LONDON — Over on the Minnesota Vikings’ sideline, early in Sunday’s game against the New York Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the defensive backs sat on the bench chatting like pitchers in a bullpen during a baseball game.
“You’ve got to get a pick today,” one said to Stephon Gilmore.
“Yeah, Steph,” another said. “What are you waiting for?”
Maybe it was a premonition of how the Vikings’ 23-17 victory over the Jets would end. Or maybe it was just Brian Flores’ defenders doing what they do: ribbing each other, enjoying their time overseas and wanting to win.
Gilmore was the only regular starting defensive back without an interception before Sunday. His teammates were poking fun at him even though they recognized his importance. As the Vikings ripped through Super Bowl contenders on their way to the 4-0 start, Gilmore had blanketed one side of the field each week. Interceptions did not matter to Gilmore so much as wins, so he listened and laughed but paid little attention to the comment.
He was readying for a test against the most experienced quarterback Flores’ defense had faced this season. Safety Cam Bynum succinctly summed up the challenge of facing Aaron Rodgers: “He trusts his arm. He’s one of the greatest to ever do it, but because he has that talent, he tries to throw it when people are covered.” The answer was clear: stick to the Jets receivers like glue.
“You respect a player like that,” defensive tackle Jonathan Bullard said of Rodgers, “but it does not make you change who you are.”
Flores’ defense in Minnesota has been a boa constrictor. The unit was ranked No. 1 in DVOA coming into the game, having eliminated Daniel Jones, pestered Brock Purdy, suffocated C.J. Stroud and bothered Jordan Love. Play callers like Brian Daboll, Kyle Shanahan, Bobby Slowik and Matt LaFleur have all talked about preparing for Flores’ defense like you’d discuss readying to climb Mount Everest.
Each week, the level of the Vikings’ defensive stranglehold becomes apparent by watching the opposing quarterback’s facial expression. If there were an exception to the rule, Rodgers would probably be it. But in the first quarter Sunday, edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel dropped from the line of scrimmage and picked off a Rodgers pass.
Van Ginkel’s 63-yard return for a touchdown, featuring stiff-arms and blocks from teammates, had Rodgers unstrapping his helmet chinstrap and staring up at the replay on the gigantic television screens. Rewatching the play, Rodgers shook his head the way you do when you think to yourself: I’m so much better than that.
Mr. Pick 6@AndrewVanGinkel
📺: @NFLNetwork pic.twitter.com/u9mFg6d4EE
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) October 6, 2024
That’s usually how it starts. Jones, Purdy, Stroud and Love also got got. They each missed gimme throws and released passes they wanted back right as the ball left their hands. They, too, viewed these incompletions or turnovers as mere mind slips. Against Flores’ defense, however, these are often harbingers of what’s to come.
Like the rest of them, Rodgers trotted toward the sideline afterward, prepared to dispose of the memory and wipe the slate clean. A Jets staffer handed him a tablet. He scrolled through snapshots of the Vikings’ defensive structures pre- and post-snap, nodding his head thinking he understood what he was up against.
The next stage is maybe the most reflective. The quarterback, thinking he grasped what Flores wanted to do to him, drops back with a renewed sense of belief. That’s when Flores flips the script the other way — and Rodgers recognized this on the possession following the Van Ginkel pick six. He dropped back, saw defensive backs blanketing his receivers in man coverage and hurled a pass over the middle of the field.
There was just one problem: The Vikings were in man coverage with two deep zone defenders behind the play. Rodgers sailed the pass, and Bynum dove and snagged it.
.@Cambeezy_!!!
📺: @NFLNetwork pic.twitter.com/EcrsFRBong
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) October 6, 2024
While Bynum sprinted to the end zone for a choreographed celebration mimicking a scene from the movie “Parent Trap,” Rodgers leaned his helmet back and stuck his tongue out. Next came the frustrated plop of the tablet, then the annoyed signaling for the sideline to speed up the play call and then the brutal beating in the pocket, leaving Rodgers on his hands and knees.
Rodgers might not be as mobile as he once was, but the Vikings still hit him 11 times and sacked him twice.
“The defense played out of their minds,” Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold said.
For the Vikings to leave London 5-0 and segue into their bye week with their undefeated record intact, the defense did not have a choice. The offense, which lost running back Aaron Jones in the first half to a hip injury, sputtered throughout the game. Head coach Kevin O’Connell explained afterward that the Jets’ strategy, to press elite cornerbacks Sauce Gardner and D.J. Reed, limited his team’s short passing game.
In multiple instances, this led to Gardner and Reed grabbing at Justin Jefferson’s purple jersey as the superstar receiver floated downfield. The referees flagged the Jets’ defensive backs for two pass interference calls and a holding on one drive alone, but New York continued to press.
“We were trying to live in a world where we could maybe use that against them,” O’Connell said afterward.
Darnold, who came back to earth with a middling 14-for-31 passing performance for 179 yards and an interception, aired it out, often attempting high-arcing passes for Jefferson and Jordan Addison as they streaked up the sidelines. Few were completed, leaving the Vikings in second-and-long and third-and-long situations, allowing the Jets’ defensive front to tee off on Minnesota’s offensive line.
While kicker Will Reichard buried three important field goals, including two 50-yarders, the Vikings’ punt coverage put the defense in tough situations. Gunners Jay Ward and Akayleb Evans were both flagged for penalties on punts. In the third quarter, with the Jets punting near their goal line and Minnesota set to get solid field position, linebacker Ivan Pace Jr. screamed in to attempt to block the kick but fell beneath the feet of Jets punter Thomas Morstead, who fell atop Pace. The 15-yard roughing-the-kicker penalty spurred a New York field goal drive and set the game up for a dicey finish.
What were the Vikings thinking when they jogged out onto the field for the Jets’ final possession up six points and needing a stop?
“We were happy to have the game in our hands,” Bynum said.
Even as the Jets reached the 28-yard line, the Vikings defense, Bynum said, felt like it was in the driver’s seat. With the Jets facing a third-and-10 just outside the red zone, Flores decided to leave Gilmore in single coverage on the back side of a formation against receiver Mike Williams.
Last season, the Vikings would have disintegrated in this moment. Gilmore was signed for these kinds of situations, to put away the game when it needed to be put away. Rodgers tried him, and Gilmore snatched the game-sealing interception. His fellow defensive backs circled around him and celebrated.
BALLGAME!
📺: @NFLNetwork pic.twitter.com/wzT1WdC9wB
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) October 6, 2024
On the sideline, O’Connell hugged Flores. Flores later wrapped his arms around Gilmore. Rodgers stood and observed it all, the jubilation and the rowdy crowd’s reaction. He then put his hands on his hips and eyed the fans with an expression that could best be described as frustrated.
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(Photo: Julian Finney / Getty Images)
