Cliff wrote: ↑Mon Apr 26, 2021 11:45 am
You can dig up Zimmer's defense stats throughout his career and see that more often than not they do
not do well in the playoffs. If a team with a really good defense from the regular season gives up 38 unanswered points in the playoffs as in 2017 is it more likely that all of the players forgot how to play or were they out-coached?
I certainly hope he changes something because his schemes or coaching style or some combination do not seem to hold up in the playoffs. Even the game in 2017 to make it to that NFCC beating was "miraculous" only because the defense couldn't hold a 17 point lead going into the second half. It might even be time to bring in an *actual* defensive coordinator for a fresh perspective.
While that performance in the 2017 playoff loss certainly doesn't reflect well on Zimmer or his players, I think Foles just went off in the playoffs that year. Not just in that game, but in the Superbowl as well. He outplayed Tom Brady in the biggest game of his life, and I don't think anybody expected that. If Foles had stunk it up in the Superbowl, I'd have been more inclined to blame poor strategy or coaching on the part of Zimmer, but Foles was dropping dimes all over the field in the playoffs that year. It was a pretty amazing, albeit brief, performance from him. He got hot when it mattered, and that carried the Eagles to a Superbowl win.
Another factor in the 2017 defensive performance against the Eagles was the performance of the offense, specifically in their propensity to turn the ball over. Zimmer's defense didn't have to play from behind much that season, and it was able to be pretty aggressive and take some chances as a result. But when the Vikings offense started turning it over and giving Eagles free points and field position, the Vikings' defense was put on its heels. One could argue that Zimmer should have been able to compensate for that, but it was kind of like the snowball rolling down the hill. With Foles already playing out of his mind, the Vikings defense needed the offense to hold up and it failed miserably.
I think Zimmer's Vikings teams generally have played OK in the playoffs when things go according to plan. Maybe they've gotten a little lucky here and there, but when the team can stick to the plan they've done well. When things haven't gone to plan, however, they tend to fall apart. We saw that against Philly and against the 49ers. That isn't true of just the defense - the offense collapses as well. They just don't seem to have a plan B to fall back on, and instead start pressing and freelancing and that just makes things worse.
Maybe Zimmer just inherited the general Vikings curse as that has tended to be the way the team has played in those situations throughout it's existence regardless of the players and coaches involved. For some reason the Vikings always seem to find a way to shoot themselves in the foot when the chips are down. Total collapses aren't as frequent, but the self-inflicted fatal injury seems to be. I have yet to see this team rise to the occasion in those situations. The last time I remember the Vikings truly surprising to the upside in significant games was in the 1987 playoff wins against the Saints and 49ers. Of course, that team too reverted to the norm and lost in heartbreaking fashion one game short of the Superbowl to the Redskins, but at least they kicked the crap out of much more talented opponents in the two games leading up to that loss.