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McNiff's Riffs: Revisiting 'Complementary Football' and the Vikings' failures

The Vikings trotted out the term "Complementary Football" in happier times, and Tim McNiff says it's time to get back to exactly what that means.
Credit: USA Today Sports Images

As a part of my process in writing this column I subjected myself to the cruel and unusual punishment of going back and watching every offensive play from the Vikings 21-7 loss, Monday night in Seattle.

As a long-suffering fan of the Minnesota Vikings you could say I’m something of a glutton for punishment, but in this case... I was trying to see if I could determine how many times Kirk Cousins has changed the play at the line of scrimmage.

Here's why. In every NFL game the offensive coordinator calls a play from the press box (or in the case of former offensive coordinator John DeFilippo, from the sideline) to the quarterback, who has a radio transmitter in his helmet. The QB then relays the call to his teammates in the huddle, before the team lines up to execute the play as they’ve learned it in practice.

Sadly, it’s not that simple.

READ: More McNiff's Riffs

While all that is going on the defense is making calls of their own. Then, based on what the offense presents, they will set up their defense and give the offense an initial “look”.

What the defense is doing is telling the offense a story.... telling them what they want the offense to believe they’re going to do. However, once the offense lines up and begins to call signals at the line of scrimmage, more often than not the defensive players are going to move around... giving the offense a 'truer' sense of what they’re really going to do.

I say TRUER because this adjusted defensive look may also be nothing more than yet another clever ruse. In either case, the defense is trying to get the offense to adjust to what they’re doing. Or, at least to what the quarterback THINKS the defense is most likely to do.

I know this all sounds convoluted, but the bottom line is this: Just because an offensive coordinator calls a play (based on down, distance and game situation), many times what the offense actually ends up doing may be entirely different, based on what the players observe at the line of scrimmage. 

Credit: USA Today Sports Images
Former Vikings offensive coordinator John DeFillipo took the fall for the team's failings, but Tim McNiff says his decisions and play calling weren't made in a vacuum.

In hindsight, I’m sure there were times when John DeFilippo called the perfect play, only to have Kirk Cousins audible out of it at the line of scrimmage. I’m also equally sure that there were times when DeFilippo called a play that Cousins changed with positive results... and also times when the play call was great but the execution was not, or when the defense simply won that particular play. 

My point after all of this... is that nothing happens in a vacuum.

LISTEN: McNiff's Huddle podcast

John DeFilippo was a highly-sought commodity following the Eagles Super Bowl victory, and the Vikings went far out of their way to get him. DeFilippo didn’t suddenly forget how to coach football, and I highly doubt he left everything he knew behind him in Philly.

For whatever reason it just wasn’t working with the Vikings, and Head Coach Mike Zimmer decided that with the season hanging in the balance he had to make a change. But make no mistake about it, DeFilippo’s firing was the result of multiple failures.

I first wrote about something called “Complementary Football” following the Vikings week-7 win over the New York Jets. The Vikings had just won their third straight game, and suddenly they were throwing around a new term...  "Complementary football”... in the locker room afterward.

“It’s definitely a mindset,” says Defensive Tackle Sheldon Richardson. “We definitely got back to it. We’re just trying to compile wins any way possible, but definitely we want complementary football.”

 “When you have special teams giving you great field position, when you have the defense creating turnovers and giving you the ball back, then it probably makes it look better than it really was,” said quarterback Kirk Cousins. “But then, that’s complementary football. That’s team football, and we’re so grateful for our defense and special teams and how they played today because it kept giving us opportunities to go back out there and score points.”

Credit: USA Today Sports Images
The Vikings' victory over the New York Jets launched the term "Complementary Football," meaning all phases of the game are operating In-Sync.

Complementary Football is intended to refer to all three phases of the game (offense, defense and special teams) all complementing each other and propelling a team to victory.

As used here, I’m referring to what appears to be a flawed plan, tragic circumstances, and on-field regression combining to produce unsatisfactory results for the 2018 Minnesota Vikings.

Responsibility for the flawed plan ultimately lies with general Manager Rick Spielman. The decision not to address the Vikings offensive line in the off-season has hampered this team all season, and I don’t see how a new offensive coordinator can fix that.

The tragic circumstance was the passing of offensive line coach Tony Sparano right before the start of training camp. Perhaps Spielman and Zimmer thought Sparano could coax another above-average year from this unit. But injury, retirement and ultimately Sparano’s passing have all proved to be too much for the Vikings O-line to overcome.

Finally, the on-field regression obviously refers to quarterback Kirk Cousins. Solid against San Francisco in the season opener, Cousins outperformed an injured Aaron Rodgers in week-2 and was arguably the Vikings most valuable player up until the loss in Chicago in week 11.

Is this a bit too simplistic? Absolutely. I have yet to mention the numerous defensive breakdowns in the first half of the season, the chronically under-achieving special teams, and a head coach who wears his heart on his sleeve far too often.

Now Kevin Stefanski, a guy who’s never been an offensive coordinator, is supposed to take over those duties in week 15 with the season on the line? Yikes!

No matter what happens, don’t put too much blame on Stefanski... this is way bigger than just one guy. Complementary football got the Vikings where they are today, and only complementary football... the good kind... can get them out.

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