‘Don’t chase ghosts,’ how Texans approach Vikings’ aggressive, unpredictable defense built by Brian Flores

MINNEAPOLIS – “Don’t chase ghosts.”

“Organized chaos.”lk

“Confusion.”

Consider the Texans’ offense educated and on high alert for the unpredictable and aggressive defensive strategies built by Minnesota Vikings veteran defensive coordinator Brian Flores.

As the architect of a resurgent Vikings’ defense that includes former Texans starting defensive end Jonathan Greenard via a four-year, $72 million deal, linebacker Blake Cashman on a three-year, $22.5 million contract in addition to injecting former Miami Dolphins outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel on a two-year, $20 million pact and first-round draft pick and former Alabama edge Dallas Turner, Flores has plenty of ammunition in terms of personnel and brainpower for his schemes.

SEE ALSO No hard feelings: Texans’ Stefon Diggs plays Vikings in Minnesota first time since 2020 trade ‘They took a chance on me’

The undefeated Vikings lead the NFL with 11 sacks heading into Sunday’s matchup against the 2-0 Texans at U.S. Bank Stadium. And their new additions have given the defense a boost with the departure of Pro Bowl defensive end Danielle Hunter, now dominating for the Texans, after signing a two-year, $51 million deal with his hometown NFL team.

The Vikings flustered San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy in a six-point win.

The 49ers were 2 for 10 on third downs, a key metric of offensive success as they scored just 16 points. Flores deployed a race-car pass-rushing group on eight of those 10 plays, sacrificing size for speed.

And the Vikings rank second in the NFL behind the Texans with a 14.1 percent sack rate and are led by backup Patrick Jones II’s team-high four sacks.

Well aware of what Flores, a former Dolphins head coach and Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots assistant is dialing up, Texans Pro Bowl quarterback C.J. Stroud is one of the best passers in the NFL against the blitz and is off to a good start in his second season after earning NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. Stroud is completing 69.1 percent of his throws for 494 yards for three touchdowns and zero interceptions and a 104.7 passer rating.

He’s tracking toward a 4,199-yard, 26-touchdown season after passing for 4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns and five interceptions last season after being drafted second overall out of Ohio State. For his career, he’s up to 4,602 yards and 26 touchdown passes with a 64.6 completion percentage.

Stroud is expecting the unexpected from Flores.

“He does a great job of mixing it up, a lot of great looks to make you think twice and to get you off your game,” Stroud said. “I’m a big fan of his. He does a really great job in that whole scheme taking what they did in New England and doing its own twist to it. A lot of respect for those guys and we’ve got to be on our A game in every single way. He does a great job of mixing looks and being very versatile with putting his D-linemen in one-on-one situations and making his DBs look great in coverage, so he does a really good job.”

“Just chaos. They run around, they do show looks, bluff looks. They just do a lot of great things to put their guys in position, but they know their issues. Then they play really hard. They got Blake Cashman, who was my former teammate and someone I have a ton of respect for, running the show. [Greenard], who I know for sure is probably the leader of the d-line. Got them boys hunting too, so you know. On the back end, they do a great job. They’ve got some guys, man,, and they’ve been putting it on film. Got to have an awareness about the stuff they’re doing, but also just be ourselves.”

Texans Pro Bowl wide receiver Stefon Diggs has been playing in the NFL for a decade and has seen it all, including Flores’ brand of defense that has its roots in New England.

He’ll square off against a secondary that includes former NFL Defensive Player of the Year cornerback Stephon Gilmore and veteran safety Harrison Smith, a rangy hard hitter.

“They’ve got a defense that’s flying around, definitely look impressive on tape,” Diggs said. “You don’t know what you’re going to get. You’ve got to play what you see. Don’t kind of get ahead of yourself. You don’t want to chase ghosts. If it’s zero, it’s zero. If it’s not, it’s not. You’ve got to be on the same page as the quarterback. That’s something we’ve had a conversation about throughout the week.”

Stroud has been sacked seven times through two starts, and it’s a number the Texans’ offensive line wants to cut down starting Sunday against a challenging defense.

Stunts and twists have given the offensive line issues early in the season as well as a series of false starts. Starting center Juice Scruggs is expected back for Sunday’s game from a groin injury that sidelined him against the Chicago Bears in a Sunday night win during which the Texans yielded four sacks.

“I feel like we’re doing a great job handling how everybody is saying the Minnesota defense and controlled chaos,” offensive guard Kenyon Green said. “They show a lot of stuff up front and just seeing how they play and everything, they play very sound ball, gap defense, just being sure we’re on top of everything and doing what we need to do. It’s going to be great playing against (Greenard and Cashman), great players, great men. I’m excited to go against them. Communicating as a line is what’s going to make or break this game.”

As coach DeMeco Ryans stressed, protection is the key. There will be times when the Vikings are trying to bait the Texans into maximum protection pass blocking alignments, then bail out and drop back into coverage flooding zones to cut down passing lanes to receivers Nico Collins, who leads the NFL with 252 receiving yards, Tank Dell and Diggs.

It’s all about trusting what you see and not overthinking the Vikings’ fake looks designed to create poor decisions.

“With Brian’s defense, he presents a lot of different looks, a lot of looks that many teams don’t do,” Ryans said. “They do a really good job of communicating across the board. Brian does a great job of coaching those guys up to where they’re all working together, they’re working in sync. It may look like a lot of craziness going on, a lot of guys moving around, but they’re in sync. For me and my perspective, really appreciate the coach that he is and getting those guys on the same page.

“He’s going to force the game to be hard on the quarterback. He’s going to force the issue, he’s going to try to fluster the quarterback as much as possible, so we have to do a great job around C.J. this week. Everybody around C.J. has to play really well to help kind of calm the madness that they present on defense. Their defense is playing fast. That’s what jumps off the tape to me. They’re playing fast and they’re playing together. And that’s why they’re playing really good defense.”

The Vikings had the highest blitz rate in the NFL last season. Now, they’re blitzing less and getting home more with pressure from their front. One year after recording a career-high 12 1/2 sacks with 15 tackles for losses, 22 quarterback hits, 52 tackles and 53 pressures, Greenard has one sack and 12 quarterback pressures to rank sixth in the NFL in that category behind pass rushers Aidan Hutchinson, Boye Mafe, Micah Parsons, Chris Jones and Zach Allen.

“In my eyes, I just feel like I haven’t done enough,” Greenard told Minnesota reporters. “I feel like I can always do more. And this team allows me to do that, be confident in myself and not hold anything back and just play ball. Your motor never fails you. Effort will never betray you.”

The Vikings definitely play hard. They also play smart, as do the forewarned Texans.

“Understand that he might get you one time, or he might get you twice,” Stroud said of Flores. “It’s not about hanging your head down, it’s about the next play and making the next play your best, so he does a great job of making the quarterback think twice and think about what he’s doing. It’s my job just to be myself and do what I always do and try to just be comfortable.

“Just trust my process and trust what I do. Believe in myself. It won’t always be perfect. It’s the league, man. Even these last couple weeks like not everything is going to be perfect. It’s always about the next play and getting the win. If it’s cute, ugly there is no such thing because it’s a win, so that’s what we’re trying to do and it’s going to be a great challenge. It’s about just being us.”

Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik will be matching wits with Flores and dialing up plays intended to counteract what the Vikings want to do, which is force quarterbacks into decisions they don’t want to make. There’s also an opportunity against the Vikings’ porous pass defense, which ranks fifth from the bottom of the NFL charts.

“The challenge about this defense is it’s almost like he does everything he can to try to eliminate coaches from the equation,” Slowik said. “He creates a lot of chaos, but the,n behind it all, they’re fundamentally sound. They run, they hit, they do all the things a defense needs to do. And, for us, we strain this week, the biggest thing for us is our guys have to go out and they have to own what they’re doing and we have to play well against this defense.

“And our quarterback is leading the charge on that and he knows that if we block well, if we throw well, if we’re on time, if we’re good in our protections, that’s what gives us the shot, otherwise the way this defense is structured, there’s not things anyone can really cook up as a play caller or as a coach that’s going to answer the problems that get presented this week.”

The Texans are shorthanded in the offensive backfield, too.

Starting running back Joe Mixon is out with a sprained ankle and didn’t travel with the team to Minnesota, and backup Dameon Pierce is out again with a strained hamstring. The Texans have plugged in former Los Angeles Rams and Vikings running back Cam Akers as RB1 this week with Dare Ogunbowale backing him up.

“He has great vision,” Slowik said. “We call it riding the wave, finding the right hole to hit. He always plays under control. When he sees it, he hits it. He finishes physical. And he has really good contact balance. Those are the things that jump out with Cam. You pretty much see that every carry.”

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Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com