Thanks for the link. It was a good read.
I'm going to nitpick because Hasan did something in that piece that, at this point, has become a pet peeve of mine. I'm seeing both fans and sportswriters do it on an almost daily basis and when the latter do it, I think it perpetuates misinformation.
There's no doubt that Zimmer favors a more aggressive approach to defense than we've seen in the past few years, in no small part because he uses more man coverage. That said, near the beginning of the article, Hasan makes what at this point seems like an almost obligatory dig at the previous coaching staff...
Mike Zimmer is neither the kind of defensive coordinator to rely on the predictive playcalling of the previous regime, nor the kind of coordinator that relies on aggressive blitzing, like Houston, Arizona and Oakland did last year.
... and then ends with the article by writing:
Though the Vikings haven't done anything in this regard that hasn't been done hundreds of times in the NFL (Jim Johnson brought it into the fore in 1994), but it's a healthy addition to a defense that badly needed a shot in the arm.
However,
it's not an addition to the defense. He's absolutely right to say the Vikings haven't done anything in this regard that hasn't been done hundreds of times in the NFL. In fact, Leslie Frazier and Alan Williams were doing it too. My mind immediately went to a great example in the Dallas game last year, when the Vikings "sugared the A gap" on a play late in the 4th quarter, ended up dropping Robison into coverage and the play resulted in an INT for Jefferson.
They did it again on the final Dallas scoring drive and actually sent a blitzer on that play but the rush was picked up and Romo completed a pass to Bryant for a big gain.
If I remember correctly, they did it again later on the same drive and forced Romo into throwing an incompletion on 1st and goal.
I apologize for bringing it up because that's probably someone else's pet peeve.
I just think there's an ever-increasing mentality out there that ALL the previous staff ever did was send players out into a basic zone defense and play "prevent' at the end of games and there was much more going on than that.
Anyway, I really like the way Zimmer attempts to create confusion near the line and is willing to bring pressure from anywhere: safety, LB, CB... I think his aggressive approach will ultimately serve the Vikes well.
