Brian Robison Needs to Lead With His Play, Not His Words

Five games into the season and coming off your worst loss of the year so far is probably not the right time to be calling people out.

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That’s just my opinion. Brian Robison evidently disagrees.

When asked about Thursday night’s drawing-and-quartering at the hands of the Packers, Robison had strong thoughts about some of his teammates.

It’s Robison’s belief that not everyone on the field in Viking purple put in a 100% effort from start to finish against Green Bay (via foxsports.com).

"Speaking about the environment in the locker room at halftime, Robison said: “The mood almost (was) like, like some people had checked out. You know what, I’m just going to be blunt and say it can never be that way. This is a team that I’ve felt like all along has fought and scratched no matter what type of adversity we have faced and I felt like we didn’t have that last night.”"

I wasn’t in the locker room and I wasn’t on the field so I don’t know exactly what Robison saw that made him believe guys had checked out.

Here’s what I do know: Mike Zimmer heard Robison’s statement and he doesn’t agree with it.

"“I respect Brian’s opinion, but when I watched the tape, I didn’t see that,” Zimmer said. “I looked for it, hard, but I did not see guys . . . I looked at the offensive tape, I looked if the receivers weren’t running hard, special teams, if we weren’t going hard. Defensively, I think what he’s talking about is we maybe lost the fire a little bit. But I don’t think there was any not trying.”"

Thing is, when you’re getting physically dominated, you’re always going to have a certain amount of mental fatigue set in. That’s what frustration does to you.

It’s also possible that the Vikings have a few players who just aren’t very smart and don’t always keep their discipline. Did those players “check out” or is that just who they are?

Robison himself was certainly not immune to looking like he had “checked out.” He made one of the night’s most visibly awful plays, getting sucked inside and failing to recover for the tackle on Eddie Lacy, allowing Lacy to score a TD.

Again, I don’t know what exactly Robison saw that made him think guys were checking out. I’m not questioning Robison on that, I’m just questioning the wisdom of taking the approach he took in his statements.

I’m not sure that making accusations of “checking out” against certain unnamed members of the team is really what the Vikings need right now. I’m not sure that tactic shows good solid leadership ability.

To me, Robison sounds like a guy who wants to be a leader and thinks tough-talk is the only way to go about it. The fact that Mike Zimmer openly disagreed with Robison should perhaps give Robison pause.

Perhaps Robison should re-assess his “leadership” approach as we go forward and restrict himself to setting a good example on the field. For instance, make the tackle against Eddie Lacy.

Show up against the run, Robison. Or people will start to think maybe you’re just not very good against the run. Maybe you’re not cut out to be a DE in Mike Zimmer’s scheme, where you don’t get to just willy nilly rush the passer every play.

Lack of discipline clearly hurt the Vikings Thursday night, a fact Mike Zimmer confirmed when grumbling about guys making bonehead plays and not staying in their gaps.

Robison frankly has never been that great on staying disciplined and has never been a terrific run defender. He gets pushed around too easily by physical linemen. He’s a decent speed rusher but that’s about it.

To be clear, I don’t fault Robison for trying to show leadership at this time. On the contrary, I commend him. I just don’t think that “calling guys out without naming names” card needed to be pulled right now.

It’s five games into the season, you’re 2-3, and you’re still breaking in a lot of new players. That’s a time to just shut up and play.

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