Zimmer admits he didn't have his team prepared.
In a post game interview with Greg Coleman on KFAN, Zimmer said he didn't do a good enough job to prepare his
team to deal with the new schemes and game planning the Patriots implemented on both Offense and Defense.
He also pointed out that they were too slow to adjust to the new looks that the Patriots threw at them. I'm not sure
how to react to that. How do you not have your team prepared to go against the one of the Greatest Coaching/QB
Duo's in the history of the game? Maybe there was really nothing we could do with the personnel this team has to
work with this year. The injuries to the secondary certainly impacted the defense, but Flip was thoroughly toyed with
by Bill. The defense kept it close enough and the gave the offense plenty of chances to put some points on the board
but they couldn't get the job done. I never felt like we adjusted on offense all game. It seemed like Flip had no idea
where to attack the Patriots and once again Cook was underutilized in the running game. Cousins certainly contributed
to our ineptitude with poor accuracy and decision making. Flip and Cousins as a pair today where a big part of the
dysfunction. Neither of them seemed to have any idea on what to do. Almost as if they were guessing.
Aikman had a lot of man love towards Flip at the end of the game when they announced McCarthy's firing suggesting he
would be a great fit for the Packers. I'm just not sold on him and would be fine if he left and let Stefanski take over.
Our OLine is total garbage, but his lack of creativity and predictable play calling is very frustrating and we are starting
to see teams routinely shut down or minimize our playmakers.
Zimmer continues to be an Enigma. I'm not convinced he has the means to be an effective in game strategist and this
year is really showing that to be true. We haven't beaten any team with a winning record. Is our .500 record indicative
of the talent on this team, or the inability of the coaching staff to match wits with the Elite teams in the league? I still
have no idea.
Under Zimmer's 5 year tenure as Vikings Head Coach, this team has a grand total of 1 road victory against winning teams. Let that sink in for a minute. How many additional years does that kind of record deserve? Clearly the Flip experiment is not working and since that was his decision I don't think he deserves a pass on that either. I like Zimmer, and want him to be successful, but I'm not convinced that he is anything more than a solid defensive coordinator who has already reached his ceiling as a Head Coach.
@"pumpf" said: I think he's just covering for the team. Or maybe he's covering for Flip. Or both. Either way, I'm not sure I put too much stock into any coach's post-game comments. Except for Frazier's; when he said he had to go look at the tape before commenting, I really believed that he didn't know what had happened.I think he is covering for Flip and the Cousins. Easier to give some coach speak and have all the drama focused on that rather than the fact that Cousins might be who Washington thought he was.
@"Jor-El" said:@"Al (The Lochstar) Heurung" said: After tonight, seeing how a top-tier team still can cut us up like a Christmas cheese-log... Plus our injuries always decimate one single crucial section of our O or D... the best I can hope for is a miracle gelling so we can at least remain Kings of the North if not make a playoff run. Likely? No. But still wanna be Kings of the North. The Bears have the horseshoe this year, but as we learned with Case, you can't count on that. We may still at least pull off the division.Oh, forget the division. When you're trailing by 2 games with 5 to go, you MUST win when the team you're chasing (Chicago) gets upset by a 3-win team.
I get it, the Patriots are really tough, anywhere, and at home, and in December. But at the beginning of the 3rd quarter, the Vikings were tied and had been playing them evenly. At that point, the game was winnable and they seemed to be past their "jitters". But our vaunted defense collapsed.
Zimmer can beat teams with losing records (usually, though not always). He doesn't beat winning teams, so maybe we should hope for a collapse the rest of the way so he can have a nice easy schedule next year.
Not sure how our vaunted D collapsed? Sherels was out there covering Gordon. I think our D held up pretty well considering how poorly the offense played. Zimmer is the best coach we have had since Bud and people are ready to run him out on the first train to Green Bay. It isn't the defense failing in the pinball era of football, it is our offense that can't get its shit together. And one can blame the o-line only so much. Cousins was not good yesterday. Thielen dropped some passes.
somethings not right with Cousins... he looks concussed or scared out there. he has been regressing the last month IMO and I think that is showing up in the play calling as well as the struggles on defense as they are getting gassed and dinged up. I dont know what the problem is, and I dont think changing HCs will solve it, but I do know that january is coming quickly and if they want to still be playing football they better pull their heads out of their asses and quick.
@"JimmyinSD" said: somethings not right with Cousins... he looks concussed or scared out there. he has been regressing the last month IMO and I think that is showing up in the play calling as well as the struggles on defense as they are getting gassed and dinged up. I dont know what the problem is, and I dont think changing HCs will solve it, but I do know that january is coming quickly and if they want to still be playing football they better pull their heads out of their asses and quick.he was looking at the rush yesterday IMO. He wasn't looking to pass the ball. The first sack he took, he had open guys but was looking at the rush.
@"greediron" said:yep, its been happening more and more frequently. even when he has time he is forcing the ball out early because his internal clock is beating a little fast from all the poundings he has taken.@"JimmyinSD" said: somethings not right with Cousins... he looks concussed or scared out there. he has been regressing the last month IMO and I think that is showing up in the play calling as well as the struggles on defense as they are getting gassed and dinged up. I dont know what the problem is, and I dont think changing HCs will solve it, but I do know that january is coming quickly and if they want to still be playing football they better pull their heads out of their asses and quick. he was looking at the rush yesterday IMO. He wasn't looking to pass the ball. The first sack he took, he had open guys but was looking at the rush.
@"JimmyinSD" said: somethings not right with Cousins... he looks concussed or scared out there. he has been regressing the last month IMO and I think that is showing up in the play calling as well as the struggles on defense as they are getting gassed and dinged up. I dont know what the problem is, and I dont think changing HCs will solve it, but I do know that january is coming quickly and if they want to still be playing football they better pull their heads out of their asses and quick.There have been maybe a handful of pass plays the entire season where Cousins drops back and has a good amount of time to survey the field and throw. The kind of pressure he sees can ruin a young QB. Thankfully, at 30, he's probably past that. But I would just love to see what he could do with time. Not just occasional time, but time he and his play caller can count on. There's a huge difference.
@"greediron" said:@"Jor-El" said:@"Al (The Lochstar) Heurung" said: After tonight, seeing how a top-tier team still can cut us up like a Christmas cheese-log... Plus our injuries always decimate one single crucial section of our O or D... the best I can hope for is a miracle gelling so we can at least remain Kings of the North if not make a playoff run. Likely? No. But still wanna be Kings of the North. The Bears have the horseshoe this year, but as we learned with Case, you can't count on that. We may still at least pull off the division.Oh, forget the division. When you're trailing by 2 games with 5 to go, you MUST win when the team you're chasing (Chicago) gets upset by a 3-win team.
I get it, the Patriots are really tough, anywhere, and at home, and in December. But at the beginning of the 3rd quarter, the Vikings were tied and had been playing them evenly. At that point, the game was winnable and they seemed to be past their "jitters". But our vaunted defense collapsed.
Zimmer can beat teams with losing records (usually, though not always). He doesn't beat winning teams, so maybe we should hope for a collapse the rest of the way so he can have a nice easy schedule next year.
Not sure how our vaunted D collapsed? Sherels was out there covering Gordon. I think our D held up pretty well considering how poorly the offense played. Zimmer is the best coach we have had since Bud and people are ready to run him out on the first train to Green Bay. It isn't the defense failing in the pinball era of football, it is our offense that can't get its shit together. And one can blame the o-line only so much. Cousins was not good yesterday. Thielen dropped some passes.Our defense let the Pats score twice in about 6 minutes and put the game out of reach, so our RB who was having an excellent game stopped getting runs as our offense had to go into catchup mode.
Zimmer dreams of an offense that churns out yardage and runs out the clock while his defense stifles opponents. But 24 points is not stifled.
Jimmy, I know Zimmer is our best HC since Green, and that we had some real crapfests in between the two. But if he's never going to be more than just-above-average, do you really want to settle on that? Being overly afraid of the lousy seasons we got from Tice/Childress/Frazier is another form of playing not to lose.
@"TBro" said: Under Zimmer's 5 year tenure as Vikings Head Coach, this team has a grand total of 1 road victory against winning teams. Let that sink in for a minute. How many additional years does that kind of record deserve? Clearly the Flip experiment is not working and since that was his decision I don't think he deserves a pass on that either. I like Zimmer, and want him to be successful, but I'm not convinced that he is anything more than a solid defensive coordinator who has already reached his ceiling as a Head Coach.I get your point but you really need to fact check your statements before you spew them out. The stat you're using as the basis for your post is not correct at all.
@"JimmyinSD" said: somethings not right with Cousins... he looks concussed or scared out there. he has been regressing the last month IMO and I think that is showing up in the play calling as well as the struggles on defense as they are getting gassed and dinged up. I dont know what the problem is, and I dont think changing HCs will solve it, but I do know that january is coming quickly and if they want to still be playing football they better pull their heads out of their asses and quick.I'm going to guess Mike had his QB talk with him. You know the one he has with every one of his QB's eventually. The one that goes like this. Stop being aggressive, don't take any chances, be vanilla. As I said just my guess.
@"suncoastvike" said:That sounds about right.@"JimmyinSD" said: somethings not right with Cousins... he looks concussed or scared out there. he has been regressing the last month IMO and I think that is showing up in the play calling as well as the struggles on defense as they are getting gassed and dinged up. I dont know what the problem is, and I dont think changing HCs will solve it, but I do know that january is coming quickly and if they want to still be playing football they better pull their heads out of their asses and quick. I'm going to guess Mike had his QB talk with him. You know the one he has with every one of his QB's eventually. The one that goes like this. Stop being aggressive, don't take any chances, be vanilla. As I said just my guess.
@"suncoastvike" said:Yep. Let the defense win the game, the offense is there just to not make mistakes: circa 1985 thinking.@"JimmyinSD" said: somethings not right with Cousins... he looks concussed or scared out there. he has been regressing the last month IMO and I think that is showing up in the play calling as well as the struggles on defense as they are getting gassed and dinged up. I dont know what the problem is, and I dont think changing HCs will solve it, but I do know that january is coming quickly and if they want to still be playing football they better pull their heads out of their asses and quick. I'm going to guess Mike had his QB talk with him. You know the one he has with every one of his QB's eventually. The one that goes like this. Stop being aggressive, don't take any chances, be vanilla. As I said just my guess.Vikings need to readjust and calibrate this offseason in a more modern offensive way or Z is going to be loading up a cardboard box at the end of the 2019 season.
@"StickyBun" said:@"suncoastvike" said:Yep. Let the defense win the game, the offense is there just to not make mistakes: circa 1985 thinking.@"JimmyinSD" said: somethings not right with Cousins... he looks concussed or scared out there. he has been regressing the last month IMO and I think that is showing up in the play calling as well as the struggles on defense as they are getting gassed and dinged up. I dont know what the problem is, and I dont think changing HCs will solve it, but I do know that january is coming quickly and if they want to still be playing football they better pull their heads out of their asses and quick. I'm going to guess Mike had his QB talk with him. You know the one he has with every one of his QB's eventually. The one that goes like this. Stop being aggressive, don't take any chances, be vanilla. As I said just my guess.Vikings need to readjust and calibrate this offseason in a more modern offensive way or Z is going to be loading up a cardboard box at the end of the 2019 season.
I think that was 100% of the intent by waiting for DeFlip to win a SB and hiring him right away. Flip has had a steep learning curve, but is it my imagination that this defense is no where near as dominant as it once was either? Players like Barr, Griffen even Dirty Harry are not flashing as brightly as earlier seasons.As much as we were in the game @ NE going into the 3rd quarter, at some point lets all have a discussion on George Edwards too...
@"purplefaithful" said:@"StickyBun" said:@"suncoastvike" said:Yep. Let the defense win the game, the offense is there just to not make mistakes: circa 1985 thinking.@"JimmyinSD" said: somethings not right with Cousins... he looks concussed or scared out there. he has been regressing the last month IMO and I think that is showing up in the play calling as well as the struggles on defense as they are getting gassed and dinged up. I dont know what the problem is, and I dont think changing HCs will solve it, but I do know that january is coming quickly and if they want to still be playing football they better pull their heads out of their asses and quick. I'm going to guess Mike had his QB talk with him. You know the one he has with every one of his QB's eventually. The one that goes like this. Stop being aggressive, don't take any chances, be vanilla. As I said just my guess.Vikings need to readjust and calibrate this offseason in a more modern offensive way or Z is going to be loading up a cardboard box at the end of the 2019 season.
I think that was 100% of the intent by waiting for DeFlip to win a SB and hiring him right away. Flip has had a steep learning curve, but is it my imagination that this defense is no where near as dominant as it once was either? Players like Barr, Griffen even Dirty Harry are not flashing as brightly as earlier seasons.As much as we were in the game @ NE going into the 3rd quarter, at some point lets all have a discussion on George Edwards too...
The team offensively is trending down: and that's with an O-line that is healthier than all year (but not good) and a healthy Dalvin Cook. Something ain't right.
@"TBro" said: Under Zimmer's 5 year tenure as Vikings Head Coach, this team has a grand total of 1 road victory against winning teams.
That is completely false. If you're going to be a Zimmer basher, at least have your facts right.
@"Wetlander" said:@"TBro" said: Under Zimmer's 5 year tenure as Vikings Head Coach, this team has a grand total of 1 road victory against winning teams.That is completely false. If you're going to be a Zimmer basher, at least have your facts right.
perhaps it means against a team on the road with a winning record as of when we played them? I hear stats all the time that dont make sense but when you strip back the disclaimers there is validity to them... of course it still doesnt mean jack as far as trying to show how good/bad Zimmers teams are over all IMO.this campaign to crucify the coach after every loss is absurd, if he wins we are back on track, if he loses he needs to be gone... so much knee jerk on these boards this year its kind of hard to read from one week to the next.
@"JimmyinSD" said:@"Wetlander" said:@"TBro" said: Under Zimmer's 5 year tenure as Vikings Head Coach, this team has a grand total of 1 road victory against winning teams.That is completely false. If you're going to be a Zimmer basher, at least have your facts right.
perhaps it means against a team on the road with a winning record as of when we played them? I hear stats all the time that dont make sense but when you strip back the disclaimers there is validity to them... of course it still doesnt mean jack as far as trying to show how good/bad Zimmers teams are over all IMO.this campaign to crucify the coach after every loss is absurd, if he wins we are back on track, if he loses he needs to be gone... so much knee jerk on these boards this year its kind of hard to read from one week to the next.
Some people are just all jerk, knees included.
@"JimmyinSD" said:@"Wetlander" said:@"TBro" said: Under Zimmer's 5 year tenure as Vikings Head Coach, this team has a grand total of 1 road victory against winning teams.That is completely false. If you're going to be a Zimmer basher, at least have your facts right.
perhaps it means against a team on the road with a winning record as of when we played them? I hear stats all the time that dont make sense but when you strip back the disclaimers there is validity to them... of course it still doesnt mean jack as far as trying to show how good/bad Zimmers teams are over all IMO.this campaign to crucify the coach after every loss is absurd, if he wins we are back on track, if he loses he needs to be gone... so much knee jerk on these boards this year its kind of hard to read from one week to the next.
yep. Don't get the desire to be the NFC version of Cleveland
The game plan to beat the Pats is to run all over them......keep the clock ticking and keep Brady off the field. We started that well, but Flip abandoned it, despite great success, and the game was close at that point. Zimmer needs to step in when the offensive play calls aren't going as he wants. He is the head coach, and needs to put his stamp on both sides of the ball.
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