Between the games against Cincinatti and Pittsburgh, Carson Wentz was sacked nine times. This edition was difficult and took longer to write than I truly wanted it to. There have definitely been some protection issues stemming from an incohesive and injured offensive line for the Minnesota Vikings. I will get to a point where I am compiling data to look at trends throughout the season and pinpoint the most impactful reasons for our pass protection woes. There was a request for pie charts for each play, but unfortunately, I am not there yet. However, I did include visuals for the breakdown of the sacks that occurred versus the Steelers. Let’s get into it!
Week 3 at US Bank Stadium vs. the Cincinatti Bengals.
Q1 9:45. Wentz gets sacked on 3rd and 7.
Cincinatti lines up in a nickel double mug set. The ball is snapped and the Bengals drop two defenders into coverage and rush four. Wentz takes a quick two step drop and then loads like he is going to throw. He has Hockenson open about five yards down the field.
He has a chance for a completion and a possible first down if Hock is able to get some YAC but decides to pull it down and scramble left. Donovan Jacks was helping Darrisaw with a double team for too long and allowed a free tackle to pursue the quarterback. Wentz tries to scramble out to the left side but goes out too far and causes Darrisaw to lose leverage. He tries to go back inside and is swarmed by three Bengals.
Whose fault? Donovan Jackson 20%. Carson Wentz 75%. Game situation 5%.
Q1 3:46. Carson Wentz gets sacked on 1st and 10.
Cincinatti lines up in a 4-3 defense. The Vikings come with an extra blocker in Josh Oliver. The ball is snapped, and the right end drops into coverage with a middle linebacker bringing pressure. It’s a six to four advantage. Wentz has all day to throw. The offensive line was holding their ground and created a great pocket. Wentz was looking for Hockenson on a deep crossing route, but it was not open.
Jalen Nailor blew by his defender on the left side, but Wentz didn’t see it, probably because he was locked on #87. Mason was open for an easy dump off and had no defenders within 10 yards of him. Instead of taking the dump off opportunity, Wentz tucks the ball and runs directly into a defensive lineman. In this scenario, the quarterback needs to know where his safety valve is.
Whose fault? Carson Wentz 100%.
Q2 3:38. Carson Wentz gets sacked on 3rd and 12.
It is a five on four advantage for Minnesota. Cincinatti runs a stunt on the inside and seem to be purposely singling out Michael Jurgens. Number 58 gets him to commit to a double team block with right guard Will Fries and then number 90 for Cincinatti comes from the left side and pushes him off his spot.
Wentz has some room to his left to get outside of the pocket, but is looking downfield and attempts to tuck and run. There were no receivers open down the field, the play likely would have at best wound up as an incompletion. That being said, Wentz’ skillset doesn’t seem to include a strong ability to generate plays off script.
Whose fault? Michael Jurgens 40%. Good defense 50%. Carson Wentz 10%.
Week 4 in Ireland vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Q1 7:06, Carson Wentz gets sacked on 3rd and 9.
Pittsburgh lines up with four down linemen and Patrick Queen lurking behind T.J. Watt. The ball was snapped pretty quickly once the Vikings got to the line, which makes me think that they believed they had the right play called for the defense they were seeing. Pittsburgh loaded the left side of the offensive line with three down linemen. It was a four on three advantage in favor of the Vikings on the left side.
Jordan Mason stayed for a double team with Brian O’Neill on T.J. Watt, who was effectively blocked on the play. However, that left Patrick Queen open with a straight line at the quarterback. It was a great disguise by Pittsburgh, as Queen patiently waited to use Jordan Mason as cover.
O’Neill is understandably focused on number 90 for Pittsburgh, and once Mason comes of the block, the Pittsburgh defense has a two on one advantage against O’Neill. Patrick Queen then absolutely demolishes Wentz. You can also see an absolutely wide-open Justin Jefferson run across his face, with Wentz never even looking in his direction. With the down and distance situation, Wentz is looking to the endzone for a touchdown instead of checking down to Jefferson, who would likely have at least gotten a first down to extend the drive.
Whose fault? Great defensive effort 60%. Carson Wentz 20%. Game situation 20%.
Q2 13:20. Carson Wentz gets sacked on 3rd and 12.
Before the snap, Wentz motions Zavier Scott to the right side and Patrick Queen follows and stops right on top of T.J. Hockenson. His job is to take away the short pass on third and long. Pittsburgh rushes four on this play, but the protection breaks down quite quickly. Wentz takes a three step drop and looks like he wants to unload quickly to Jalen Nailor, but sees that he is covered.
The blocking isn’t pretty on this play. You can see Scott with a little room to operate, but you can also see how far he is from the first down marker. On a third and long situation, you need a little time for the play to develop to get a chunk play. You can see above that Darrisaw is losing is matchup on the defensive end. Wentz senses the pressure and tries to roll out to the right. He had the possibility of a first down pass to Addison, but by the time the throw was an option, he was already on the ground.
It was not a great play by Darrisaw, and coupled with the down and distance, there was not a high likelihood of success on this play.
Whose fault? Game Situation 20%, Christian Darrisaw 80%.
Q3 13:41. Carson Wentz gets sack on 3rd and 11.
On another third and long situation, Minnesota is expecting pressure from the Steelers’ defense, and they get it. Before I get too far into this, I will mention that there was a holding penalty by Jordan Mason, which would have negated any play that may have occurred if Wentz hadn’t been sacked. The Pittsburgh defense is no joke, and they absolutely swarmed the offensive line on this play.
You can see in this frame that it looks like Minnesota has the perfect protection called to stop the five man blitz. Notice Brandel blocking Casey Hayward on the left side of the offensive line. He blocks him into Darrisaw, leaving Mason one-on-one with Patrick Queen.
This is the last moment that Wentz has before the pocket collapses. He does rear back looking like he is going to throw to Nailor in the middle of the field, but the timing isn’t right as Nailor’s route is ends up as a comeback at the line to gain. Wentz needed another moment to throw but doesn’t get it.
This is the moment where Wentz wants to throw. Nailor is taking a quick step to fake inside and then turns the other way and stops, causing Jalen Ramsey to lose his footing. Also, notice Blake Brandel on the ground. When he came of his block of Hayward, he was tasked with repositioning and blocking number 51. He obviously wasn’t able to make that happen. Again, any completion would have been called back by the holding call, so this was not a great opportunity for Minnesota.
Whose fault? Game situation 30%. Great defense 40%. Blake Brandel 20%. Jordan Mason 10%.
Q3 6:53. Carson Wentz gets sacked on 1st and 10.
You will see in a moment how excellent this play disguise was by Pittsburgh. At the snap, there are four down linemen and two linebackers in the middle. Wentz had just motioned Josh Oliver, who looks like he is going to protect against T.J. Watt on the right side of the offensive line. The Vikings have a play action pass called here, looking to take advantage of an aggressive Steelers defense.
You can see number 25 for Pittsburgh time the snap well enough to run right in between Blake Brandel and Christian Darrisaw. Mason has to make a split-second decision as soon as he runs past Wentz and is able to block 25 and basically give him the old back body drop. Unfortunately, the linebacker shot the gap right behind him and put pressure on Wentz, who was actually able to avoid the initial hit.
Wentz attempts to slide back up into the pocket, but 25 for Pittsburgh is right there waiting for him. He had basically a zero percent chance of making anything happen on the play. He probably should have just taken the sack and lived to fight another day. However, he tried to make a play when nothing was there.
I utilized the red circle to make it apparent, but as you can see, nobody has the football. That is, in fact, not a good thing. Luckily Minnesota was able to recover the fumble.
Whose fault? Great defense 100%.
Q3 6:04. Carson Wentz gets sacked on 2nd and 11.
This one is a little difficult to diagnose. This is an interesting nickel formation by the defense. Notice how line backers and the corner are lined up almost directly behind the down linemen, almost like they are trying how many defensive players they actually have in the box. After watching the tape on this a few times, I am still trying to figure out what exactly the plan was for Minnesota on this play.
The play design is a fake pitch designed to get the defense to commit to the blocks sliding to the left. What I don’t understand is why they thought this poor excuse for a block on T.J. Watt was going to make the play successful. Also, number 95 did not bite on this play fake at all, so he was right there to box in Wentz.
It looks like Jordan Addison is his first read here. He does have some space, so if he was going to attempt a throw to Addison this is the time to let it rip. Instead, he switches focus to Hockenson but decides to not throw it and tuck the ball.
Here is a visual of the moment when Wentz goes down. My final analysis on this is that Pittsburgh didn’t play the defense that KO was looking for. I don’t see a whole lot of room for Wentz to make a play, so maybe we see this one come back later in the season with a tweaked design.
Whose fault? Play call 85%. Defensive scheme 15%.
Q3 1:25. Carson Wentz gets sacked on 3rd and 9.
This is the sixth and final sack that Wentz took in this game and thank goodness! I am so tired of watching him get destroyed by the Steelers defense. Everyone on the offensive line knows their assignments on this play. The Minnesota offense finds itself in another third and long situation, which has been exacerbating circumstances throughout the entire game.
Going from the left side of the image, you see Thielen chipping T.J. Watt trying to slow him down just a little bit. Will Fries takes on Patrick Queen with a good block. Jordan Mason sees the blitzing linebacker and meets him at the point of attack. Michael Jurgens is basically beaten as soon as the ball touches Carson Wentz’s hands. Brandel has help from Darrisaw on Heyward. But the outside linebacker is coming on a delayed blitz and Darrisaw has to go handle him.
In this next frame, you can see the pocket collapsing. Justin Skule is unable to handle T.J. Watt, while Brandel and Jurgens are turned around looking the wrong way. Looking at Wentz’ posture, this is the moment he wants to throw. He is looking at Hockenson here, who is running on an out route.
This is last possible moment Wentz could get the ball out of his hands to have any chance for a completion. The timing on this route is obviously disrupted as Wentz is on his but about one tenth of a second after this moment. As you can see below:
Not much good was going to come of a pass attempt here.
Whose fault? Michael Jurgens 60%. Blake Brandel 20%. Justin Skule 20%.
There you have it. I hope you didn’t enjoy this article, because I sure didn’t enjoy writing it! I’m kidding, it was tough, but I am blessed to even have to opportunity to write for the incredible Daily Norseman community. Hopefully we get healthy and clean things up, so this series can turn into what we can credit for explosive plays! I will save that for a game where Minnesota doesn’t give up ANY sacks.
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