Quarterbacks completing alarming number of passes against Vikings cornerbacks, linebackers
According to Pro Football Focus, Vikings cornerbacks and linebackers are getting completely smoked by opposing passing attacks.
You didn't need anyone to tell you that after Jared Goff bombed them for 465 yards in the Rams' 38-31 win Thursday night, but the numbers are appalling.
Per PFF, six players who have been targeted at least 10 times have allowed at least 70 percent of passes to be completed.
- Mackenzie Alexander: 100% (10 targets, 10 completions)
- Trae Waynes: 80% (15 targets, 12 completions)
- Eric Kendricks: 78.9% (19 targets, 15 completions)
- Xavier Rhodes: 71.4% (21 targets, 15 completions)
- Mike Hughes: 70% (14 targets, 10 completions)
- Anthony Barr: 70% (10 targets, 7 completions)
Meanwhile, starting safeties Harrison Smith and Andrew Sendejo have allowed just eight of 16 targets to be completed, according to PFF.
In 2017, Rhodes allowed just 55.1 percent of passes thrown his way to be caught, and Waynes (60.3 percent) and Kendricks (64.3 percent) were way better than they've been through a quarter of the 2018 season, according to PFF.
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It's obvious at this point that Minnesota has major issues in coverage, which head coach Mike Zimmer admitted he has to go back to the drawing board in order to fix it.
“We’ve never been, probably anywhere I’ve ever been, I’ve never been this poor in pass coverage," Zimmer said. "We’re going to have to look at everything we’re doing and get back to doing things [effectively].”
One player getting a lot of the blame is linebacker Anthony Barr, who got beat on long touchdown passes to Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods. But Vikings radio network analyst Pete Bercich tweeted that linebackers should never have a cover a wide receiver one-on-one, meaning there were probably coverage mistakes and Barr got hung out to dry.
According to PFF, Barr was lined up against Kupp twice and Robert Woods once, and Kendricks wound up one-on-one with Kupp another time. Those four linebacker versus wide receiver situations, which Bercich is adamant should never happen, resulted in four catches for 115 yards and two touchdowns.
Minnesota has 10 days to put a better game plan together before they face the Eagles in Philadelphia in a rematch of last year's NFC title game.
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