Should Mike Zimmer be on the hot seat?

Post date: Dec 04, 2018 8:45:18 PM

After the mid-season firing of Gophers defensive coordinator Robb Smith, head coach PJ Fleck took some heat. As many sports writers put it…Fleck hired him, and therefore bore some of the responsibility.

This week, Vikings offensive coordinator John DeFilippo has been HEAVILY criticized for the Vikings lack of offensive production. Whether he keeps his job or not remains up in the air. The fact is, he is our 3^rd OC in the Zimmer era. Granted, we lost one to a head coaching job, but like Meatloaf said, 2 out of 3 is a red flag.

My point is this…shouldn’t Zimmer take some of the heat for this too? Just as Fleck was responsible for the hire of his DC, Zimmer hired both DeFilippo AND Norv Turner.

And it isn’t just offensive issues that concern me. As I blogged about earlier this year, I am concerned about the defense. It seems to me that the offense's lack of production masks the defensive issues.

This last game was a perfect example. The offense was so bad that after the game, all anyone wanted to talk about was the offense and the OC. The defense went largely ignored, even though Brady went untouched for most of the game and pretty much had his way with our secondary.

The first drive of the game the Pats marched straight down the field. Very little resistance. We rushed 4 lineman most of the game and Brady had ALL THE TIME in the world to throw. It wasn’t till near the end of the game we finally sent a blitz which caused Brady to throw an interception.

Admittedly, I’m an armchair quarterback, and I’m sure there are X’s and O’s people out there who will argue with me about it, but that’s what the RUBE in me sees. I see that when we blitz and throw stunts or even different looks at the QB they have less time to throw and we get pressure on them. When we rush 4 straight ahead, we don’t. So why do we do it most of the game? Is Zimmer too set in his ways to think he needs to make a change? What’s the definition of insanity again? We didn’t make an adjustment until the game was virtually out of hand. That was way too late.

We had 10 sacks against Detroit you say? We sure did…and I think that only falsely reinforced his belief he doesn’t need to rush more than 4 or do anything different.

I like Zim. (I even own a Mike Zimmer shirt!) Given the choice I would choose a defensive minded coach every time. I’ve always believed it doesn’t matter how many points you score, if the opponent scores more. At some point you have to stop the other team. I remember watching some Vikings teams who couldn’t stop anyone. You just knew that if we had a lead and there was time on the clock…we were gonna blow it. Defense has been better since Zimmer has been here. But something has been wrong with it since the Saints playoff game last year. Zimmer said he was going to rethink his schemes over the off-season. I’m not seeing much difference. Rushing 4, giving receivers cushions. Souhan tweeted Sunday during the game that “the Pat’s defense is designed to give up yards but limit points”. (Ie bend but don’t break). What kind of defense do the Vikings have? I WISH we were more of a pressure defense. Whichever one we are, we are bending AND breaking…whether the offense is playing well or not. And in this rube’s opinion, it’s time the heat on Zimmer’s chair gets turned up just a bit.