Vikings: It’s time to fire Mike Zimmer
Mike Zimmer has continued to dig himself a deeper hole with poor coaching performances this season, and after eight years with the franchise, it’s time to move on from him.
The Vikings hired Zimmer in 2014, and for the most part, he’s had relatively good success. He’s made the postseason three times (2015, 2017, 2019), and holds a 60-43-1 record (.599). There’s a reason he’s been the head coach for so long; the players seem to like him, he was a good defensive coach and he has the third-best winning percentage in franchise history.
It’s common for a coach’s message to not click with players after a few years, and that looks to be the case in Minnesota. It’s the same thing week after week, and the Vikings have found themselves in a rut since the impressive 2019 postseason run.
This season Minnesota is 5-7-1 and just lost to the Detroit Lions. It was an embarrassing loss, and the way Zimmer coached that game was pathetic.
I understand that there were a lot of key players out with an injury, but there should be no reason they lost that game. Coming into Sunday, the last time Detroit won a football game was on Dec. 6, 2020. That’s almost a full year without a win.
The Vikings were down 20-6 at the half because their offense is too conservative. Even with Dalvin Cook and Adam Thielen out, Minnesota has too much talent to be throwing fricken dump passes on third and eight. Throw the damn ball past the sticks.
90 percent of Justin Jefferson’s catches in this video were longer than 10 yards. They should have targeted him more than 14 times. That sounds crazy to say, but he’s a top-three receiver in the NFL. He finished with 182 yards and a touchdown. It was clear as day that the Lions weren’t stopping him.
I understand that it’s not fully on Zimmer, and Klint Kubiak deserves some of the blame. However, it doesn’t matter who the offensive coordinator is, that’s how the offense runs under Zimmer.
In an ideal world, both Zimmer and Kubiak would be fired.
Zimmer’s calling card has always been on defense, and guess what? He sucks at that too this season.
- Passing yards given up: 382.0 – 30th
- Rushing yards given up: 131.5 – 29th
- Sacks: 18 – 31st
- Interceptions: 10 – 17th
- Points: 25.4 – 25th
If his best asset to you is on defense, and he’s in the bottom half of the league in literally every category, then maybe he’s not good anymore. They can’t stop the run, pass or bring pressure. That’s why teams march down the field with ease.
The Vikings’ defensive performance on the final drive of the game was terrible all the way around. The Lions did whatever they wanted and scored as time expired.
It was just a shitty game.
I’m going to end this right here because writing about Zimmer’s performance this season and reviewing that Lions game is pissing me off. Do the right thing Vikings… fire Zimmer.
