Ed Donatell might have saved his Vikings job against Colts

Vikings fans wanted defensive play-caller Ed Donatell gone just a week ago, but he proved he understands the urgency on Saturday against the Colts.

Just a week ago, Minnesota Vikings fans were hopeful that Ed Donatell’s time with the team as defensive coordinator would be coming to an end. Minnesota had lost to the Detroit Lions, allowing the Lions to score 34 points.

The Vikings announced no changes were coming, and Minnesota moved onward to its Week 15 Saturday showdown with the Indianapolis Colts.

If you tuned out after the first half of that Colts game, you might think that narrative with Donatell didn’t turn itself around dramatically. The Vikings were able to stage a historic comeback, though, and beat the Colts 39-36 in overtime. The 33-point deficit they closed made for the largest comeback in NFL history.

And while the story of the comeback is obviously offensively focused, Donatell’s approach and role in the win deserves some credit. Clearly, he finally understands the assignment after leading an offense that gives up the third-most yards per drive so far this season.

Ed Donatell put on a sneaky good game against the Colts

The first thing to address is the points scored: The Vikings gave up 36 points against the Colts, even more than they gave up to the Lions when Donatell’s job was being called for.

Important context is how turnover-heavy this game was and other circumstances that led to the Colts getting easy points. Two touchdowns came on a blocked punt and a pick-six, so pulling those from the total, the Vikings defense really only gave up 22 points.

In “expected points”, (via Pro Football-Reference) special teams was the only negative for the Vikings on Saturday. Here are the expected points:

• Offense: 4.19 (fifth-lowest)
• Defense: 10.7 (season-high)
• Special teams: -12.83 (season-low)

But it was also what the Vikings’ defense did and how they made it difficult for the Colts and Matt Ryan. They blitzed Ryan often, a season-high 40.5% on dropbacks:

Additionally, while the Vikings have given up touchdowns on 56% of opponent red zone appearances this year, they allowed just 25% against the Colts and have allowed 33% over the last three games (second-best in the last three games in the NFL).

While the unit performed well as a whole, there were individual wins, too. Duke Shelley also was the highest-graded Viking of the game according to Pro Football Focus:

More good from the Vikings defense yesterday: The Vikings gave up the second-least passing yards (170) in a game this season. They allowed only 20 first downs, fifth-least so far this season (season low is 14).

Good first game with Donatell protecting his job. He’s waking up just in time for the playoff push.