Mike Zimmer anticipates plenty of blitzes from the Chiefs

[KC Wolf]

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The Vikings, if they hope to turn 6-2 into a special season, need to win in Kansas City on Sunday. To do that, they need to control the clock. But dominating the time-of-possession battle won’t be easy, given the Chiefs in recent weeks have decided to force the issue with a defense that has pivoted to attack mode.

“I mean they’ve had some games where the time of possession has been overwhelmingly against them, but we’re always trying to do that,” Minnesota coach Mike Zimmer said at his weekly Wednesday press conference. “We’re always trying to win the time of possession, we’re always trying to be good on third downs, control the ball. They’ve blitzed the last three weeks a lot more, like I’ve said before. It’s a loud environment, so we’re going to have to be on our P’s and Q’s.”

Indeed they have. Earlier in the season, Simms began to lobby for the Chiefs to quit being passive on defense, allowing opponents to keep the Kansas City offense on the sideline. By dialing up the level of aggressiveness, the Chiefs either make a quick stop or allow a quick score. Either way, they get their potent offense back on the field.

Zimmer acknowledges that the recent trend toward becoming blitz happy may have been opponent specific. He seems to think it’s actually part of a broader strategy.

“Every week is a new week, but when you start getting 16, 17, 18 blitzes in a row, it could be their identity now,” Zimmer said.

That strategy ups the ante as to the play-in, play-out chess match, forcing offenses to make the right call, to execute it the right way, and (most importantly) to have a quarterback who can process the information quickly and find the receivers who will enjoy favorable matchups when extra defenders are trying to collapse the pocket.

For Minnesota, the specific challenge falls to quarterback Kirk Cousins, who lacks the mobility to buy time when the pocket collapses. He’ll need to quickly process the chaos and get rid of the ball, delivering it to the right spot and not into the path of a defender who hangs back and squats on a hot route.

That’s where and how Sunday’s game could be won or lost by the Vikings. If/when the Chiefs disrupt the normal flow of a well-oiled offense with a lightning flash of confusion, Cousins will need to keep his wits about him before the walls close in, because he simply lacks the physical tools to buy more time.

The other half of the equation becomes whether Chiefs coach Andy Reid can consistently crack the code of Zimmer’s scheme, dialing up plays that exploit the tendencies and turning the game into a shootout that forces Cousins to repeatedly beat the blitz. Ultimately, whether the Chiefs can achieve that may hinge on whether quarterback Patrick Mahomes can return to action only 17 days after dislocating a kneecap.

However it plays out, the stakes will be very high for both teams. The winner will remain very much alive for a potential division title and bye week. The loser will slide closer to the kind of scrum that points to eventually launching the playoffs in the opening round, with the reward for a wild-card win being a road trip to face one of the best two teams in the conference.