Previewing Minnesota Vikings Matchup with Dallas Cowboys Offense & Wide Receiver Talent | Film Room

Welcome back to another edition of Vikings Film Room. Brought to you by the Vikings Entertainment Network right here in beautiful TCO Studios. The Minnesota Vikings are looking to make it two wins in a row. And to do so, they got to go down to Dallas and beat the Dallas Cowboys. How do you do that? Well, you got to stop this wide receiver room. One of the best in the business. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s look at the film and I’ll prove it to you. Technically, Jake Ferguson isn’t in the wide receiver room. However, he’s an important part of the Dallas Cowboys passing game. He’s kind of Dak Prescott’s safety valve, but they will use him to get down the field. And this is how they love to do it. Jake Ferguson, you see him flexed out at the bottom of your screen, you’re going to get a basic Tampa 2 type coverage out of Detroit. What he does with this route is what’s important. All right, as Prescott gets to the top of his drop, there’s that cover two, right? It’s it’s classic. You’ve got one deep safety there, one deep safety there. You got the linebacker running down the middle, but Ferguson sees the hole in the zone and he and Prescott have enough of a rapport where he can just settle and that’s exactly what he does. He settles in the voids and Dak Prescott’s able to find him. This is a huge throw and catch. Ferguson is the safety valve. When you talk Dallas receivers, the first guy is CD Lamb. Now, he may or may not be on the field. We we’ll see, but you have to account for him. And anytime CD Lamb is one-on-one in space, they are going to find a way to get him the football. And the problem is he could take a four-yard hitch and turn it into something big. What do I mean? I’m going to show you right here. And before the snap, what do you notice? Right? Single high safety. You’ve got a corner one-on-one. When you choose to leave CD Lamb in space, you’re taking a risk. This is just a simple hitch route, right? C Lamb catches this ball on the 30 yd line. It’s second and about seven. It’s almost a first down. But what do you notice? There’s one defender right here. The next closest defender, he’s standing way over in the middle of the field. A lot of room. If one guy misses, CD Lamb is gone. Watch this. That’s just a simple hitch route and he’s turning it into a 27yd gain. I mean, that’s what CD Lamb can do. You can never just assume you got him covered. In fact, the Cowboys love to use base personnel, 21 personnel, old school fullback, all that to do what? To create space for CD Lamb. What do I mean? Watch this play right here. As this fullback goes in motion and goes to the outside, he’s pulling all the underneath coverage with him because the Lions are thinking, “All right, they’re going to run to that side.” But look what’s happening where CD Lamb is. We got that same picture we just talked about. There’s the corner. There is the safety. He’s all the way over on George Pickin’s side because he’s thinking there’s going to be a slant or something coming his way. Way, way too much space. And how do they take advantage of it? Well, they do it this way. Play fake. CD Lamb gets to the top of the drop. What’s open? The corner’s inside. He’s thinking that this He’s thinking there’s going to be a post route right here, but he’s wrong. Look at that space. That is almost half of the field to leave a corn nurbback one-on-one with CD Lamb. Way too much space. And look at this perfect throw and catch. That connection is there. CD Lamb can get explosive on you in many ways. This Prescott, the Lamb connection is so good, they can even get to him when they’re really not even trying. What do I mean? Watch this play right here. You see CD Lamb at the top of your screen. They got the stacked receiver. Look, it’s very difficult to stretch a defense vertically when you are reducing your formation. However, the Lions in this case, what are they doing? Well, they’re playing on what they have man-to-man underneath, but they have lurk. Now, watch what this safety does. This safety works his way to the middle of the field. And what does that open up? Well, that opens up CD Lamb, who has a rolledup defender, now has to cover him vertically, and it doesn’t end well. So, watch. As soon as that safety drops in, CD Lamb is running go and Dak Prescott can find him. that adjustment back to the football, even draws the penalty, but still comes down with the catch. CD Lamb is a problem. The next problem you have to deal with is George Pickkins. And George can run the old school routes. What do I mean by that? Slants, quick slants in routes. He loves the middle of the field. The Cowboys will do things to help him out. Watch what they do right here. All right. motion in the tight end across just before the snap just to try to pull out as many of the underneath zone defenders as they can. But Dallas gets the look that they’re looking for. Watch this. As Dak Prescott is dropping back, he sees the flat defender widening out to cover this running back who’s going to the flat. What does that do? That opens up this area right here. And it doesn’t take long. It could be a tight window. It doesn’t matter. Prescott knows right where he’s going. big body, hit him in between the numbers, and then run after the catch. George Pickkins is one of the best slant runners in the NFL. Another way that they’ll get Pickkins open, you got to notice this before the snap, and this is something that defenders have to be aware of. This ball is on this hash mark down here, and Pickkins is way up here outside the numbers. That’s a lot of space right there. They’re trying to create space to open him up. Watch this play, though. A little play fake. And you notice how Dak Prescott is drifting toward the bottom of your screen. Why is he doing that with the play fake? That’s to pull all of these defenders this way. You want everyone stepping up to the short side of the field. Why? Well, because you’re running this tight end right down the seam to clear everything out and that opens that whole area. And you notice Pickins’s up on top. He’s engaged with the cornerback. Big body. He wants that so he can escape. Break in small window. Perfect throw. Goes up and grabs it. Pickins is great at the slant, but those deep in routes are there, too. After you’ve beaten the defense with a slant and then you got him on the dig. Well, what’s next? You’ll see right here. See Pickkins at the top of your screen. Watch as this play develops and watch where this corner goes. As he gets to the top, you see that cornerback is already crossing his feet. He’s assuming that Pickkins is going to go somewhere in the middle of the field because they’ve already run the dig. They’ve already run the slant. You just assume that Pickkins is going to go somewhere between the hash marks. So, what does he do? Overplays. He guesses. And as soon as you guess, Pickkins is good enough to okey do you. And look at all that open area. And what a throw to get him to the sideline. So, got to play him honestly or else he’ll burn you like that. All right, we’ve already talked about Lamb and Pickkins, but there’s another guy, Ryan Fenoi, that you have to worry about. You shut those other two down. This guy can be a problem, and they love using him underneath. He’s very, very quick, very, very good. This is exactly how they like to use him. They’re they know they’re getting some type of manto man, right? They’re motioning him over. You see the cornerback running with them, but they are going to use this coverage against the Detroit Lions because you see what’s happening. The linebacker’s all over that tight end. The two cornerbacks have to sort this thing out. So, this corner is doing what? He’s squeezing with this wide receiver. And this is kind of the old Ernie Zampe double slant, right? But the pick by the tight end is key. You’re getting a double in route against man-to-man. And Fenoy runs it beautifully. The separation catch the football. You’re taking care of Pickkins and you’re taking care of Lamb. Fenoi is going to be the guy. Now, Fenoi doesn’t run just the quick slants and those kinds of things like we saw from Pickkins earlier. This Cowboys team loves to attack the middle of the field right here. Looks like you’ve got what? Two receivers going vertically, but no. What you have is a clear route and the dig and they’re trying to attack this area in the middle of the field and they’ll get to it. Right. Dak Prescott top of his drop. He’s going to end up getting some pressure in his face. Look at this throw in between the two linebackers. Fenoi comes up with the catch. So Fenoy has the courage to get in there in the middle of the field, too. A lot of what I’m showing you is deep down the field, but they have a really good underneath passing game and they use it to their advantage. This is a second and five play with regular personnel. The Lions defense is assuming if it’s a pass short, move the chains because that’s a lot of what they do. But watch Fenoi down here at the bottom of your screen. Okay, there’s the somewhat of a play fake, but they do this at the sticks so often. The cornerback is right on top of him. He’s just assuming this is going to be a hitch right at the sticks. Move the chains, that kind of thing. Uh-uh. Fenoi says, “Nope. I’m going to double move you.” And look at that. He leaves that corner in the dust. The safety, he’s nowhere near. Deep middle safety nowhere near. You got the touchdown. All three of these receivers can run the entire route tree. So, you got to worry about CD Lamb, you got to worry about George Pickkins, you got to worry about Ryan Fenoi. And don’t forget about the tight end Ferguson. And oh, by the way, they’ve got other receivers that are pretty good, too. So you have to stop not just one but all of

Former Minnesota Vikings player and coach Pete Bercich breaks down film ahead of the Week 15 Sunday Night Football matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and Dallas Cowboys.

#MinnesotaVikings #Vikings #NFL #MN #Football #Skol

Subscribe to the Minnesota Vikings YT Channel: https://goo.gl/VTGqAS
For more Vikings videos: https://goo.gl/f9Ppj3

For more Vikings action: http://www.vikings.com/
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/minnesotavikings
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Vikings
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vikings/
Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@vikings
Get the App: https://apple.co/2uPFQkP
Subscribe to our podcasts: https://apple.co/36BX1on

5 comments
Leave a Reply