It will be simple, and tempting, to paint the Vikings’ emphatic 28-12 victory over the Falcons as a manifesto for how they want to approach the entire 2019 season. Their commanding performance required just 10 pass attempts from Kirk Cousins, as their zone running scheme produced five of their seven longest plays of the day, their withering pass rush set up three turnovers and they blocked a punt to stake their first score.
The reality of the 16-game season will likely demand nuance be added to the narrative; though the Falcons’ base defense is derived from the one coach Dan Quinn coordinated in Seattle (where the team puts eight defenders in the box and plays a Cover-3 defense behind it), Atlanta was 25th in the league against the run last season and has finished in the bottom half of the NFL two of the past three years.