The way Brian Flores’ defense beat Ben Johnson’s offense on Monday Night Football was very encouraging.
The Minnesota Vikings’ defense was great last year, but what made Week 1’s performance unique was how sustainable the defensive formula felt. Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen combined for 13 pressures on the Vikings’ interior defensive line against the Chicago Bears’ revamped offensive line. For context, Minnesota’s defensive line only had 21 pressures all of last year. This consistent interior pressure allowed Flores to drop seven in coverage, taking away any explosive plays Caleb Williams could’ve made in the deep-passing game.
Another factor that limited the passing attack for both teams was the recently sodded natural grass at Soldier Field, which hadn’t fully set before the game. The shoddy grass created extra slippery conditions, making it difficult for receivers to get enough traction to run crisp routes. The field conditions created a heightened risk of injury, and we saw Ty Chandler, Blake Cashman, and Bears cornerback Nahshon Wright leave the game injured. The Vikings placed Chandler and Cashman on injured reserve and will miss a minimum of four games.
Losing Blake Cashman this early in the season is a significant setback for the Vikings’ defense. Brett Kollmann made a video previewing Minnesota’s matchup against the Bears, going into great detail as to why Flores cannot run the zone coverages he calls without an inside linebacker like Cashman, who can cover a ton of grass in the open field.
Cashman is arguably Minnesota’s most irreplaceable player in a Brian Flores defense that has a ton of impactful players, including Javon Hargrave, Jonathan Greenard, Josh Metellus, and Isaiah Rodgers.
Do the Vikings still have a sustainable defensive formula that allows them to successfully drop seven guys into coverage without Cashman at middle linebacker for the next four games?
The good news is that reinforcements are coming for the Vikings’ defense. Harrison Smith could make his season debut in Minnesota’s home-opener against the Atlanta Falcons. It would make a ton of sense for Smith to start at strong safety with Theo Jackson at free safety, and Metellus rotating in at quasi-linebacker. Veteran linebacker Eric Wilson has also earned enough trust from the Vikings coaching staff to take over green dot duties with Cashman sidelined.
It remains to be seen how Flores will adapt his scheme on a short week without his most impactful player. When Cashman missed time last year, Minnesota’s defense got significantly worse.
The Vikings lost two straight games against the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams midseason without Cashman at middle linebacker. In those two losses, Minnesota’s defense allowed an average of 30.5 points per game. It took playing Joe Flacco and the Indianapolis Colts, a vastly inferior team, for Minnesota’s defense to finally rebound without Cashman.
Atlanta is nowhere near as good as the 2024 Lions or the 2024 Rams, but they are definitely better than the 2024 Colts. When the Vikings allowed 30 points to the Rams in the regular season, it was on Thursday Night Football, so it was a short week. Flores didn’t have much time to come up with a good game plan to slow down McVay’s offense without his best coverage linebacker.
Coincidentally, the Vikings once again find themselves game-planning on a short week without Cashman against Robinson’s McVay-inspired offense. Byron Murphy Jr. looked more like his inconsistent 2023 self against the Bears. Flores may have to revert to his old ways to compensate for a weakened secondary by sending blitzes early and often. This aggressive strategy has proven to be effective in the past, but it’s not something you want to rely on all season long.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah entered the 2025 offseason wanting to build a team that can win games more sustainably, regardless of circumstance. The early results have been promising thanks to the new additions to the interior defensive line. However, the Vikings may need to lean more heavily into last year’s high-risk, high-reward defensive philosophy over the next four weeks until Blake Cashman returns to action.