Packers need their burgeoning stars to take over against insane Vikings defense

Brian Flores can beguile even the most capable offensive coaching staff. Green Bay has to make this game about their guys just being ... better.

Matt LaFleur and the Green Bay Packers offense resorted to some gimmicks without Jordan Love. Get into the shotgun, dust off some old-school single-wing concepts, and beat the brains in of some unsuspecting defenses before getting just enough done on the ground to give Malik Willis some opportunities off play-action. Score enough to win. That was the Minnesota Vikings defense last year with Brian Flores. They didn’t have to talent, so they had to fake it. And it worked for a while, but by the time Green Bay saw them late in the season, the book was out on Flores and Love torched the Vikings.

Minnesota’s front office remedied that by getting Flores some better players; they don’t have to resort to the tricks as often, which means they work even better. For the Packers to win on Sunday, they’ll have to create opportunities not to trick-em-up with the offense, but beat them down.

Green Bay has the best offensive line the Vikings have faced this season, the best quarterback if Love plays (I said what I said), the best running back, and after the 49ers, the deepest group of pass catchers. San Francisco managed 396 yards of offense in that game and Deebo Samuel went over 100 yards receiver (more on the Jayden Reed of it all shortly).

It behooves them to make this game as straightforward as possible, to make us vs. them, rather than engaging in a cheese-measuring contest over who has the biggest and best scheme.

The Vikings come in first in defensive DVOA this season and eviscerated the Texans last week, holding them to just seven points. That’s with C.J. Stroud, a group of terrific receivers, and a playcaller getting head coaching heat. Flores couldn’t keep Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers from moving the ball but got two key turnovers and held San Francisco to 2-4 in the red zone, a bug-a-boo for the Packers so far this year as well.

On this play from Week 3, the Vikings show a Cover-1 look with a middle field safety and at the snap, everyone is on a string, hauling ass back to get into what I think is supposed to be Cover-2. It requires a perfect throw from CJ Stroud down the pipe to a tight end. Remember this play, we’ll come back to it.

It’s a defense that can be so amoebic, even former players on the FS1 desk couldn’t decipher some of the coverage calls after the fact. C.J. Stroud had plenty of problems diagnosing it in real that, that’s for sure.