5 most disappointing Vikings in the loss to the Cowboys

HC Mike Zimmer

Mike Zimmer’s bizarre game management is beginning to become a trend and not an anomaly. His coaching performance against the Cowboys was full of errors, questionable decisions, and poor clock management. He looks like a coach whose time has passed and the major takeaway from this game is that a change needs to be made.

Zimmer’s game plan for this contest was a head-scratcher. Defensively, they took away the running game but allowed huge cushions to the receivers resulting in very easy throws for Cooper rush to complete and gain confidence from. Offensively, they attacked the Cowboys’ secondary on the first drive, but settled for ultra-conservative the rest of the way, resulting in short throws that were easily snuffed out by the Dallas defense.

For what seems like the seventh time this season, Zimmer’s end of the half clock-management was truly baffling. The Vikings began to march down the field and even called a timeout. A play later, Kirk Cousins scrambled for a sizeable gain, and instead of calling their last time out, they let the clock run out. Why not just take a knee? Why start the drive and then suddenly decide to wave the white flag? It was perhaps the most bizarre clock management of all the strange ones we’ve been witness to this season.

Zimmer also had a huge blunder late in the game. After Dallas had a penalty that put them at 3rd and 16 in a key spot,  Zimmer called back-to-back timeouts.  This resulted in a five-yard penalty that made the Cowboys‘ conversion quite a bit easier. Zimmer said after the game that he forgot he called one. That is a horrible excuse and just shows that his in-game awareness is totally lacking.

His coaching performance was the most disappointing aspect of Sunday’s game and one that should seal his fate in Minnesota.