5 most disappointing Vikings in the loss to the Eagles in Week 2

Ed Donatell – Defensive Coordinator

It’s not every week that a coach makes this list, but Ed Donatell’s game plan wasn’t just disappointing it was appalling.

Donatell has made his money in the league by being aggressive on defense. He loves pressuring quarterbacks and playing tight physical coverage on receivers. The defense we saw on Monday against the Eagles was anything but that.

The Vikings decided to give huge cushions to the Eagles’ wide receivers. Maybe the thought was that they were so concerned with the Eagles’ running game, and Hurts making plays with his legs that they wanted to shut that down.

It didn’t work, as Hurts proved he could make plays with his arm and easily found open receivers on the Eagle’s first three drives, basically scoring at will.

The coverage was extremely loose, and on top of it, there was no pressure. Za’Darius Smith and Danielle Hunter were shut down by the Eagles tackles, and Donatell rarely sent any blitzes at Hurts.

Again, this could’ve been out of respect for what he can do with his legs, but adjustments weren’t made the entire game, and the only time the Vikings’ defense held was when the Eagles took their foot off the gas in the second half.

Donatell had a great plan for Aaron Rodgers and the Packers and to see him follow that up by basically running a prevent defense the entire game against the Eagles, was extremely disappointing and inexcusable.