Written by Chris Schad
One year ago, the Minnesota Vikings had high expectations coming off of a 2012 playoff appearance. With Christian Ponder getting one more year of experience under his belt and Adrian Peterson being the most dangerous player in the league, Minnesota was on the rise with an up-and-coming roster that was only going to get better.
Then, they lost the opener to the Detroit Lions.
The next week, they lost with 13 seconds remaining against the Chicago Bears. A home date with the Cleveland Browns had to be the antidote for their struggles at that point, but Brian Hoyer and Jordan Cameron had ideas of their own and pulled of a 31-27 stunner at the Metrodome. By the time the smoke cleared, the Vikings found themselves in a 1-7 hole they would never climb out of.
A lot has been made since then about former head coach Leslie Frazier’s approach to managing his team. His stoic nature on the sidelines rubbed fans the wrong way and most of the players didn’t seem to be held accountable for playing horrible football. Because of that, Frazier was shown the door and was replaced by the fire breathing dragon from Hard Knocks, Mike Zimmer.
Alright, so that fire-breathing side hasn’t come out of Zimmer after a 2-4 start, but there is one thing that the new head coach has established after the second straight miserable performance from his team:
He refuses to lose.
“I want [the team] to understand that it’s not OK to lose.” Zimmer explained at his Monday press conference. “We have to change the mentality and the mindset of this.”
Part of that mindset could have been revealed on Sunday when an irritated Zimmer went to the podium and revealed that he had been fining players for tardiness to meetings and treatment sessions (a moment he backtracked on Monday and chalked up to “Zimmer being Zimmer.”), but some of it also could have came from the previous regime.
When your coach is as player friendly and stoic as Frazier was, some of those “we’ll get them next time” feelings can stick around a locker room as well as the opportunity to take your job less than 100 percent. After all, it can take time to completely change the culture of a locker room.
Zimmer isn’t going to have any of this. He knows that time as an NFL head coach is directly correlated with wins and losses and to have his team get curbstomped by a Lions team without their best player at isn’t the best way to enhance one’s job security. (Rob Chudzinski would agree) He also knows that the players on the Vikings are more than capable of playing at a higher level.
“The guys overall are not bad football players,” Zimmer said. “They’re just not playing real good right now.”
All of this seems like trying to find a silver lining in this mess of a season, but a shock to the system is exactly what the Vikings needs. With ten games remaining on the schedule, there’s still a Lloyd Christmas chance that this attitude has a better chance of turning things around than his predecessor’s did.
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Chris Schad contributes to 105 The Ticket and has had his work featured on the Bleacher Report and Yahoo Contributor Network. He serves as the Vikings Lead Writerfor Pro Football Spot. Find him on Twitter @crishad. |