The Buffalo Bills face a major challenge on Monday night, facing off against an elite Minnesota Vikings defense.

A thread by SumerSports, an NFL data and analytics site, broke down the areas to exploit the Brian Flores-led unit, giving Joe Brady and Josh Allen a blueprint for how to survive against Minnesota's defense.

Flores's Aggressiveness

The Vikings have a 70.3% blitz rate, by far the highest in the NFL. They pressure opposing QBs 47.9% of the time and sack the QB 10.6% of the time. Their 63% pass rush win rate also ranks first in the NFL.

This absurd blitz rate is made possible because of the talent and versatility of the team's back end. Vikings DBs have been flagged only once for a coverage penalty this season, and record a pass breakup or interception on 20.4% of targets. They also miss just 9.7% of tackles, the ninth best mark in the league.

Their aggressiveness works only because of the team's elite personnel and coaching blending together to work perfectly in sync.

Nobody knows who’s coming.

Flores mixes the alignment of his players and where the blitz comes from. That makes pre-snap reads extremely difficult. pic.twitter.com/6zNlAXqhcH

— SūmerSports (@SumerSports) November 4, 2026

The Bills are currently third in pass block win rate, with a 60% success rate. Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown each sit at 88% win rates individually, while Alec Anderson ranks seventh among interior linemen at 93%. Connor McGovern's 91% ranks top 20 for interior linemen as well.

This suggests the Bills have the personnel necessary to counteract Minnesota's talented pass rushers, if they can properly diagnose which players crowding the line of scrimmage are actually going to rush the QB.

Minnesota's Kryptonite?

Nothing has worked consistently enough against this Vikings defense to be considered a slam dunk, but four types of plays have generated success from a limited sample size.

Quick throws, when the ball is out in under two seconds, have generated +0.24 EPA per play on 54 attempts, so Brady and Allen need to prioritize getting the ball out fast.

Targeting Minnesota's linebackers when they cheat close to the line of scrimmage has been the most successful type of pass play, generating +0.91 EPA per play on 17 attempts. This is where Dalton Kincaid will need to thrive, locating zones in the middle of the field or beating his man one-on-one fast enough for a quick completion.

The next type of play is bootlegs, which have averaged +0.37 EPA per play on 13 attempts. On play action passes outside of the pocket (aka bootlegs) Allen has generated 12.15 total EPA and 2.47 points above average. These marks are the second and fourth highest among all QBs this season according to Sports Info Solutions (SIS).

Lastly, while fans won't love that this is a play that could work in Buffalo's favor, screen passes have generated +0.39 EPA per play on 12 attempts against the Vikings. This season, Allen has completed eight screen passes for 87 yards, generating 2.7 total EPA and 1.16 points above average. While the raw production rank middle of the pack, the advanced analytics rank top 10 according to SIS.

The Solution

Brady and Allen should prioritize quick throws over the middle, bootlegs and screens to counteract Brion Flores's aggressive defense.

Embracing the success the offense has had with RB screens should be a priority, taking advantage of their stable of backs in James Cook, Ray Davis and Ty Johnson. Dalton Kincaid and Khalil Shakir should see work in the middle of the field, with the latter being utilized in the screen game as well.

Lean into what the analytics say works against this historic defense, and Buffalo's offense should be able to have enough success to earn their seventh win of the season.