Courtesy of Vikings Vikings defensive coordinator Ed Donatell is in the hot seat with fans calling for his firing after the team's season-ending loss to the New York Giants.
Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Ed Donatell is behind one of the defense’s worst runs of all time.
The Vikings have allowed 400 or more yards for five straight games, the longest streak in franchise history, punctuated by a 34-23 loss to the Detroit Lions on December 11 where Minnesota surrendered 464 yards and allowed the Lions to score on five of their six final drives — the other being a missed field goal.
The defense has leaned on a bend-don’t-break mentality this season but the levy has officially bowed out.
Calls for Donatell to be fired rained across Vikings social media platforms over the past two days. But with the team a win away from clinching a postseason appearance, would Kevin O’Connell consider a change?
Vikings to Keep Ed Donatell as Defensive Coordinator… For Now
Star Tribune reporter Ben Goessling reported on December 12 that while O’Connell said “you’re always looking at things you think might help guys play better,” he said he’s not considering switching defensive play-calling duties away from Ed Donatell right now.”
While Kevin O’Connell said “you’re always looking at things you think might help guys play better,” he said he’s not considering switching defensive play-calling duties away from Ed Donatell right now.
While Donatell will call plays on Saturday against the Indianapolis Colts, O’Connell did call for changes to help complement the underutilized talent on the defensive side of the ball.
“I think there’s a lot of things we can do, there’s a lot of things on the table,” he said in a December 12 press conference. “Whether it be personnel-based, whether it be schematics-based, changing things up, changing some looks, being a little bit more aggressive at times, just picking our spots defensively to put our players in situations to be aggressive and try to make some plays.”
Vikings Pass Rush a Prime Concern
Entering the season, the Vikings secondary wasn’t expected to be a top-tier unit or carry the team.
Instead, Minnesota invested in their pass rush, bringing in Za’Darius Smith alongside Danielle Hunter to form one of the most formidable pass-rush duos in the league. And they were that for the better half of the season.
During Minnesota’s first nine games of the season, Smith and Hunter combined for 15 total sacks and averaged 10.3 pressures per game. Smith was NFC Defensive Player of the Month for October and was praised as one of the best free-agent acquisitions in the league.
However, in the Vikings’ last four matchups, they’ve averaged just 6.5 pressures per game and tallied only two sacks.
This has come with opposing quarterbacks adapting to getting the ball out much quicker against the Vikings.
In Minnesota’s first nine matchups of the season, opposing quarterbacks had an average time to throw of 2.84 seconds, according to Pro Football Focus. During the Vikings’ last four games, opposing quarterbacks had an average time to throw of 2.63 seconds.
Meanwhile, the secondary has continued to play zone coverage and hemorrhage yards in the middle of the field. More press coverage could help the pass rush get home more often, but the secondary, other than Cam Dantzler, is largely better playing in zone coverage.
The Vikings are allowing 9.23 Y/A playing off coverage this year—unsurprisingly, the worst rate in the NFL. You know what they say about the definition of insanity…
It may be too late to make considerable changes to the defense, but Saturday should show what actions the Vikings will take to avoid giving up another 400-plus yard game to Matt Ryan and the Colts.
However, it isn’t unprecedented for a Super-Bowl contending team to fire a defensive coordinator late in the season. The 2012 Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens fired Jim Caldwell in Week 14 (December 10) that season and went on to win a title.
O’Connell, in his first year as a head coach, may not be ready to sever ties that abruptly, but there will likely be a strong consideration for a new coordinator in 2023.