Minnesota Vikings keep in check through team meetings

By now, we’ve learned that Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer likes things organized. He enjoys making his game plans and having his players execute their individual assignments. It is that kind of mentality that helps young players adjust to life in the NFL and the Vikings style of play.

What we didn’t know is that much of that can be attributed to regular meetings. Zimmer relies on those meetings to make sure that players know their assignments and know what to do in certain situations if they happen to arise. He’s not shy about putting players on the spot to see if they know what they should know either.

We learned a bit more about these meetings in a recent article on the ESPN website. New Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Mike Wallace talked about the number of meetings that the team has.

"“We have the most meetings ever. We’re always in meetings, we’re always on the field. If you’re in that many meetings, you’ve got to know what’s going on.” Wallace said. “It’s so the whole team can know the rules, just different things. I think it has a lot to do with coaching, as well. He’s setting us up, and putting us in position. I think he’s doing a really good job.”"

May 27, 2015; Eden Prairie, MN, USA; Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer speaks to his team at practice at Winter Park. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

It is the job of a good coach to put players in a situation where they can succeed. It is also their job to make sure that they know the game of football. I got a good laugh from a story that Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer told about a question that he dropped on a player and got a pretty wild response about when the team is in a rush trying to get a field goal to win or tie the game.

"“We keep going through situations in the team meetings and I’ll ask them questions. I’ll say, ‘We’re in a two-minute drill, we’re down by two, we need a field goal to win or tie.’ So I’ll ask a guy, ‘What yard line do you need to get to?’ I asked one of the players, not on special teams, but I like to ask different guys different questions because I need to find out what they know and what they don’t know. One guy said the 50-yard line. And I said, ‘Are you kidding me? That’s a 68-yard field goal. That’d be an NFL record.'”"

Sure, a 68-yard field goal might be possible with the leg that Blair Walsh has, but it is far from the desired yard line to where you’d feel comfortable or confident about a long field goal. Still, it’s good for players other than special teams players to know about things like that. Getting a grip on the game of football around them and having the team have one voice going forward is something that we’ve seen from this Vikings team so far this season and seems to be the key for a Mike Zimmer led defense.

"“Getting them to understand these situations, where we’re trying to get to. I asked a guy yesterday, we’ve got one play that we only run on one certain down, right? I asked him, and he gave me the wrong down. I asked him again today in the meeting, just to make sure that he knows that they all need to be paying attention and we all have to be on the same page and we all have to be accountable. We want our fans to be proud of how intelligent we play and how hard we play. I want my football team to share my personality and learn about the game of football.”"

You can see Mike Zimmer and the Minnesota Vikings when they take on the Detroit Lions from Ford Field in Michigan on Sunday, October 25, 2015. Be sure to check your local listings for time and channel.

Next: Minnesota Vikings 2015 Game By Game Previews

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