Vikings Want a More Ball-Hawking, Point-Scoring Defense

Dec 23, 2012; Houston, TX, USA; Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Alan Williams coaches against the Houston Texans during the fourth quarter at Reliant Stadium. The Vikings won 23-6. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Campbell-USA TODAY Sports

It seems we hear the same thing every training camp about the Vikings wanting to force more turnovers. Defensive coordinator Alan Williams is once again emphasizing this point but he’s taking it a step further. He wants the Vikings to not only force more turnovers but score off those turnovers.

“Coach Frazier put up a stat the other day, one of the things that we’ve been concentrating on is when the defense turns the ball over and scores you have a 75% chance of winning the game,” Williams explained to the media on Tuesday. “So that’s in their minds. Not just turning the ball over, but also scoring with the ball.

“We say that all the time, we’re going to hustle, we’re going to run to the ball so that when there is a tipped ball, when there is a ball on the ground that we have more purple jerseys around that ball than anyone else.”

A big part of this I imagine will be the move toward a more aggressive defensive scheme with more man coverage and more blizting. And possibly more gambling from cornerbacks. Williams actually addressed this latter point in response to a question about Chris Cook being more willing to take chances:

"I like what you said and I would say calculated risks rather than chances. He does a good job of that and not just Cook, but with any of our guys, we don’t want them playing to not make a mistake, we want them to play at full speed and that’s what they are doing. They know their assignments, go all out, read your keys and when you do that it is more of a calculated risk than a chance of guys just freelancing."

Once again, it all sounds good, but can they actually pull it off on the field especially considering their lack of experience in the secondary? Cook and Jamarca Sanford are the veteran starters back there now. Xavier Rhodes is a rookie and Josh Robinson has a long way to go in learning the slot corner position.

I want the Vikes to be more aggressive and more of a ball-hawking team but I don’t see Peanut Tillman back there anywhere.

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