What does the Vikings' loss to the Saints mean for Mike Zimmer?
Vikings' head coach said this defense is the worst he's ever had after giving up 52 points
For the majority of the second half of the season, Mike Zimmer has banged the drum that his team fights like crazy and that the young players on defense are making progress.
On Christmas Day, they did not fight like crazy and there were very few signs of progress amongst the unproven players (aside from an interception by rookie Harrison Hand).
After the game, Zimmer was blunt in the most Zimmer-y fashion.
“This is a bad defense, worst one I’ve ever had,” he said exhaustedly.
After tough losses, coaches often try to rationalize what they just saw. They might point to a bad break, a bad call or even a key situation that went the wrong way. But when you give up 52 points and allow six touchdowns to one player, there are very few islands left to stand on. There are no excuses to make. There are no explanations. There’s no claiming that your team was almost there.
Even the built-in explanations aren’t valid after a game like that. There’s no arguing that the loss is a product of youth when the season is 16 weeks old.
“I don't think being young has got anything to do with tackling,” Zimmer said. “They manhandled us up front pretty well with the front guys and linebackers, but we didn't tackle. When we had chances, we didn't cover very well today.”
You can’t say that injuries were entirely to blame because lots of teams have injuries and don’t allow 52 points.
“I'm not trying to make excuses, it was embarrassing today, we're missing four defensive linemen, we're missing a safety, we're missing three corners, we're missing six linebackers, I believe, from where we started,” the Vikings’ head coach said. “We're just a little undermanned. That's still no excuse. These guys put on an NFL jersey they've got to play.”
Maybe if this team hadn’t just given up 33 points last week to Mitch Trubisky the week before that and allowed Mike Glennon to lead a game-tying drive two weeks before, Zimmer could rest on it being just one of those days.
But Friday afternoon’s loss pinned Zimmer down with some harsh reality: The powers of any coach — no matter their prowess or previous accomplishments — extend only as far as the talent on the field will allow. Just ask Bill Belichick after a Tom Brady-less season.
“We've got to get Hunter back, we've got to get Pierce here, we've got to get Barr, Kendricks, Pro Bowl players, good players that we have, they need to be back,” Zimmer said.
Still that doesn’t seem quite satisfying when analyzing what went wrong in New Orleans and throughout the Vikings’ 6-9 season. The story doesn’t seem as simple as being short Hunter/Pierce/Barr/Kendricks.
The Vikings hung their hat on their ability to develop players during the first six years of Zimmer’s tenure. Friday’s starting lineup had two linebackers that are probably more along the lines of In Case Of Emergency Only types but the four starting defensive linemen were draft picks. The two starting corners were draft picks. The two starting safeties are highly paid stars.
The defense wasn’t completely a ragtag group made up of dudes who were sitting on their couches last week. They aren’t all rookies either. They have stuck with Ifeadi Odenigbo and Jaleel Johnson as development players for four years. They signed Shamar Stephen as a free agent two years ago and he was going to start even if Michael Pierce never opted out. The defense was made up of people they mostly wanted to be there and believed could play competitive football.
Zimmer couldn’t keep ‘em fighting, couldn’t develop ‘em and couldn’t scheme ‘em to even relative success (the Vikings are 27th in points allowed per game after Friday’s debacle).
And you have to add the cherry on top: A punt on fourth-and-3 at midfield and several key sacks allowed by an offense built to play from ahead with a run-first philosophy.
None of that is to say that Zimmer’s completely responsible for the Saints holding a Christmas Day parade inside the Superdome against his team.
There’s lots of blame to go around, from the individual players to the front office that drafted exactly 17 defensive players from 2016-2019 and all of them have either gone elsewhere or failed to become legitimate NFL starters.
Trading for — and using cap space on — Yannick Ngakoue rather than replacing Pierce with a veteran nose tackle or signing a situational pass rusher or a veteran cornerback didn’t help either.
And if we’re being fair to the head coach for a season’s worth of bad defense: Playing inside without a US Bank Stadium crowd was a bad break.
But when the fundamental things that Zimmer is praised for — i.e. keeping the team together, developing defensive players and getting more out of his talent because of scheme — end up going to pieces, what’s left?
Ownership signed him to a three-year extension figuring that the Vikings would compete for a playoff spot this year and be ready to fight for a NFC North championship in 2021.
Before New Orleans, it might have been reasonable to see 2021 in that light even with a missed postseason opportunity this year — after all they have an offense led by the NFL’s newest superstar receiver and a QB who will finish in the top 10 by PFF for the second straight year.
After New Orleans it feels different. It doesn’t feel like they’re almost there.
What that means toward Zimmer’s future is hard to say. Last year a Week 16 loss to Green Bay on national TV nearly put the Vikings over the top to make significant moves (that’s when rumors of a possible Zimmer trade to Dallas came out). Would a performance as bad as Friday’s showing put a bitter taste in the Wilf’s mouths enough to make a change before Zimmer’s new three-year extension even kicks in?
Or will the team’s brass look at 2020 as a season lost to rebuilding and COVID? The defense lost a half dozen starters who had years and years of experience with Zimmer’s defense. Maybe it was unrealistic to expect anything less than a miserable year on that side of the ball with so much turnover. Maybe it’s wise not to overreact to one game at the end of the year.
But then again, that number is going to be tough to get over.
Fifty. Two. Points.
Additional notes
— It was a tough day on defense for everyone but especially rough on the Vikings’ two rookie corners Cam Dantzler and Jeff Gladney. Combined they allowed 10-for-10 passing into their coverage for 195 yards per PFF (145 of that against Gladney). Gladney also missed three tackles.
— Drew Brees was pressured on two drop backs
— After a six-catch, 85-yard performance, Justin Jefferson is only 47 yards away from passing Randy Moss’s team record for receiving yards by a rookie.
— Kirk Cousins was only under pressure on 11 of 43 drop backs — a better rate than in recent weeks — however PFF graded Dakota Dozier (20.2) and Garrett Bradbury (24.9) as each having their roughest games of the season. Both were credited with giving up four pressures.
— It will be interesting to see if the Vikings sit any starters for Week 17 on offense. Cousins said this about the meaningless final game of the year:
“Just get ready for Detroit, try to finish the season strong, put your best foot forward next Sunday. Then you get to work in the offseason. I believe that with the number of young players we have playing that it bodes well for the future. I think there’s a lot to be encouraged about there. We’ll do all we can against Detroit, and then you don’t really turn the page and look forward until after that game. But I think there’s a lot to be encouraged about in 2021 once we get there.”
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I would love to see Fitzpatrick as the Vikings qb. They would be electric! He doesn’t give a flying. JJ would have 150 catches lol
I'm going to be very disappointed if offseason changes don't involve Spielman and Zimmer they've run the course in Minnesota.