Fear Has Become Brian Flores’ Biggest Weapon
Credit: Brad Rempel-Imagn Images
“Your scheme is crazy.” That’s all Brock Purdy could say to Brian Flores as the two met walking off the field following the Minnesota Vikings’ 23-17 victory over the 49ers.
The 49ers entered Week 2 being regarded as one of the NFL’s best offenses. The NFC Champions flew through the 2023 season, averaging nearly 30 points, then started 2024 with a 32-point performance. On Sunday, the Vikings’ defense brought that freight train of an offense to a halt, holding them to just 17. Costly turnovers and a 20% third-down conversion rate stick out when looking for the culprits, but take a deeper look and you’ll find the entire 49ers offense changed, and it changed because the Vikings defense forced them to do so.
In Purdy’s 23 NFL starts, the Niners have had him run five play-action in 20 of them. There are only three times when Purdy didn’t hit that benchmark. Two of those three came against Flores’s defense, including Sunday’s game.
Kyle Shanahan’s scheme leans on play-action to open up the middle of the field and make reads easier for Purdy. However, Flores’ combination of disguised coverages and blitz packages makes play action a terrifying proposition for an offense. When an offense can’t tell when Flores is sending the house or dropping back into coverage, teams are wary of running play-action.
The purpose of play-action is to make defenses respect the run game. Typically, the offense holds the power when running play-action because the fake to the running back forces the “D” to hesitate and play the run for a moment, especially when the offense has a premier run game like San Francisco has, even with Jordan Mason in for Christian McCaffrey. Flores’ defensive scheme takes that power away and turns the second-guessing back toward the offense.
Deebo Samuel spoke on this confusion on his podcast saying, “We just were trying to find the right time to call the right play, which, with the defense that they have, it was kinda hard to figure out what they was doing.”
The stunt to the running back in play-action takes about a half-second away from the quarterback to read the field, which is an eternity in the NFL. It takes even more time than that on plays from under-center or on bootlegs. The threat of Flores’ blitz takes the advantage of that stunt away, making it pointless. Teams can’t afford to lose that half-second or more, because before the quarterback can get to his first read, there could be six defenders in his face. Even if the Vikings don’t blitz, their coverage could have shifted completely, and as a quarterback, you won’t have time to read it.
The Flores defense has yet to be figured out, and their element of surprise will be their biggest weapon this week against the Houston Texans. The Texans have a three-headed monster in their wide receiver corps, a good offensive line, and, if healthy enough to play, a running back who seems to have found his groove again in Joe Mixon. Houston’s offense has been prolific since they drafted C.J. Stroud who, like Purdy, is primarily a pocket passer.
Texans’ offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik – another offensive wizard from the Shanahan coaching tree – is also fond of play-action. Through two weeks, 31.3% of Houston’s passing plays have been off-play action. Last season that number was 36.9%. Like the 49ers, the Texans have a strong running game, so establishing play-action hurts almost any defense, especially in the middle of the field.
It’s not likely to slow Flores and the Vikings, whose play in the middle of the field has been incredible. Blake Cashman has been a stud of a middle linebacker so far. His elite speed and mobility means he doesn’t need to hesitate in play-action, allowing him to use his elite instincts to control his part of the field whether the offense runs or throws.
If the Vikings can continue to win the chess match and force Houston’s offense to keep themselves honest, Stroud will be forced to pick apart the Vikings on his own. That’s something he’s proven he’s capable of, but it only takes one or two mistakes to change a game, after all. And if the Vikings jump on those mistakes, it’s over, as they’re now 19-0 under Kevin O’Connell when they win or tie the turnover battle.
Flores’ scheme (and the players executing it) have been nearly flawless this season. Big plays against are at a minimum, the red zone has been a series of landmines for offenses to navigate, and turnovers have been in abundance. A large part of that comes from the scheme’s artistry against the play-action pass, and instilling the fear to even run it in the first place in their opponents. If the Vikings can go into this week and do likewise against Houston, they will continue their reign of terror and establish themselves as one of the league’s best defenses.
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