Coming off of an extremely underwhelming 26-9 loss against the Pittsburgh Steelers, questions started to surround the status of quarterback Case Keenum. Unexpectedly inserted into the starting spot heading into their Week 2 contest, the fifth year signal-caller predictably performed poorly. Finishing the game 20-of-37 with 167 passing yards, the state of the Vikings seemed to be in turmoil. Should the franchise sign another quarterback to save their season or could newly signed undrafted free agent Kyle Sloter potentially be the answer were both questions that arose during the week. After making a surprise visit to see Dr. James Andrews, Sam Bradford was quickly ruled for the teams Week 3 contest against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Seen by many as the pre-season favorite as an NFC sleeper team.

Despite all of the outlandish comments and remarks made about the Vikings QB situation, Keenum quickly quieted the critics — capping off his best performance as a professional and leading his team to a dominating 34-17 victory. Finishing 25-of-33, with 369 yards and 3 touchdowns, Keenum instilled confidence in not only the fanbase but to many critics that he could confidently hold down the fort for as long as he’s asked to in Bradford’s absence. Let’s take a look at how offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur put Keenum in positions to succeed against the Buccaneers defense.

It is no secret that with their starting QB (Bradford) out due to a knee injury for the second consecutive week that the Vikings were going to rely heavily on rookie running back Dalvin Cook. Coming into Week 3, Cook was second in the league in rushing yards (191). On the third play of the opening drive of the game, after back-to-back runs to Cook, which totaled 10 yards and resulted in a first down, it’s fair to assume with a new set of downs and with the early success that Cook was having that they were going to hand it off to him for a third consecutive time.

Shurmur used this notion to his advantage.

Using 21 personnel (two running backs, one tight end, and two receivers), which is primarily a heavy run set, knowing that the Buccaneers were going to load the box, he took an aggressive approach and let Keenum throw the ball down the field.

The risk resulted in a 45-yard completion to Adam Thielen. Showing a seven-man box, but eventually rolling down a safety in run support to make it an eight-man front, Shurmur anticipated that he was going to get man-to-man coverage against his two receivers on the outside.

Taking these shots down the field did wonders for Keenum’s confidence. It also showed that he was capable of completing throws down the field, limiting the amount of man coverage that the Tampa Bay secondary could play. Tampa Bay’s initial game plan was to load the box to limit Cook’s production, forcing Keenum to make throws in order to win. As the game went along, that game plan quickly vanished. They began to send blitzes from both directions, hoping to force Keenum to make errant throws similar to the ones he displayed a week ago in Pittsburgh. With such a mix-up in their coverages and game plan, Shurmur had a fantastic adjustment.

He began to give Keenum two plays in one — meaning that in the huddle, for passes, he gave his quarterback a play that could beat zone coverage and another that could beat man-to-man coverage. Looking at the defensive structure below, Tampa Bay is bringing a blitz off of the edge with their nickel corner, which is the defender Thielien (No. 19) points directly at pre-snap. Keenum sees that the safety that is stacked over the top of impending blitzer is now the defender that is responsible for covering Thielen in man-to-man coverage.

Keenum now has the option to kill the play.

Many times on live broadcasts, you notice that quarterbacks repeatedly yell “kill, kill, kill”. This is what Keenum does here and signals it with both of his hands performing a throat slash. Killing the play eliminates the first option of the original combo play that Shurmur instructed to him in the huddle. Now, everyone on the offense knows that the second option of the instructed play is now live due to Keenum killing the prior option.

The second option of the play was a concept that was designed to defeat man-to-man coverage. The designed concept is a five-yard in route by the outermost receiver (top of the screen) and a corner route by the slot receiver. An easy read for Keenum, as he understands that he’s matched up against man coverage. All he has to do is read the cornerback that is guarding the outermost receiver at the top of the screen.

If the cornerback runs with the five-yard in-route, then he knows that no one is over top of the corner route. If the cornerback decides to not chase the in-route and backpedal towards the corner route, that means that the in-route will be open.

Keenum’s 17-yard touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs right before halftime was the same exact concept. Throughout the game, you consistently see the same concepts ran repeatedly mainly because Shurmur called plays that Keenum was most comfortable reading and executing. One of the easiest ways to help an inexperienced QB or one that hasn’t been in your system a significant amount of time is to change the launch point. Changing the launch point simply means changing the areas from where the ball is thrown. The easiest way to change the launch point is to move the pocket with bootleg or roll out passes.

On the two-yard line, most defenses play man-to-man coverage because it prevents confusion and every defender is strictly assigned to a player. Anticipating this, Shurmur changes the launch point to help Keenum and he also runs rub routes. Rub routes in this area of the field is a man coverage defeater. Why? It makes it difficult for certain players to stick to their assignment because there is so much trash (other receivers) that they have to get through in order to prevent their assignment from catching the ball.

In 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end and three receivers) below, Shurmur runs a rub route with the no. 1 receiver (Thielen) and the no. 3 receiver (Jairus Wright). Smartly using Thielen as the receiver who’s setting the pick and running Wright to the sideline, making it extremely difficult for his defender to run through Thielen while still being able to guard him.

The defender guarding Wright gets caught in the trash and is unable to contain Wright, as he scores the easy touchdown.

As stated above, it was clear that the game plan was to let Case Keenum throw it early and often. A surprising outcome due to his performance against the Steelers a week ago, but his career high day showed that he is potentially able to instill confidence in the Vikings brass to feel comfortable about the short-term future at quarterback.

Pat Shumur called an outstanding game and he consistently put his quarterback in positions to succeed. Knowing that Keenum was entrenched as his starter, Shurmur condensed his playbook in half and only carried half of the plays as he normally does. This helps his signal-caller out because now there is only a certain package of plays that he has to master opposed to the normal allotment of an entire playbook. This proved to pay dividends as Shurmur’s offense now possesses the leagues third-best passing attack and is currently the second-best overall.

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