If the Vikings Grew Up This Week, It’s Because Mike Zimmer Stopped Treating Them Like Kids

Since joining the Vikings in early 2014, Mike Zimmer has preached a few things consistently. Playing hard and playing smart are the two items at the top of that list.

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The Vikings have for the most part been okay with the playing hard part this year, but the playing smart part? Not so much.

Bonehead plays, breakdowns, lack of discipline have dogged the Vikings at various times during their first nine games. Some of the immaturity and lack of smarts has shown up off the field as well as on.

At times Zimmer has displayed open frustration with his young team’s lack of discipline. At one point the ever-honest Zimmer admitted he had to fine a few guys for showing up late to meetings.

The between-the-ears issues have popped up on the field too in the form of some big-moment breakdowns (and it hasn’t always been rookies BTW). But after a particularly frustrating flop-job against Buffalo, something seems to have changed for the Vikings.

The last two weeks the Vikings have had to battle down to the wire, scraping for every yard, scrapping to prevent every yard by the other team. The result: two straight hard-fought, down-to-the-wire victories, a 4-5 record and a very good feeling going into the bye week.

After Sunday’s big win against the Redskins, which saw the Vikings matching RG3 and the Skins shot for shot throughout a very exciting second half before pulling it out, Zimmer noted the big change in his squad (via miamiherald.com):

"“I think we showed some resiliency there. I think our team grew up a little bit,” Zimmer said Monday, reflecting on the 29-26 comeback victory over Washington.He added: “I’ve always said I like how this team works and how they continue to compete and practice, and I think it’s starting to show up a little bit at the end of games.”"

Finishing off games requires a certain mental toughness, and mental toughness hasn’t always been the Vikings’ long suit. But they’ve displayed that grit the last couple weeks and I think it’s a direct result of Zimmer’s evolving approach.

We’ve seen glimmers over the months of the fiery Zimmer of Hard Knocks fame, but maybe not to the degree we expected. With such a young roster, you have to believe Zimmer decided he needed to show some patience and not light guys up from the start.

But things have felt a little different since the Buffalo game. That let down seems to have encouraged Zimmer to take off the kid-gloves.

This week, Zimmer addressed some penalty issues by calling out a pair of his rookie special teams players, Antone Exum and Jabari Price. But Zimmer did more than just criticize those players, he sat both of them down for Sunday’s game (Price may have sat with injury regardless).

Zimmer sent a clear message by benching the two defensive backs: rookies no longer have the excuse of being rookies.

The patient approach seems to be going by the wayside for Zimmer. More evidence of this change surfaced during the game yesterday when Zim lit into the biggest-name rookie on the Vikings’ roster.

After a particularly bad play in the first half, Teddy Bridgewater found out what happens when Zimmer decides he’s had enough.

Bridgewater headed to the sideline after throwing a ball away on fourth down in a situation where it looked like he could have run for the first. Zimmer didn’t appreciate the poor decision and let Bridgewater have it (via Pioneer-Press):

"“Once I came over to the sideline, Coach Zimmer was right there in my face telling me to, ‘Just run it! Just run it!’ ” Bridgewater said. “I told myself: ‘What am I doing?’ I know that I have the ability to keep a play alive. I know that if something isn’t open down field I can take advantage of my legs and make a play. “Right there, I just have to have better judgment. I should have run it. It was only two yards.”"

Bridgewater took the coaching and went on to have a very strong second half, using his legs on several occasions to make plays.

With Bridgewater and with the two penalty-prone DBs, the message was the same: you’re expected to do better, and if you don’t do better you’re going to hear about it.

Zimmer may have hesitated to take such strong action in previous weeks, believing that his young guys needed a bit of leeway, but that’s in the past. The Vikings are beginning to gel a little bit as a team and do some good things on the field, and Zimmer clearly wants to push them to greater accomplishments.

In past years, the Vikings didn’t necessarily have coaches who were willing to push young players so hard. Coaches like Leslie Frazier and Bill Musgrave were notably less vocal than Zimmer and his current regime, and probably went too easy on players like Christian Ponder and Matt Kalil, resulting in some confidence issues for those men (the ramifications of which Zimmer’s staff has had to deal with).

Zimmer and crew don’t have any problem disciplining rookies and don’t have any problem getting in players’ faces on the sideline regardless of their youth or where they were drafted. It’s refreshing to see a coaching staff that would rather teach, would rather push, than try to be everyone’s buddy.

When all is said and done, the Vikings may not have the talent to make a playoff run this year, but if they do fall short it won’t be because Mike Zimmer didn’t drive them hard enough. Zimmer appears to be pushing all the right buttons right now. That includes the buttons that other coaches with less cojones, but more “class,” might be hesitant to push.

Zimmer said his team grew up this week but if that’s the case, it’s because he helped them grow up by pushing them to stop being kids.

Pushing players to be better rather than coddling them and making excuses for their failures? That’s how you coach. That’s how you make a consistent, mentally tough, winning team.