Think that Kubiak-Stefanski-Dennison-Zimmer are holding down the giddy?

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@FSUVike said:
Um, did I dream up the whole thing where Zimmer complains to the media about his OC not running the ball enough? And fired one during the season for it? And had one quit during the season for reasons we still don't know.

This isn't tin hat shit, guys. There's legit evidence that Mike wants a run-first, ball-control, low turnovers Offense. Including him saying it! Not a stretch at all to assume he wanted the Offense run a certain way until Chicago changed his mind.

Here is a quote from him after the Raiders win...
“I want to play good defense and I want to be able to run the ball,” Zimmer told reporters a day after Sunday’s 34-14 win over the Raiders. “I don’t want to run the ball 40 times and throw it 10, I want to have balance. But if that’s what they believe, then good. If we’re running the ball effectively like we have been, we’ve had some big play runs in there, and we’ve had a couple that are really, really close ones. It’ll be harder to run the ball this week [against the Bears], these guys are a load up front. It may be a different ball game this week.”

But if the Vikings end up running more than passing, so be it. As long as they’re moving the ball and scoring points.
“Bottom line is score points,” Zimmer said. “The bottom line is score points. It doesn’t matter how we do it. In those two games where we got up [against the Falcons and Raiders], there’s no need to throw the football when we’re up by three touchdowns. Again, they’re not always going to be like that. We want to be balanced. We want to get the ball to everybody, but we’re going to run the ball, too. The first play-action touchdown that we threw was partly because of the run game, guys sucking up on the run. When those things happen, typically good things happen in the play action which I’ve been saying for many, many years.”

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All I've read from Zimmer over the years is that he wants balance.  He even said as much when the media was asking him if Teddy could be more than a game manager heading into his 3rd year.  He said he told Teddy we need to quit playing it so safe all the time and push the ball downfield a bit more.  We saw more of that in the preseason before he blew out his knee.

I think you're misconstruing what type of offense Zimmer wants.  He wants a tough team.  A team that plays hard and fast on defense and an offense that can pound you with the run and play-action.  He talks all the time about wanting nasty, tough guys on the offensive line.  That's what he wants.

If he wanted a run-first offense, Norv would still be here.  If he wanted an aerial assault, DeFlop would still be here.  Is it any coincidence that the one OC he had the most success with was Pat Shurmur?  A guy who had a balanced offense that was very multiple with its looks and ran a lot of play-action?  I'm seeing a similar offense from Stefanski that we had with Shurmur...  

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@greediron said:

@Wetlander said:
Why does everyone think our conservative offense the first couple weeks was Zimmer?  By all accounts, he doesn't insert himself into the offensive game plan or tell Stefanski what plays to run during the game...  he lets his OC figure it out and offers his opinion on certain things.

Maybe it was Stefanski that kept dialing up running plays when Atlanta and Oakland couldn't stop us?  Maybe Stefanski is finally figuring out what playcalling is best for the players we have on offense?

It's funny to me that Zimmer gets blamed for certain things, but other things that turn out good are because someone else convinced him to do it that way...

Yeah, with a new young OC, installing his offense designed with the help of Kubiak and Dennison, and the offense learning all this, one doesn't have to wonder too long why it may take some time to get in a groove. 

I think all are learning, Stef, Kirk, the rest of the offense, and we are starting to see the fruit of all the work put in.

This is also what I think happened.  We've got a new scheme.  First time playcaller (besides the handful of games last year).  Rookie Center and 40% new OLine.  I don't think Cousins had a full grasp of the offense yet.  I don't think the coaches fully saw how everything fit together and what they needed to tweak to make everything work for the players we had, and we were playing some better defenses on the road.

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@FSUVike said:
I sincerely wonder if Kubiak went to Zimmer after the Chicago game and told him that it was time to take the training wheels off the Passing Attack and trust it. Mike has always liked having a former HC on his Staff as a Sounding Board, so maybe he went to Kubiak instead of the other way around.

All that really matters is that this looks like a legit passing offense as long as the blocking stays decent.

Something changed after losing @ the Bears.

300 yards per game and a QBR over 130 in 3 straight weeks?

I don't recall a Viking QB improving like that.

Interested to see how he does against his former struggling team tonight at home, Redskins may know Cousins weaknesses and tendencies but can they stop him?