The Vikings Are Tapping Into the Subconscious To Create Turnovers

Brian Flores asks his sons to punch him every day.

“Every time they give me a hug, they better punch at the ball,” he said, “and I hug them every day.”

Flores isn’t trying to encourage his sons, Myles and Max, to be violent. Instead, he wants them to create turnovers in Pop Warner football like the Minnesota Vikings’ players do on Sunday.

“We got one out last week in our game, last week,” Flores proudly said regarding his sons’ football games. “My son Myles got one out, ripped one out. We didn’t recover it, but I know he’s working the techniques, so I was happy to see that.

“My son Max got one out, too, last week. So shout out to those guys.”

Myles and Max didn’t have the day that Isaiah Rodgers did against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. However, Rodgers had a historic effort, forcing two fumbles, returning one for a touchdown, and intercepting a pass for a pick-six in one half.

“[Rodgers] certainly made a lot of plays looking for the ball, punching it out, [and] recovering it,” Flores gushed. “Those are some of the things that we kind of saw from him from a playmaking standpoint that he had the potential to do.”

People remember Charles “Peanunt” Tillman for his signature “Peanut Punches.” He forced 44 fumbles during his 13-year career by jabbing at the ball while tackling opponents. It’s something the Vikings have emphasized under Flores and special teams coordinator Matt Daniels.

Flores scouts players like Rodgers, who is adept at forcing fumbles. Then, Daniels works with the defense on turnover techniques and fundamentals throughout the week.

“We certainly put a lot of effort into it, a lot of meeting time,” said Flores. “Matt Daniels probably doesn’t get enough credit for his turnover presentation, which we see on a weekly basis.

“It’s not all Peanut Punches. Everybody’s got terms for it, but it’s hammer. It’s Tyson. It’s all these different ways to try to get the ball out. Our players, they work at it. There’s a great attention to detail to it because it’s such an important stat in football.”

Entering this season, the Vikings have gone 30-3 when they won the turnover battle under Kevin O’Connell. However, they’re 4-14 when they lose it. Minnesota had one turnover and one takeaway in its Week 1 win over the Chicago Bears, lost the turnover margin 1-4 against the Atlanta Falcons, and won it 5-0 in their 48-10 win over Cincinnati on Sunday.

“How do you guys think we did ‘all about the ball?’” O’Connell asked rhetorically in his Week 3 postgame speech. “We won the turnover battle 5-0. It led right into the performance of being fundamentally sound.”

On Sunday, the Vikings created turnovers without thinking about it because their coaches have ingrained it into the players’ subconscious. Daniels has coaching points about how to create turnovers, but it ultimately must become muscle memory because tackles happen so quickly.

“There’s aiming points that you have to go for. There’s certain positions ball carriers need to be in,” said Daniels. “And with that, with the learning of it, you’re really looking to kind of build this subconscious mindset from a player’s standpoint for them to kind of understand because your subconscious is much more powerful than your conscious.”

Minnesota’s players must balance punching at the football with ensuring that they bring the ball carrier down. Forced fumbles are rare, even for teams like the Vikings that excel at it, and broken tackles can lead to explosive plays.

“The biggest thing is that we’re always teaching the proper way to tackle,” said Daniels. “For instance, we’re always going to be really a shoulder-leveraged tackling team. And so you really want to always kind of keep your head out of it.

“If you’re just a nice, sound-formed tackler, a lot of times, what can happen is that your arm could become an extension of your shoulder, and you could just jar the football loose.”

There is a lot that goes into generating fumbles off tackles. Still, it ultimately comes down to muscle memory and doing so subconsciously. That’s why Flores has his kids punch him every day.