NFC Notes: Brian Flores, Malik Willis, Jordan Love, Lions, Packers, Vikings

Lions

• Lions HC Dan Campbell confirmed C Frank Ragnow has a torn pec and they aren’t sure what to do with him yet, as he’s pushing to play: “We’ll do what’s best for him and what’s best for us in the moment.” (Eric Woodyard)

Packers

Regarding the Vikings’ Week 4 game against the Packers, Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell said they are preparing for both of Green Bay’s quarterbacks Malik Willis and Jordan Love. 

“I think Malik is doing some great things and Jordan Love is one of the best young quarterbacks in our league. We’ll prepare as if both will play,” O’Connell said, via ProFootballTalk. “[T]hey are different with Malik in there. At the same time, he made some big-time throws and moved the team. There were chunks on the tape that we’ve got to try to keep off of our tape. Then Jordan’s in there, we’ve seen it firsthand — when he gets into a rhythm and gets going, he’s as talented of a thrower as there is in our league. We got to be prepared for both of them.”

O’Connell added they must have an “extensive” game plan for both quarterbacks. 

“We’re not going to get the benefit of knowing exactly what we’re gonna see so we’ve got to make sure we’ve got a game plan that’s extensive for both those guys,” O’Connell said. “They’ve got a great group of skilled guys, a really good running back, great O-line, pretty special group.”

Vikings

Vikings DB Harrison Smith said DC Brian Flores‘ defense loves to attack and make the offense uncomfortable early on in the game.

“On a weekly basis, we just try to make it hard on whatever offense we’re playing,” he said, via SI. “Find what they like to do and try to limit that. It’s not always just about the quarterback. There’s more than that—just frustrating them early, not trying to let them get anything big on us, shutting the run game down. At that point, our offense is playing well. You get up two scores, and then you take a lot off their menu. It’s not just the defense playing well. It’s the field position. Those turnover ops tend to happen, obviously. You get up two, three scores, and you eat a little bit more.”

Smith added that Flores likes to make a lot of pre-snap adjustments and the communication has been one of the biggest learning curves.

“The constants are setting edges, tackling well, not giving up deep plays, the basics of football,” Smith explains. “If you can do that and tweak your scheme, you’re not going crazy but you’re doing some things that might cause some issues, and we have enough guys on this team with experience and football knowledge, football IQ. The hardest thing, in my opinion, if you try to play like we do, is the presnap communication. I think just because we’ve committed to it, not that it’s gotten easy, but it’s gotten less difficult to do that.”

Flores’ scheme is so fluid that players are even adapting on game day and making adjustments on the fly, which makes it hard for the opposing offense to gameplan.

“It happens every week,” Smith added. “We’re talking on the sideline. I’ll normally ask [Flores], What do we want to do against this look? Should we switch it up? Sometimes he’ll be like, I want to go to this. I want to go to that. Sometimes he’ll be like, What do you like? Sometimes I don’t know what I like, so I’ll ask Byron [Murphy] or Cash [Blake Cashman] or [Josh] Metellus, and they might like something. If it’s reasonable, we’ll go with that. It might not be a big play, but now it’s another wrinkle we threw in. [The other team is] like, What are they doing now? It’s just constant, trying to stay ahead of people figuring us out and getting stale with stuff.”

• Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell said TE T.J. Hockenson (knee) could return to practice next week and is recovering well: “He’s doing great. I’ll continue to defer to the medical staff on that. Hoping to get T.J. up and rolling as soon as possible.” (Kevin Seifert)