The Vikings have been a strong offensive team the last few years. Very effective passing and running through the past few years. Daunte Culpepper at QB can be a VERY deadly weapon. He has the ability to pull it down and run through the defense. He has solid awareness and accuracy and argueably the strongest arm in the NFL. So use his skills to your advantage. When passing, use WR Nate Burleson as a possesion WR. Use quick outs and quick slants, and use him on curl routes. And on the other side of the field you have Marcus Robinson...very equal to Nate but he's got hops and can go up and get it on demand. Put Troy Williamson in the slot and send him on some sneaky routes. Try using him mostly on deep corner routes or fly routes. If you pass to him on PA plays...have in do the WR Wheel route and you can get a huge gain. At TE you have a good TE in Wiggins. Good hands, not the greatest blocker but he does well. Use him on outs/ins, and flats. The running game is simple: Use Bennett on sweeps and pitches. Then bring in Moe Williams and Mewelde Moore and take it up the gut for a few yards. Try to keep a 55% pass to 45% run ratio.
On defense, cover 2 works quite well. You've got speed at LB so bring them on blitzes at times. You've got a strong D-line to prevent the run if you crash in and let the LB's cover the outside. Great additions at CB in Smoot and Sharper at FS will help the pass game. Try to have Smoot on the #1 WR most of the time. He matches up better vs. the better WR's than Winfield does.
Establish the run and use the LB inexperience and low ratings against them. Try to run more to the left to go against the rookie Erasmus James at DE. Avoid Darren Sharper...the guy can hit! When passing match up your tallest WR on Antoine Winfield (#26) and use his 5'9 height disadvantage against him and the not as great SS in Corey Chavous. Throw alot of jump balls and use alot of quick passes to the sidelines.
Strengths: -Strong Offensive line...very good blocking on a regular basis. Rookie RG Marcus Johnson progresses quite well -Strong depth at HB. If Bennett goes down...you got Moe, Mewelde and rookie Fason to back him up. -Solid WR crew with good speed -Good recieving TE in Wiggins -The defensive back field has Smoot, Winfield, and Sharper. All potential pro-bowlers -DT is the strongest part of the defense, big and strong.
Weaknesses: -Low rated and inexperience LB's are the weakest part of the D -Undependable back up QB in Johnson -They may have depth at HB, but Bennett is injury prone, Moe is getting old so you'll use Mewelde and Ciatrick Fason alot. -WR's are solid but Taylor, Williamson, and Koren Robinson have trouble hauling it in at times -Rookie RG Marcus Johnson will get plowed over until he progresses which will take at least 2 years. -Rookie DE Erasmus James will get pancaked often and isn't strong it the pass rush...or at least for a couple years. -Inconsistency at K and a very young P
-QB Daunte Culpepper: Strong arm and decent awareness and accuracy gives him a good sized cone and sees the field quite well. His 80 speed helps on PA and rollouts. Make sure to get about 300-500 rushing yards/year with him. -TE Jermaine Wiggins: Big target for an easy dump off with exceptional hands and breaks many tackles with ease. -Entire O-Line: Very big, strong, athletic players that will get you many pancakes and solid pass protection. Forms a great pocket for Daunte. -Both DT's (Kevin and Pat Williams): Solid pass rush that crashes the middle of the pocket and stops many runs between the Tackles. -FS Darren Sharper: Should be one of your captains. Lays many hits and is a force fumble machine. Dependable hands with good field awareness. A little slow but he pans out. Great lateral movement. -CB's Smoot and Winfield: 2 of the best shutdown corners in the game. Jams the WR early to enable more sacks. Both have great hands and great speed. Use it to your advantage. -P Chris Kluwe: He may be young and rated a 73...but the man has got a helluva leg. Progresses well and is especially good on kickoffs. Great pickup at P in for any team.
Offense: Use Singleback-Big alot with the 2 TE's. Wiggins is the best target in this formation when passing. The best run is HB counter. I-Form Normal-use Vikings blast and FB Fake HB Toss as your run plays out of this formation. Passing wise use PA FB Flat and watch for Wiggins. Also PA Rollout and dump it off quick to Wiggins. I-Form 3 WR: Not too familiar with the run plays but I use this formation for 966 H Flat, one of the best pass plays in this playbook. Weak I-3 WR-My favorite formation in the whole playbook. Use HB Wham and HB Off Tackle the most when running the ball in this playbook. The best passes are probably WR Drag and look for the slot WR on the corner route. And then FL Deep Out or something like that. Look for the #1 WR which should be Burleson on that deep out. Very effective for 10-15 yard passes in this formation. I don't run much shotgun so I can't tell you much.
Defense: In every formation just use a Cover 2 man to man coverage. It works well for me. Use one of the safeties though...that's the best position to play when doing the cover 2. That's all I do is the C2 Man to man so I don't know much else for you there.
