by By Sean Jensen sjensen@pioneerpress.com , St. Paul Pioneer Press

Though the Vikings are 6-1, the team's defense, ranked sixth in the NFL in 2008, is struggling with one of the basic tenets of the cover 2 defense: preventing big plays.

Through seven games, the Vikings have allowed a league-high 27 passes of 20 or more yards, including seven touchdowns, according to STATS Inc. Overall, the Vikings are tied for 28th in defense, allowing 29 plays of 20 or more yards and allowing nine touchdowns of 20 or more yards.

At this point in 2008, the Vikings had allowed 20 plays of 20 or more yards, including four touchdowns.

Not surprisingly, some players cannot pinpoint the problem.

"It is uncharacteristic," linebacker Ben Leber said, "but I can't really tell you why it's happening or what's going on. Sometimes it's just teams hitting the spots and hitting the holes. We definitely want to correct those things."

Against the Ravens, the Vikings had missed tackles, missed assignments and miscommunication. Ravens running back Ray Rice had touchdown runs of 22 and 33 yards in the second half, and the Ravens had pass plays of 28, 63 and 32 yards in the fourth quarter, the last one for a touchdown.

Frazier responded last week by threatening players' jobs, particularly for not being where they are supposed to be.

"You have to make them aware that if it consistently happens, you run the risk of losing your position," he said.

The Vikings improved against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. But on the final drive before halftime, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger completed a 22-yard pass and then a 40-yard touchdown to rookie receiver Mike Wallace to give the Steelers a 10-7 lead.

On the latter play, Roethlisberger attacked one of the vulnerabilities of cover 2 defenses: throwing behind the middle linebacker and in front of the safeties.

His pass was placed over two jumping linebackers, E.J. Henderson and Chad Greenway, and in front of safeties Madieu Williams and Tyrell Johnson.

"You hate to see two explosions happen in the two-minute (offense) before the half," coach Brad Childress said Monday. "Basically, they had eliminated a lot of those in that first half, and the thing on defense is being able to put the whole thing together."

The Vikings are excelling in several key areas. They lead the league in red zone defense, with opponents scoring five touchdowns in 18 attempts. The defense is a respectable seventh on third downs, and it is tied for seventh with 13 takeaways.

But Williams said giving up long passes is "something we got to fix."

"We realize right now that we got to minimize the yardage and make the tackles," he said. "We just got to make it a point of emphasis."

The Vikings will have more time to address the issue during their bye week. But, before then, they have to play Green Bay, one of the league's most explosive teams. The Vikings did an excellent job against the Steelers, who lead the league with 35 plays of 20 or more yards. But the Packers are tied for fifth with 24 passes of 20 or more yards and tied for third with seven passing touchdowns of 20 or more yards.

The Vikings are expected to be without Pro Bowl cornerback Antoine Winfield for Sunday's game. But the players filling in for Winfield at the position hope to repeat the performance they had against the Steelers, when they held the league's leading receiver, Hines Ward, to one catch for 3 yards.

"We feel good," said Karl Paymah, who filled in for Winfield along with Benny Sapp and Asher Allen. "We had to really bond as a unit coming into the game and had to really just man up. We had a lot of key guys down, and a lot of guys had to be accountable."

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