasn’t been coming easily. Robison has only 0.5 sacks nearly halfway through the season. But while the 31-year-old has struggled, the team has been successful. Minnesota has 20 sacks, tied for sixth in the NFL. Starting defensive tackles Linval Joseph and Sharrif Floyd have combined for 4.5, while swing tackle Tom Johnson has four, as Zimmer recently discovered.
“All four guys working together, it allowed one or two guys to have a little bit more success,” said Robison on Wednesday, “That’s what we have to do. We have to keep rushing together as a front four.”
The Zimmer gospel seems to be hitting home as the season grows older. Minnesota has 10 sacks over the past two weeks and has held opponents to 17 points in both games – albeit losses.
It’s unlikely Zimmer’s Vikings will ever have a pass-rusher that goes for 22 sacks like Jared Allen did in 2011. And if they did, Zimmer probably wouldn’t bat an eyelash.
“I could care less if we have one guy that sacks a guy 15 times,” said Zimmer. “I don’t care about that whatsoever. All I care about is that we have team success, we have team pass rush, we run the ball together as a team, whatever it is. When those kind of things happen, it’s good for everybody.”
| Sam Ekstrom is a staff writer for Cold Omaha at 105 The Ticket. He has previously served as a play-by-play broadcaster in Iowa and South Dakota and has covered Minnesota sports since 2012. Follow him on Twitter @SamEkstrom for further insights |