Is 10 days enough for the Vikings to strengthen their defenses?

The past seven days have not been kind to the Minnesota Vikings, especially Brian Flores’ once-strength team.

The fall from grace was quick and brutal, like when an anvil falls on a character’s head in an old Looney Tunes cartoon. As of last week, Flores was the league’s top-rated guard and the top head-coaching candidate. Since then, his defense has given up 31 and 28 points (not including offensive safety) in back-to-back weeks. The secondary plays horribly, the pass misses the mark, and you’ve watched two defenders cut you to the bone with surgical precision for five days. It wasn’t pretty.

The other issue is that while the underlying problems with Flores’ aggressive passes falling short and opposing receivers exposing the secondary are obvious to everyone, there are many root causes.

Blake Cashman’s injury has left a void in the middle of Minnesota’s defense, especially in center field. The lack of a meaningful inside pass has led to countless third down situations where quarterbacks can easily step up and avoid pressure on the edge. In turn, that means bringing in more bodies, which further frees up a secondary where guys like Stephon Gilmore seem to age like milk as the season goes on.

“Dagger”, “look” and “net” are fancy football terms that mean the same thing. These are the basic concepts with the open receiver streaking down the middle of the field for easy completions in the game’s most critical situations. There’s also an infuriating sense of powerlessness as the entire stadium knows it’s coming but the Vikings can’t stop it. Add to that a shaky defense, a limping Jonathan Greenard in and out of the lineup, and first-round pick Dallas Turner, so anonymous at the start of the season that he may have entered the witness protection program, and you have a problem.

Some of their problems seem to be based on personal experience, and some are schematic in nature. The question is, what is their ability to adapt to try to solve this problem?

Starting with the personnel part, there are several options and reasons for optimism.

First, count me among the chorus of fans calling on Kevin O’Connell to make good on his promise of a “10-day plan” to increase Dallas Turner’s influence on the field. “His (snap count) will continue to improve. He does everything we ask of him,” he said after the game. “You’ll see more and more from Dallas. It will be something within the next 10 days. He will have a big impact on us.»

Fans are desperate to see this promise come to fruition. It’s hard to watch Jared Wehrs, an up-and-coming talent who was on the board when the Vikings drafted Turner, play at anything close to a DROY level when Turner can’t be found under the spotlight. If Turner can add the dimension of third pass production to this defense, it could provide a spark. With Pat Jones regressing after his hot start, they need a third man to hurt the third man and take some pressure off Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel.

Unfortunately, there are no young, promising newcomers to look forward to in the secondary market. Minnesota corners are what they are. Perhaps things might have been different if Mekhi Blackmon hadn’t gotten injured in training camp, allowing Byron Murphy to go out and give you the option of benching Gilmore or Shaq Griffin. However, this is not true. Even though Gilmore has regressed over the last two weeks, there is no meaningful depth behind him. If this team isn’t going to move quickly at the trade deadline, they’ll have to settle for the 34-year-old veteran.

We can also hope that this 10-day layoff will pay dividends in terms of health, especially for Greenard and Cashman. Both players returning and playing in their early season form would make a huge difference for this team. Cashman’s return not only brings an instinctive and energetic defender onto the field, but also frees up Josh Metellus to defend and protect his weapons so he can once again roam the field rather than stick his head in as a linebacker. Cashman’s absence may have crippled Flores’ creativity to a degree we can’t fully appreciate.

But, as you can see, the Vikings are locked in with this lineup. The roster is what it is, and it’s hard to imagine general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah being overly aggressive at the trade deadline, especially given the season-ending injury to franchise left guard Christian Darrisaw. Even if they were to add new personnel, losing Darrisaw would significantly lower this team’s ceiling. Given their limited assets and what they are trying to build around JJ McCarthy going forward, it would be pretty irresponsible for this organization to bet all their chips on this season.

Last week I thought it might be worth striking while the iron is hot and opening up the winning window. However, after two losses and the loss of your franchise’s left tackle, a sobering reality has likely set in: This team is not a Super Bowl contender.

So, from a schematic standpoint, the only remaining solution falls squarely on the shoulders of Brian Flores. We saw what happened when his innovation scheme was first “solved” and it wasn’t pretty. Every Shannahan/McVay student has seen the game plan developed by Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor. Minnesota’s defense collapsed a week after they shut out the Las Vegas Raiders.

Coming into this season, we’ve seen some amazing innovations in Flores’ scheme following an offseason in the lab, but we’re now at a similar crossroads. Health and staff have opportunities to show improvement in the game. Still, the Vikings cannot remain idle. Starting Nov. 3 against the Indianapolis Colts, the last thing Minnesota needs is to give a bright offensive mind like Shane Steichen the opportunity to instill some confidence in their young QB with a clearly defined game plan. Flores needs to be ready to adapt, catch the Colts off guard and show us the newest evolution of this defensive scheme, and he has 10 days to do it.

I won’t pretend to know what that evolution should look like. My layman’s understanding of defensive football certainly won’t involve trying to tell fans Brian Flores how to coach defense. However, the need for change is clear. The success of the next innovation could determine whether this Vikings team can stay in the playoff race or collapse on its own like a dying star.