Vikings Message Board.Com

Here's where I am at. I know there is one more game, but 15 games is enough to see certain trends on the team that can be discussed.
Please, keep this thread professional. It gets so tired to have every thread go down the usual abyss where someone posts "He sucks" or "The team will never win" or similar immature statements without and real meat to back up the statement. Or to have someone nitpick each statement that someone makes... we all make generalizations, it doesn't mean we are posting bad information. Mods, if this goes down a bad road, I will ask for it to be locked.

Positives:
1. The Defense looked better than is has in many years, for the most part. The first 10 games, they were flying around, making plays, pressuring the QB, and it looked like they were all having a ton of fun. The backups would come in and contribute when given the cnance, like Wooton and Johnson. And, more importantly, with the exception of Anthony Barr, they seemed to be relatively healthy. I think Smith may have missed a game, and so did Greenway, but other than that, it was the same 11 guys week in and week out (correct me if I am wrong).

2. Teddy Bridgewater showed improvement on a weekly basis. Again, something we haven't seen from a Viking QB since probably Daunte Culpepper. He is more accurate than he was when he started, his throws are quicker, and he has amazing pocket presence for a rookie, IMO. Hopefully, we have found our QB of the future... he doesn't have to be Aaron Rodgers (although that would be nice), but if he can be Russell Wilson, I will be thrilled.

3. The Vikings haven't been a team that makes successful in-game adjustments since Denny Green was coach. Zimmer, and his staff ,seemed to make more successful adjustments than Childress and Frazier did in their tenures combined. The game in New Orleans was a great example... NO gauged us on their first few drives and did nothing more against us until late after a very questionable Roughing the Passer call that if not called, would have put us into a great position to try and win the game. There were other examples as well, including offensively.

Those were the three biggest positives for me this season.

And now... the not-so-good...

1. When was the last time we as fans could watch a close game and think "We got this..."? Probably the 1998 team (if that even counts since most of the games were over by halftime that year)? Holy shiznit, this team is horrible at closing out games. A lot of it falls on the players, but the coaches are part of it as well. The last three road games were perfect examples of that... Zimmer and his staff need to figure out how to get the same mindset into the players that they have in the first quarter for the whole game, especially the last 5 minutes. This is imperative for a coach to succeed in the NFL...

2. This is a reach, but it still is a concern... I don't understand why Asiata was often the starting RB... I have to believe his average carry was 2.8 yards, and his season long was 3 yards (exaggeration, but you know what I mean). If the team decides to let Felton go, I would think Asiata would be a great option to replace him. But to me, he isn't starting RB material... I would rather have seen Ben Tate start, or even Joe Banyard. Asiata does some things very well, but eluding tacklers isn't one of them.

Zimmer seems like a go-for-the-throat kind of guy, I just hope he can instill that mindset into his teams and finally get the Vikings to relevance again. I am so sick of being Green Bay's little brother. He definitely showed some promise, but also showed some things that are concerning moving forward.
I am sure if we were fans of any other team, we would be very excited about the progress the team showed after the last two seasons... but we have had a long, long time of heartbreak, more than the rest of the NFL combined probably.

How did you all think Zimmer did this year/

The guy inherited a train wreck. Counting the turnover fests against the Pats and Packers, all 9 losses are by a combined 95 points, and that's counting the packers/Patriots games. Solid play in most games. You can what-if the hell out of everything but a few bounces here and there and this team is still in contention. I'll say he did a pretty damn good job this year.

Oh I will never say he sucks, the eye test tells me he is the best coach we have had in a long time. I really feel like someone is in control of every situation, and the players seem to play somewhat smarter too. This ship is trending upward.

I have to think that Ben Tate probably hasn't had time to learn all the blocking schemes. And, given the fact that our offensive line is Swiss cheese, we need a good blocking RB in most of the time.

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk

Huge fan of Zimmer. Add a solid offseason of FA and the draft and hopefully we continue to trend upwards.
How much say do you think Zimmer and Turner have in offseason acquisitions ?

Zimmer did about as well as I expected him to do, considering the roster he inherited, the fact that he's a first-time head coach and the stadium situation (ie: the Vikes have been temporarily displaced). The season has certainly had it's ups and downs so it's certainly nota resounding success but I think Zimmer himself has done a pretty good job so far. I'm interested in seeing how things go in the final game because I actually believe that will be revealing. His team has no chance to play in the postseason and they're coming off one of their worst defensive performances of the season. That clearly upset Zimmer and how the Vikes respond to coaching this week, and perform next Sunday, should tell us quite a bit about their character and how they respond to coaching (because they'll likely be getting an extra dose of it this week). They're essentially in a battle to avoid a last place finish and they're also looking at their final chance to avoid going 0-6 in the division so there's more than just a chance to finish one game better on the line.

Zimmer did great IMO

the defense before he got here sucked, so bad..

We lost an all pro talent, and had a ton of key injuries and a rookie QB

The team has no real home to speak of right now, to play in.

I give him an A

Zimmer year 1? Agree with Jackal. Give him an A.

If I remember correctly people were pretty high on Frazier after his first year so we need to be cautious. That being said Zimmer is obviously a better coach than Frazier and I think he will continue to build off of what he started this year and hopefully build us into a contender.

If I remember correctly people were pretty high on Frazier after his first year so we need to be cautious. That being said Zimmer is obviously a better coach than Frazier and I think he will continue to build off of what he started this year and hopefully build us into a contender.

I don't remember being really high on him, I was sure glad Childress was gone...

IMO Tice was the coach I was most wrong about in recent vikings moves...

I thought Tice was as bad as we were going to get as a leader, he was better then Childress or Frazier IMO.

Despite last week, looking at the defense as a whole I think there's been progression and that shows in the stats. The Vikings are 14th in points allowed and 15th in yards allowed this year compared to 32nd and 31st, respectively, the year before. Offensively there has been regression but considering there was no AD, a rookie QB, and a decimated O-line, some of that is to be expected.

I like that the defense is more aggressive, blitzing more and playing more man. This is a double edged sword at times but overall I think it has been successful. The offense on the other hand, I think has been too conservative. Obviously injuries have played a big part but we haven't exactly had the vertical offense that Norv was supposed to bring. I do feel Teddy is coming along well so it will be interesting to see how he and the offense plays next year.

I'll have to think more about it during the offseason but my initial reaction is to grade the staff at a "B" level right now.

S197 wrote:I'll have to think more about it during the offseason but my initial reaction is to grade the staff at a "B" level right now.

I agree.

That said, I'm really looking forward to seeing what the roster will be like next season. I think there will be some changes, maybe even some big ones.

I'm also not convinced that everyone on the team wants to be a Viking.

Regardless of what happens in the final meaningless game against the Bears, the extended Zimmer honeymoon is still intact and won't come to an end until sometime next season (at the earliest) depending on wins and losses. I think we will need to be at least 8-8 next season before any meaningful cracks appear in the Cult of Zimmer.

Zimmer inherited a mess this year and accordingly he gets a big fat pass for Year 1. What Zimmer also inherited is the bonanza of following the Childress/Frazier Era and the inevitable favorable comparisons to the prior inept regimes. Childress and Frazier collectively had the charisma of a telephone pole and the Viking fan base was starved for a head coach with a pulse and the appearance of being able to inspire and motivate his players. I was never sure if Childress was a humanoid because he always acted and sounded like a robot (and even stated multiple times that motivating players was not his role). Frazier was the ultimate player's coach and Mr. Nice Guy who I never felt could lay down the law when it was necessary. Zimmer is the exact opposite of Childress/Frazier which contributed to the crazy level of hype that Zimmer received in the preseason.

What should concern all the Zimmer fanboys is the defense's performance last week in Miami. This late in the season and the D came out flat and laid an egg. It was an embarrassing performance, and nothing that was said at halftime seemed to have made much difference. Afterall Zimmer is the de facto DC on this team and the D was clearly not ready to play last week. The hope is that it was an outlier but still ... it's a bit disconcerting given all the bluster about Zimmer's hard nose approach.

On offense, I don't think Zimmer has that much influence on what we do (or don't do) offensively. It's Norv's show and I think that's why we were able to sign Norv in the offseason (that and the package deal with his son as the QB coach). Is Norv the right guy for OC? Yes. If anyone has the ability to develop a guy like Bridgewater, Norv seems as good a candidate as anyone. It will be up to Spielman to retool the OL for next year. The Dolphins proved that you can retool your OL in one offseason. One of Norv's biggest challenges in the offseason is trying to rehabilitate Patterson into a legit WR. CP has way too much talent to be relegated to a gadget player.

On special teams, Zimmer deserves some props for retaining Preifer. It would have been pretty easy to have jettisoned him after the Clueless Kerfuffle but he didn't cave and stuck by him. It was the right call.

Overall I think Zimmer has the franchise pointed in the right direction but I'm still uncertain if he has what it takes to make the transition from successful coordinator to head coach.

Two things must jump out at you when evaluating the 2014 vikings and zimmer, in general.

One, although things rarely go as planned, they also rarely go as horribly wrong as this year did. Between losing Peterson and cassel before a quarter of the season was done and having Patterson be a complete non factor after such a promising 2013, I don't know if anyone can be too harsh in critiquing this team.

Two, I'm too lazy to look up the numbers, but I can't imagine many teams had a softer schedule than the vikings. Maybe that negates some of the losses, maybe it doesn't, but this could easily have been a 3 win team despite all the improvements.

tmscr wrote:Two things must jump out at you when evaluating the 2014 vikings and zimmer, in general.

One, although things rarely go as planned, they also rarely go as horribly wrong as this year did. Between losing Peterson and cassel before a quarter of the season was done and having Patterson be a complete non factor after such a promising 2013, I don't know if anyone can be too harsh in critiquing this team.

Two, I'm too lazy to look up the numbers, but I can't imagine many teams had a softer schedule than the vikings. Maybe that negates some of the losses, maybe it doesn't, but this could easily have been a 3 win team despite all the improvements.

I agree with your assessments (that seems like a lot of s's in assessments but I do not have spell check lol) and would add that I am very dissapointed in their record (so far they have only won one game more than the trainwreck the year before) BUT I get why that is and would say that I am a huge Zimmer fan and think/know that he is the right man for the job.