Society frowns upon the hard ass. We’ve become an emotionally sensitive species that scolds authority figures who infringe upon “your truth.” In life, this person is shamed and sentenced to the cornfield. In football — the greatest reality show of all — this is the character demonized and cast the villain.
There’s a fine line for those in charge of the entire operation. Tyrannical head coaches will not last with this generation of athlete. If players dread going to work, culture suffers. Losses mount. Misery is contagious.
And yet, there’s a fine line in this profession because pro football is not everyday American life. This is a cold, cruel world full of life-altering collisions. If a coach is juuuust the right amount of prick — the hyper-technical scouting term — look out. If a coach on the defensive side of the ball can harness volatility into his coaching style, his X’s and O’s and the players eat it all up? Those 11 players on the field aren’t robotically following a play design on a sheet of paper.
They shape-shift into a pack of jackals.
They essentially laugh in the face of a team that scored 59 points.
That’s the best way to explain the Week 1-to-Week 2 whiplash this NFL season.
One week, the Chicago Bears score 59 points and amass 552 yards. All on the heels of head coach Ben Johnson declaring that he wants to build the highest-scoring offense in NFL history. The next, he musters all of three points. One week, Caleb Williams has the third-best MVP odds. All on the heels of an offseason full of hype: the Iceman trademark drama, the Madden cover, dreaming big. During one podcast spot, he was asked for his thoughts on a handful of QBs: Randall Cunningham (“cannon”), Tom Brady (“moment killer”), Aaron Rodgers (“magician with the football”), then Caleb Williams. After a dramatic pause, he said “all the above” with a laugh.
Then, the Bears held their home opener.
At a rain-slopped Soldier Field, the juggernaut that humiliated the Carolina Panthers… vanished.
Isaiah Rodgers recovered a Jalen Redmond peanut-punch at the 1-yard line and perfectly executed Donald Duck’s hot-diggity-dog jig for his son. Dallas Turner became Myles Garrett. An array of defenders stunted and blitzed and harassed Williams all afternoon. Minnesota blitzed 82 percent of the time this week after teeing off 78 percent last week vs. Green Bay. Quarterback Caleb Williams pulled up lame and was carted off the field with a mild hamstring strain. And when this 9-3 win was secured, two succinct scenes summarized the afternoon.
Johnson clenched his jaw.
Elsewhere, Brian Flores — the Vikings’ mad scientist on D — gazed upward on his way into the tunnel and appeared to spot some purple. “Skol! Skol!” he shouted. “We do this shit!”
Life comes at you fast in the NFL.
More specifically, opponents enter Flores’ buzzsaw of a defense. Because right now? The two best things going in the NFL are a reborn Josh Allen in the AFC and Flores’ hostile defense in the NFC. This sport remains a violent enterprise for the chosen few — it pays to have a playcaller who calls a game as such. In Year 1 of Kevin O’Connell’s run as head coach, 2022, the Vikings won 13 games but problems on defense were often glossed over. Players told us that meetings were far too lax. Coordinator Ed Donatell was fired. Flores was hired. And his vision for the defense has only sharpened from ’23 to ’24 to ’25 to this 2026 season.
Some players on this defense truly believe the team could’ve done damage in the playoffs last season if they snuck in.
All the Vikings have done is win seven in a row with J.J. McCarthy, Max Brosmer and Carson Wentz. The loss of a starting quarterback does not spell doom here. Now, they’ll get Kyler Murray back from his concussion.
Yes, the ex-Cardinal can resurrect his career in Minnesota.
What’s most frightening about this team is a defense that’s become a rebellious reflection of their coordinator.
I’ve never had the chance to chat with Flores. Perhaps one day. Players, however, have volunteered this coach’s name several times in the past — not always in the brightest light! Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, for this piece at B/R, shredded Flores for trying to turn him into a player he is not. On our visit to Miami Dolphins — peak Tua, post-Flores — sources said he was (extremely) hard on guys. Especially Tua Tagovailoa. The two had a blowup at halftime of a 34-3 loss to Tennessee that made it clear only one of them would last into the next season. And in-between, a wide receiver named Lynn Bowden actually had very nice things to say about his new coach. Nonetheless, one source told me Flores read Bowden the riot act in front of the entire team for talking to us that offseason. Odd.
Seasons change. Quarterbacks come and go. Time passes. I only gain more and more respect for a coach who clearly operates at one speed and cares very little about what people think of him.
He knows exactly what he’s looking for out of his defense — out of every player’s energy level — and delivers facts in a blunt fashion.
Players talk. Fresh off of Mike Zimmer’s ugly departure, Viking defenders weren’t quite sure what to make of Flores’ reputation. It didn’t take long for his tough love to be appreciated. In Minnesota, as a DC, he quickly became an ideal counterbalance to the uber-positive O’Connell. “He’s different than K.O., but he’s very reasonable,” safety Harrison Smith explained in ‘24. “He’s very smart and very black and white.”
His spastic scheme is high-risk, high-reward and applies maximum pressure.
Brian Cashman and Eric Wilson — the two mad men in the middle — are now both fluent in “Flo.” I love how Cashman put it. The first time he sat down to learn this defense, it was spellbinding. He could not compute all this recklessness. So many rules that players grow up on are broken before their eyes. Over time, however, all of this started to make sense. Cashman called them “Oh shit!” moments. Over this dinner, one specific instance came to mind. One play, Cashman couldn’t understand why Flores would leave a receiver wide, wide, WIDE open on the far side of the field.
Flores brushed it off. Told him not to worry about that player because it’d be impossible for the quarterback to get the ball to him. He was bringing the heat.
One week after turning US Bank Stadium field into quicksand for the Green Bay Packers, his plan for Chicago was quite simple. Slow down their powerhouse rushing game and pen Williams into the pocket. This was the Packers’ mistake in their wild-card collapse. If outside linebacker Rashan Gary holds the edge, the Bears QB doesn’t glide freely outside on fourth and 8. Isaiah McDuffie has an extra second to catch him for a game-winning sack. And when Williams does manage to escape? Flores stresses nonstop relentlessness. When multiple bodies are hunting him down — see: this third and 12 — you can fluster him into a mistake.
Giving him a flurry of different looks on third down helps. Anything that sows a little hesitation in his game.
Williams finished 15 of 26 for 138 yards (5.3 yards per attempt) with one interception and a 56.2 rating.
D’Andre Swift averaged 2.8 yards per carry.
In addition to his fumble recovery at the 1, Rodgers also blocked a chip-shot field goal. O’Connell has no clue how he exploded out of his stance with the conditions so wet. When the coach walked onto the field at one point, he said his entire sneaker was four inches into the grass.
“Caleb is such a unique talent,” O’Connell said. “Even when you think you’ve got him. I give our guys a ton of credit for chasing him around all game. But we did keep him in there enough. And then I thought the back end did an excellent job plastering their guys through the end of the down.”
By now, Cashman and Wilson are experts in the scheme. Andrew Van Ginkel is the jack of all trades. Redmond is ascending on the D-Line. Smith returns as the needed glue in a secondary teeming with playmakers. But the most encouraging development of all is a 6-foot-3, 247-pound budding star off the edge. Dallas Turner has been the best pass rusher in the NFL through two games — and it’s not close. Per Next Gen Stats, Turner ranks first in pressures (20), first in QB hits (11), second in sacks (three) and first in quick pressures with 10 under 2.5 seconds.
He’s got more pressures than the entire Bears, Jags, Steelers, Cardinals and Dolphins teams. (Rams and Giants, the MNF matchup, also have fewer.)
Those 11 hits on the quarterback are tied for the most of any player in a two-game span the last 10 years, per ESPN. Garrett (2025) and Chris Jones (2018) are the two others.
As they transitioned from one GM to the next, the Vikings made the calculated decision to compete in the present while maintaining flexibility in the future if the wheels came off. In this vein, they pawned off their best edge rusher — Jonathan Greenard — to the Philadelphia Eagles to save themselves the $98 million contract while also gaining a pair of third-round draft picks.
Their bet was that their 2024 first-round pick (Turner) would blossom.
It appears the Vikings hit the jackpot.
Flores foments so much utter pre-snap confusion that Turner has gone unblocked. Many times, he simply bullies offensive tackles. And there’s no chance teams leave a tight end 1 on 1 with Turner after he bench-pressed Colston Loveland into Tyson Bagent on a walk-off sack to win it.
“Obviously coming into this year,” O’Connell said, “you guys could tell I was really excited about the type of player that we would have in Dallas and how that would fit into how we’re going to play defense. His ascension — as expected as it is with the work he put in and the growth he’s had — you still love to see it happening right before your very eyes. Just an awesome moment.”
Not bad for a team that lost its quarterback to a concussion 11 plays into the season.
When the 2026 schedule was released, O’Connell knew how critical a fast start would be. Besting a pair of NFC North foes has long-term benefits both in the standings and their minds.
O’Connell was encouraged his offense found success on the ground when everyone in the stadium knew they were trying to run. The 31-year-old Aaron Jones — whose helmet jarred loose one hit — supplied a quintessential performance: 23 carries, 105 yards. There was no questioning the physicality of this Vikings offense on Sunday.
“This team’s learning and applying previously learned lessons on how to win games a whole bunch of different ways,” O’Connell said. “The best part about them is it always feels like they’re leaning in 100 percent for the guy next to them. Games like this, there can be massive growth inside your locker room of our way of doing things. So proud of them for, not only today, but how they’ve approached everything so far.
“There’s nothing but adversity waiting around the corner for the group. But I know these guys will attack it the right way.”
That’s the key: Adversity is a guarantee over the marathon of a 17-game NFL schedule.
This is an unkind profession. Being too nice to everyone can backfire, as his replacement in Miami discovered. No doubt, Flores needed to take a close look at his own coaching style. His tone needed to adjust. But it pays to have a coordinator on staff who’ll mentally prepare guys for those hard times. Zag where most of society zigs.
A little harsh rhetoric in the classroom, coupled with exotic blitzes on gameday, and these Vikings just may maraud through any offense they please.
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Flores is a genius defensive coordinator. But the skills it takes to be a good head coach are not the same as the skills it takes to manage offensive, defensive and special teams. There is a lot more delegation that is required to be a head coach.
Flores did a horrible job in Miami. He did his best to ruin Tua. But, sometimes coaches need to learn lessons from their first job in order to grow .
Based on his prowess with the Vikings defense, there is a reasonable chance he would have gotten a second chance. Bellichick got a second chance. But suing the NFL eliminated the chance of that happening . But at $6 million per season, he’s doing ok. And the Packers, Bears and Lions will pay the price for that
Ty! You have no equal in the sports writing industry. A shame Pulitzer’s don’t go to writers like you. Flores is suited for DC. His mistake was going after the NFL. That never ends with a happy ending. The league can preach all the woke ideology in the world but owners are insulated by the league like the mafia has hit men. Kapernick can attest to that. The Rooney rule was a mistake from its inception and anyone who had real belief that it was in fact real is a bit of a fool in my opinion. Flores is making 6 mil/yr. and has better job security than a head coach even though usually when the big guy goes the rest usually follow. Aaron Glenn was a great DC too. Terrible head coach. I want to comment on Williams too. He has a MILD HAMMY? When he got hurt it seemed like it was an Achilles or knee. He screamed on the ground like his career was over. Is he a wuss? The fact that he may play this week makes the whole situation just look real bad for him. Caleb believes he’s the best? Gonna be a long time before anyone agrees with him. Have to think some in that locker room are looking at him a bit different now too. Leaders don’t act like that.