The Viking Age
FanSided

Mike Priefer Calls Vikings Special Teams ‘Unacceptable’

By Adam Carlson

facebooktwitterreddit

It’s been no secret that the Minnesota Vikings special teams unit has been struggling.  Although they’ve been containing other teams on returns pretty well, the ability to get quality returns has been questionable at best.

Dynamic kick off return man Cordarrelle Patterson has been hampered by injuries that limit his effectiveness.  However, punt returner Marcus Sherels has been making some questionable decisions in situations where playing it safe might be the better option.  While the fingers could be pointed at the players in this situation, special teams coach Mike Priefer took responsibility for this decline and had a self-scout study that he checked out during the bye week.  The results of the study did not please him.

Thursday, Mike Priefer spoke with the media about the Vikings struggles on special teams according to the folks at FOX sports.  Here’s what Priefer told them:

"Aug 8, 2014; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Vikings special teams coordinator Mike Priefer gets ready before the game with the Oakland Raiders at TCF Bank Stadium. Vikings win 10-6. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports“The biggest thing that I took away from our self-scout study was that right now I think we’re an average special teams unit. We’ve played solid at times. We haven’t really hurt our football team. We haven’t really helped our football team. Not to the extent that we’ve done that in the past. I’m not disappointed in where we’re at, but I expect a lot more from our guys. And I told them that this week. We’re not an average group. We’ve got good players. We’ve got good returners. We’ve got good specialists. But right now we’re playing at an average level and that’s, to me, unacceptable.”"

As Vikings fans, I think we were a bit spoiled last year.  Both Patterson and Sherels were arguably the best return men at their positions and set the franchise single season records for punt and kick return yardages.

The challenge to change this problem is something that Priefer is ready to tackle head on.

"“Going forward, that’s my challenge to our guys,” he said. “That’s my challenge to myself, to make sure that game-plan wise, fundamentally, technique-wise, we’re doing the things necessary to play at a higher level.”"

The Vikings will have an opportunity to improve on the special teams play this Sunday, when the team travels to Chicago to take on the Bears.  The game can be seen at noon central time on CBS.

More from The Viking Age

Home/Minnesota Vikings News