MINNEAPOLIS — Houston had a problem, and his name is Jonathan Greenard.
At the 5:26 mark in the first quarter Sunday, rookie tight end Cade Stover trotted out to handle an impossible assignment. He took his stance on the left side, detached, about 2 yards off the ball.
He was mano a mano with one of the best edge players in football.
Greenard burst up the field on second-and-1 at Minnesota's 26-yard line. He shimmied left, then right, then blasted his arms into Stover's chest and pancaked him. Before Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud went through his reads on a play-action pass, Greenard was in his lap. The 10-yard sack was his first of three on the day.
"It's in your best interest to not [mess around with me]," Greenard said following Minnesota's 34-7 thrashing of previously unbeaten Houston. He was clearly bothered by the cuteness of the play. "I'm glad I'm here in Minnesota because they obviously respect me. Anybody else wants to do that, they can try."
Greenard's monster game against his former team hardly was a surprise.
He was due.
The Vikings outside linebacker entered Sunday's affair between 2-0 cross-conference foes tied for sixth in the NFL with 12 pressures in two games. He had a sack against San Francisco but didn't realize it because it was anticlimactic – he was the last to touch 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy when he fell out of bounds.
"To actually get a true sack here and feel the crowd noise – it was awesome. My whole family was here, too, so it was great. It was great," said Greenard, who celebrated with his trademark high-kick-and-clap.
"It was a little rusty, man! I had to stretch a little bit, but man it felt good," he added. (Greenard followed through on a promise he made several weeks ago to bring his special sack dance to U.S. Bank Stadium; it's a move that originated in his fraternity Omega Psi Phi and is done by a handful of other NFL players.)
There's no bad blood between Greenard and the Texans. Houston let him walk in free agency, and he found the perfect home in Minnesota. He has great friendships and memories linked to that franchise.
But it was "straight smoke," he said, once he stepped between the white lines.
"I told him it was bound to happen," Greenard said of sacking Stroud.
Greenard was determined to not let the Texans quarterback spin out of his grasp. He succeeded again and again. Greenard had his second sack from behind in the third quarter and polished his hat trick with an enormous 14-yard dropping of Stroud in the fourth, effectively ending his old team's day.
"I'm very glad the Texans let us take him off their hands," Viking safety Harrison Smith said. "If you've got a good pass rusher that can win 1-on-1s and work the edges, is good with his hands, has got an array of different moves, he's just going to win. Sometimes you don't have to overcomplicate it. Just let him win."
The yardage lost on Greenard's sacks alone (30) came close to matching Houston's rushing total (38).
Greenard was due. And his teammates knew it. They manifested it.
During the week, defensive tackle Harrison Phillips and outside linebacker Pat Jones II hyped up Greenard's revenge game with predictions of individual dominance. The sentiments were echoed.
"I told him I needed a hat trick, and he had it," shared Phillips, in disbelief over his incredible foresight (Phillips was mic'd up Week 2 and told Joshua Metellus he needed the ball directly before he picked it).
"One of these days I'm going to call my own number," Phillips laughed.
On the first play of the game – after an explosive Texans completion was negated by offensive holding on Greenard and first down reset – Phillips shot up his arm into Stroud's window and deflected his throw.
Another former Texan, inside linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill, reacted and executed the tip drill.
"I think we might go out to dinner tonight," Phillips smiled. "It might be on him."
Grugier-Hill returned the interception to Houston's 21-yard line, and the Vikings scored six plays later.
"It completely just dismantled them from the jump," exclaimed Greenard. "It messed up their energy. It was everything. I'm so happy [that] he was able to do that. I know that's been built up for some time."
Grugier-Hill started 20 games for Houston from 2021-22. He had a significant defensive role Sunday, playing with a chip on his shoulder in place of Ivan Pace, Jr., after appearing on special teams in Weeks 1-2.
On Houston's second series, Grugier-Hill was right in the thick of it, again. This time he wrapped up tight end Dalton Schultz after a short pass and dislodged the football. It was recovered by Stephon Gilmore.
Only to be overturned by replay review and changed to an incompletion.
Grugier-Hill was a bit disappointed by the decision: "I thought that was a catch. Did you guys not think that was a catch? He caught it, moved here, lost control. I don't know. I guess they didn't want me to have all that."
In the end, it was fine. The Vikings fed off Grugier-Hill's fast start.
Stroud had a 49.6 passer rating in the first half, the second-lowest in any half of his career and lowest in any road contest. His final numbers were rough: 20-for-31 with 215 yards, one touchdown and two picks.
"I think he's one of the best quarterbacks in our league," said Vikings Head Coach Kevin O'Connell.
It snapped a streak of nine straight games (including playoffs) without an interception for Stroud, who is widely touted as one of the top ascending players at his position. He looked uncomfortable at U.S. Bank Stadium.
"We're able to do so much," Phillips explained Minnesota's first-half shutout and full-game owning of Houston. "It doesn't matter if we're bringing six or if we're not bringing six, they've got to be ready for it and protected up. … It's kind of a guessing game. Again, we're also very talented, so when you have those 1-on-1 matchups, we're winning those."
Added Greenard: "It definitely unlocks a whole new IQ of football. I love playing for Flo'. I love the system. We're just getting started, honestly."
It helps playing with an extra body (well, kind of).
"Playing at U.S. Bank Stadium is playing with 12 people," Phillips said. "It really is an advantage."
There was no greater evidence of that than a sequence in the second quarter when a third-and-4 for Houston mutated into a third-and-19 thanks to the epic roaring and SKOL chanting of the home crowd.
The Texans were flagged for false starts on three consecutive snaps. They got as close to Minnesota's end zone as the 25-yard line that possession and ended up punting, helplessly, from the Vikings 40.
Phillips called the penalty-generated momentum a "creepy beast."
He stated the complexity of Vikings Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores' scheme and the subsequent overcommunication of opposing offenses aids in those self-inflicted setbacks, "but if we were playing in an empty stadium that would not have happened. … It's like playing with another person," Phillips said.
No more sleeping on Minnesota's fans or its booming defense.
"Really proud of Flo'," O'Connell said. "Having an absolute blast coaching with him, putting game plans together every week and kind of propelling this team that we thought we had. I told our guys last night, I'm not all that concerned about who or what is said about our team. We keep doing what we're doing, there will be plenty of things talked about having to do with these guys because they deserve it because it's the players making this come to life. Just so proud of them right now, but divisional challenge [next].
"I've been trying to spend a little bit more time with that unit this year, either on Saturday mornings or throughout the week," O'Connell added. "We got a bunch of great, great guys on that side of the ball. Smart, tough, love football. New additions like J.G. and Blake [Cashman] and Shaq [Griffin] and [Andrew] Van Ginkel, and then the guys that are – I'm hoping they don't get tired of me – [Smith], Metellus, [Camryn] Bynum and Phillips – because I'm having an absolute blast coaching this team. And I think we're made of the right stuff. And we've just got to keep proving it. Because that's what this league is all about."
