Five weeks into the season and some things are starting to take shape, while some remain up in the air.
The Analysis Notebook may be a day late this week, but it promises to be worth the wait, because our Analyst Sam Monson takes a look at how the Vikings have turned Percy Harvin from an off-season malcontent into an early dark horse candidate for MVP.
While Christian Ponder will dictate how far the Minnesota Vikings can go in 2012, the team is doing a great job of getting him into a groove with high percentage plays and getting the ball into the hands of the most explosive player in football, both at the same time.
Let's take a look at two ways the team is getting Harvin touches, along with one way they're not doing enough of.
The Quick Ball in Space – Tennessee @ Minnesota | 2nd Q, 3:46
Outcome:
On 1st and 10 the Vikings hit Percy Harvin on a quick hitch to give him the ball in space, allowing him to pick up 10 yards to the Tennessee 23 yard line.
Analysis:
You hear a lot about players that just need to get the ball in space and they can do damage. Well that's a lot easier said than done, and actually manufacturing the space for your playmaker to have the ball and get moving is a tough thing to do in the NFL – defenses are too fast and too good at shutting them down. The easiest and most prevalent way is with a quick bubble screen pass to the wide receiver. There are a lot of variations of this bubble screen in the NFL, but they're all pretty similar and few are interesting enough to draw up in the Analysis Notebook.
The Vikings hit Harvin with his fair share of bubble screens, but they have also worked on other ways of getting him the ball in space. Harvin is uniquely dangerous with a couple of yards of real estate in front of him because he has a direct burst unlike any other player in football. When he gets the ball in the open field he instantly turns to the space and accelerates as hard as he can, whereas most players will hesitate and try to pull moves on people. It's a change up that often catches defenders off guard and gives him ten yards when most people would get half that.
Here the Vikings line up with Harvin to the slot on the left side of the field before bringing him in motion to RWR on the other side of the field. They're doing this to try and diagnose what coverage the Titans are likely to be running, and when nobody comes with Harvin across the formation, they have a pretty good idea they're about to see zone coverage. When they do all Harvin does is come off the line and settle down 5 yards deep between the zones of the linebacker and cornerback on that side of the field. Christian Ponder keeps his eyes down the middle of the field on his drop before turning and hitting Harvin in rhythm as soon as his back foot plants.
He now has the ball in his hands four or five yards down field with two players closing in on him from either side and his back to the Titans end zone, but this is where he is so dangerous. His cut makes the linebacker Akeem Ayers miss and he is able to drag CB Jason McCourty for three yards and the first down. This type of quick pass has become a mainstay of the Vikings offense this year, and explains how Harvin leads the NFL in yards after the catch.
Harvin the HB – Tennessee @ Minnesota | 1st Q, 2:35
Outcome:
On 1st and Goal from the four yard line the Vikings run Harvin from the shotgun and let him slash his way in for a rushing score.
Analysis:
The Vikings borrowed from the University of Florida offense when they drafted Percy Harvin, something that is becoming more and more common in the NFL. Once you took a dynamic athlete, tried to hammer him into some part of your offense, and if it didn't work point to some inherent flaw of his game and move on to the next one. Now teams are looking at what makes the player so special, and if he was particularly adept at something in college, they're trying to incorporate that into their offenses at the next level.
At Florida Harvin showed he could run the ball just as well as he could be a receiver, so the Vikings will line up with him in the backfield and give him some carries. They don't play him as a full time running back because of the pounding he would take, but they will give him a few carries per game as a lethal change up.
On this play they get a little creative in terms of personnel and alignment. They have three wide receivers on the field, a tight end, and a running back (Toby Gerhart) when they break the huddle, so the Titans are expecting some kind of three wide formation and line up in their nickel package, with only two linebackers to defend the middle. Minnesota lines up exactly how the Titans would have expected them to, with a bunch formation tight to the left of the line, but the wrinkle is that Gerhart is part of the bunch and Harvin is the player alongside Ponder in the backfield.
They have schemed a linebacker off the field, leaving Harvin with a defensive back to run against instead. Ponder takes the shotgun snap and hands the ball off to Harvin and then watches his playmaker do the rest. The Titans actually do a pretty good job of blowing up the play with SenDerrick Marks at DLT forcing C John Sullivan into the lane and RG Brandon Fusco missing his block at the second level, but Harvin is too good for that to matter. He beats the MLB to the space and then runs right through the attempted tackle of two defensive backs at the two yard line, driving forward for the score.
Harvin may not be a big player, but his acceleration and toughness for his size make him an intimidating prospect with the ball in his hands, even if it is on a run play where the defense would ordinarily fancy its chances against a receiver running the football.
The Deep Ball – Tennessee @ Minnesota | 1st Q, 4:57
Outcome:
On 2nd and 7 Christian Ponder goes deep down field to Harvin for 45 yards and a first down deep in Tennessee territory.
Analysis:
This is the one that is not like the others, because the Vikings don't actually do much of this at all, but they should. For some reason Minnesota doesn't believe it has a viable deep threat. Ponder's average depth of target is the worst in the NFL amongst starters at just 6.3 yards, and though much of that is manufacturing touches for Harvin, they just don't have confidence in any of their receivers going deep. When Jerome Simpson returned from his suspension they took three deep shots at him in that game. He wasn't open once, and was lucky to get a pair of pass interference penalties, but the point is that for some reason the Vikings do have some confidence in Simpson as their viable deep threat.
The silly thing about it is that their best deep threat is also their best receiver in all other areas; Percy Harvin, but they're just not taking advantage of it. He has the kind of speed and acceleration that defenses can't live with, and that holds true deep just as much as it does underneath.
This play is an example of exactly how easy it can be when the Vikings actually try it. They line up with three wide and Harvin split out wide to the left side. The amount of bubble screens and short passes he is fed helps his cause here immeasurably, but in truth he doesn't need the threat of the short ball, because when it is snapped he just runs right past Alterraun Verner at RCB, himself a very capable player. Harvin is level with the CB when the ball is put up by Ponder, and by the time it hits him in stride he has nearly a yard of separation.
Harvin's speed is almost enough to lose Verner completely and the Titan takes a good fifteen or twenty yards to get purchase on Harvin and eventually drag him out of bounds with the aid of the safety coming across. The Vikings have stayed conservative with their deep passing because guys like Michael Jenkins and Devin Aromashadu can't get open on deep passes, but Percy Harvin can, and do it easily.
The team has been very astute and creative at manufacturing touches for Harvin, and getting the ball into his hands early and often, allowing him to make things happen and gain yards on his own, but this is an area they need to embrace more. The addition of a viable deep threat to the Vikings would transform that offense, and they have one ready to be used if his number gets called. Harvin may be the most explosive player in the NFL, and judging from this evidence he's just as tough to cover 20 yards down field as he is at the line of scrimmage.
Follow Sam on Twitter: @PFF_Sam, and follow our graphics wizard @PFF_Rick
© 2025 PFF - all rights reserved.