Brian Flores walked off the field at SoFi Stadium as his feared Minnesota Vikings defense was put on the back foot by Sean McVay’s rushing attack.

McVay recognized several tendencies of a Flores-coached defense and devised ways to overcome them. Flores’ defense likes to crowd the line of scrimmage with linebackers, play aggressively, and likes to take two-high safety looks.

This strategy forces the offense to play in the shotgun, which limits the north-south run. Offenses have to get the ball out quickly due to pressure, and the two high safeties take away a one-on-one matchup deep downfield.

By stacking the line of scrimmage, Flores masks his coverages and who will drop back, confusing the QBs. Convention says to run against two high safeties, but a stacked line of scrimmage prevents that.

It’s a beautifully designed defense that has been used extensively around the league, but not to the same level of aggression as Flores. Mike Macdonald runs a similar defense with some of the same philosophies, so Sean McVay’s use of the screen pass has helped beat both defenses in back-to-back weeks.

The only weakness of a Flores defense is that the outside corner can’t play press coverage because there would be a seam between where the corner is and where the safety is — unless it’s eye coverage. However, it’s rare to see man coverage run in this scenario because the receiver coming inside would take the DB with him, leaving that flank exposed, especially if that flank was without a nickelback.

So the corner has to play off the ball, opening up a lane for the WR screen. Being forced into the shotgun means Stafford got the ball in his hands quicker, and since he didn’t have to make a standard drop-back pass, he was able to throw it to Puka Nacua with relative ease.

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Because the line of scrimmage was stacked with defenders, the leaky left tackle could seal the cornerback, opening a lane for Nacua, who had a one-on-one opportunity with the deep safety.

Recognizing that McVay had created an opportunity to get a one-on-one matchup where if the quarterback failed to secure the tackle, the game would be six, Flores took his defenders off the line of scrimmage in a standard nickel case.

With just four linemen down in Minnesota’s defense, the Rams could go back to putting Stafford under center and running the ball up the middle, setting up the quick north-south offense.

It will be interesting to see how McVay uses the screen going forward, especially on third down as defenses tend to get aggressive. But it’s something to note as he tore through Flores’ defensive structure, exposing Macdonald’s structure just a week later.