Jordan Love, Packers have answers for the Vikings defensive counterpunch

The last time Brian Flores faced Matt LaFleur's offense, Green Bay couldn't handle all the man coverage. This season, the Pack are daring teams to play man.

Matt LaFleur admitted the Minnesota Vikings didn’t play the defense the Green Bay Packers expected. Brian Flores, a chaos defensive coordinator of the highest order, specializes in bringing pressure from everywhere, showing all-out blitzes and backing out of it as often as he sends it. When he’s not running Cover-0, he’s running Cover-2 and playing zone behind it. Against the Packers in Minnesota, the Vikings leaned more heavily into man coverage than they had all season, stymied Jordan Love and Co. until the final period, and held off a late charge to get a momentous Vikings win.

That was the book on the 2024 Packers: play man against them, and they didn’t have the receivers to create separation one-on-one to make the passing game work.

Green Bay had crucial tensile tests the first two weeks of the season and comfortably passed them. The Detroit Lions and Washington Commanders employ heavy man-coverage schemes, and the Packers, despite some inconsistencies, scored double-digit wins, thriving when attacking man coverage.