The good news for the Vikings is that their offense is performing well in training camp. The bad news is that their defense isn’t.
“We’ve gotta play better on defense than we’re playing right now,” coach Mike Zimmer told reporters on Thursday. “We need to play a lot better. Our offense has got a lot of grit and fight and I haven’t seen as much out of the defense yet. So that’s where my major concern is at this point.”
The problem, as Zimmer sees it, comes from familiarity with the system, each other, and success.
“As I’ve told a few of them, they’ve been together for quite a while now, and they think they’re pretty good,” Zimmer said. “So maybe we just go out and practice, and it’s not the intensity level or whatever we need to do. They’re not making mistakes because they’ve been in the same defense for six years now, and it’s maybe a little bit of complacency.”
Zimmer was asked whether the lack of competitions for starting jobs is a factor.
“I dont think that’s it,” Zimmer said. “I just think they need to get more competitive. We need to come out here and compete every day. In all the situations, the offense has won every time. So if they want to be great on defense, they’ve got to play with a chip on their shoulder, and I haven’t really seen it yet.”
So what do they need to do?
“I hope they watch this press conference,” Zimmer said.
Here’s the link to it, if they or anyone else want to see and here what Zimmer had to say.
