Xs and Os with Mike Zimmer | Week 5

On this edition of X's and O's with Mike Zimmer, Zimmer and Paul Allen discuss everything the team had to overcome last week, the pass-happy Seattle offense, rookie DE D.J. Wonnum's development, the importance of keeping Russell Wilson in the pocket, and more.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Five, It's time for X and OS with Vikings head
coach Mike Zimmer on the Minnesota Vikings Radio Network now
from the TCO Studios in Egan. Here is the voice
of the Vikings, Paul Allen Xes and os on the
kfa N Minnesota Vikings Radio Network is underway courtesy of

(00:23):
US Bank honoring the Vikings sixty greatest fans this season.
Quarterbacks coach Clint Kubiak coming up later, but first, Minnesota
Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer just coached his one hundredth
regular season game and the Vikings beat the Houston Texans.
Welcome back to X's and O's coach and through the

(00:43):
first four games of the season. At the quarter mark,
you got the fact that you guys got through that
last week with zero positives after the Titans thing. That
for me, that's the story of the season so far.
How about that? Yeah, I mean our guys have done
a good job. I think, you know, all the protocols
that we've had in place, everybody's done a really nice

(01:06):
job of protecting one another. I guess the best way
to say it. Yeah, the players in the Texans game,
in my opinion, took punches and punched back. I mean,
I thought you guys mostly look good, and then Houston
came punching at you were some good players. You punched
back and won the game. How important is that? Yeah?
It was good. I think we showed a lot of

(01:27):
a resiliency in our football team. You know, they scored
in an offense, went right back down and scored a
couple of times. They're late and you know, and then
at the end of the ball game we're able to
stop him on on the fourth down play. Did you
sense after the victory, either in the locker room or
at Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center up to the Seattle game,

(01:48):
like a bubble burst a little bit, and people are
looser and happier. Yeah, well, I think you know, there's
a lot of weight off your shoulders when you we
play good and you win. You know, we we had
a chance to win a Tennessee game and didn't win
that one. But I do see this team getting better
each week. You know, hopefully we go out to Seattle
and show it. Show it there. Mike, your rookie defensive end,

(02:12):
DJ Wantam, is he improving and getting good in a hurry? Yeah,
he's improving. Each and every week. Um, you know, the
more playing time he gets, the better he'll get. He's
still got a long way to go, still learning, you know,
but it's it's nice to have another young guy that
you can kind of mold into what you want. Have
you noticed with your guys or maybe around the league

(02:34):
in weeks three on now we're coming up to week
five that these rookies who didn't get preseason games and
had that weird offseason, the rookies are starting to take
off a little bit. Yeah. I think most most of
these guys are starting to get into the rhythm of
you know, professional football and what it's like. And uh,
you know they've had a little bit more time with
the technique and understanding how to study, you know, the

(02:58):
whole thing is different for him and not being in
any preseason games or training camp or OTA's basically you know,
they got to learn quick now. With Unique and Gockway,
he's not a rookie, but he was new. He got
here the week of the first game. So now he's
played four When it comes to in Gockway, who does
that four sacks and two forced bumbles? With Andre Patterson

(03:20):
defensive line coach co defensive coordinator and of course you
when it comes to unique, giving you guys the complete
game you need. Do you sense he's getting closer or
is he there? Well? I think he's playing a lot
more reckless now, you know, understanding what we're asking to do.
I thought he played very well last week in Houston.
You know, he was you know, still learning, you know,

(03:44):
how we do things and how we kind of change
and we've adapted to some of the things that he
can do well, and so you know that's all been
a little bit of a work in progress, but it's
shown up a lot more now now with rookie Jeff Gladdie.
Are you noticing that his quick twitch is become more
second nature? Things are just like when he knifed through
and got David Johnson for that tackle for loss shoom,

(04:07):
lickety split. He got in there fast. Yeah. I think
you know, he's feeling a lot more comfortable in everything
as well. You know, he's got a lot on his plate,
playing nickel, playing outside. You know, he's done some really nice,
nice things and so the more that we keep repping him,
the more that he keeps going, the better he'll get.

(04:29):
Now with masks and protocol and legit lifestyle changes at
least for a few more months with the players and
coaches and stuff. Specifically the players, what are you noticing
from them compared to the way you've seen it for
a super long time, Like mentally, it's just such a
different time now, do you notice it? Well, not so

(04:50):
much on the field. You know, when the guys are
out on the field, it's pretty it's pretty normal. But
you know, the traveling and the hotels and you know,
not you know, all the different things you have to do.
That's that's different. Yeah, Mike zm Rex's and Oh's on
the KFA and Minnesota Vikings Radio network courtesy of a
US Bank. Now Russell Wilson, we talked about contain a

(05:11):
little bit within gaqway, the importance of contain and keeping
him in the pocket at least some of the time. Yeah,
he's really tough to keep in there because he'll come
out in any different way. You'll come up through the middle,
they'll come up through the big app ll come up outside,
and they've got some protections in there where allows him
to get to the perimeter and then hold the football.

(05:33):
He's a great deep ball thrower. He's got lots of
receivers with big time speed, and it'll be a good
test for us. Now, you've you've had some epic battles
against the Seahawks in your seven years that you've been
coach of the Minnesota Vikings. Just overall the Seahawks. What
do your respect about their team and how they seem
to stay good every year? Yeah, you know, I think

(05:55):
Pete Carroll does a great job with you know, keeping
his keeping us guys competitive, keeping him fresh. You know,
we've had a lot of good battles. I know that. Uh,
you know, when they won the Super Bowl, we talked
about he said, man, you're running the ball good and
playing good defense. And I said, yeah, I'm trying to
be just like you. Soh you know so um, you
know it's it's but now they're a little bit different offensively.

(06:18):
You know, they're throwing the ball on a lot more
not as much ground and pound. Speaking of running the ball,
Dalvin Cook second to none in the NFL. Right Now,
do you notice with Dalvin is is he setting up
his blocks better than ever? Specifically when he gets out
to the perimeter. Yeah, Dalvin does a great job setting
up blocks all the time. But you know, he's very
difficult to tackle in the open field. Not very many

(06:41):
times does one guy get him. But he's he's got
great balance, great toughness, and great determination. And I know
you always have been very fond of Dalvin the guy.
You know where he's come from and who he is now.
In chatting with Gary Kubiak on My KFA and radio
show earlier this week, he intimated that Dalvin is assuming
a little more of a leadership role, kind of behind

(07:03):
the scenes, a little more vocal. Are you noticing that? Yeah,
you know, Davil was fairly vocal with the offense a
year ago, and uh, but it's it's more so now.
You know, he's more of a he's more of a
fiery leader kind of guy that you know has shown up.
And that's a good thing. We need that your offensive
tackles Riley Reef and Brian O'Neill, specifically the last two,

(07:26):
with what you're asking almost in all facets of the game.
My opinion is it seems they're going along pretty well.
Do you see that. Yeah, they're doing a nice job.
You know, I think we've done a nice job mixing
up protections. Uh, they're they're both physical, tough guys, and
I'm glad you're on our team. So from from an
offensive standpoint, with the way feeling Jefferson and Cook are

(07:48):
going right now, I mean that that's legitimately difficult for
defenses to stop on a weekly basis. What a luxury. Yeah,
it's great being able to have the running game and
the play actions and having these receivers that we do.
And you know, I'm sure that IRV Smith and Kyle
will be a factor in there as well. Yeah, and
with Herb one catch for fourteen yards, I mean, is

(08:08):
that it's weird? Is it explainable? Well, yeah, there's a couple.
You know, there's one of the first third dollar the game,
he got held pretty good and didn't get called, but
he had a chance to get the ball there. And
then there was another one that they kind of messed
up the coverage and kind of fell underneath him another
time later on the game. So I think he'll continue
to get a lot of catches. Yeah, seeing with Herb also,

(08:30):
I mean all the way back to Madison's first touchdown
in twenty nineteen against the Raiders when he had a
nice block up the middle. You know, Herb that thirty
nine yard run by Dalvin Cook against Tennessee Herb Smith
Junior got the key block at the end. So I
mean he's giving you mostly a complete game, right, Yeah,
he's getting better and better all the time. It is
blocking and even pass protection where he's in protection, so

(08:54):
you know, he's running good routes, he's catching a ball. Well,
you know, I think it'll start getting spread around. Little
more time for two more with Gary Kubiak. How excited
is he with Cook and Felin and Jefferson and just
things really starting to open up. Yeah, I think he
really enjoys number number one, this offensive group. You know,

(09:15):
they're they're a good bunch of guys, good veterans. I
think he you know, he loves the offensive coaching staff
and being able to work with Kirk and the rest
of guys. I think that's big. What's it like watching
Seattle offense and not seeing that beef eater George Fant
come in as the unbalanced, extual guy. Yeah, well they're

(09:35):
not doing much of that, but they got a lot
of beef up front. They're they're pretty big and physical
and finally DK metcap I mean talented, got drafted high
Adonis type body, but I mean, what's gotten into him
this year? Twenty five yards per catch. Yeah, well, he's
caught some bombs, you know. They they helped Max protect,
and he'll end up just throwing him a deep one.
He's had several of those, um, you know. So we're

(09:58):
gonna have to be on our p's and q's with him.
So coach, good luck, all right, Paul, thank you, Yes, sir,
Mike zimmer Head, coach of the Minnesota Vikings. By the way,
in celebration of sixty seasons, Mike's Vikings are selecting fans
for the sixty Greatest Fans Team, presented by Ufank. We
are honoring the most passionate Vikings fans throughout history. You

(10:18):
can nominate yourself for somebody else today at Vikings dot
com Slash six zero Fans. Quarterbacks coach Clint Kubiak is
around the corner. It's x's and o's courtesy of US
Bank on the KFA n Minnesota Vikings radio network, driven
by Paul Larry. XS and OS continues on the KFA

(10:58):
and Minnesota Vikings Radio network. And by the way, it's
a Game Day any day. Play the new Vikings scratch
game from the Minnesota Lottery top prize hundred thousand dollars.
Are you game? Just say I'm in? Get details at
him in the lottery dot com. Here is second year
Minnesota Vikings quarterbacks coach. His name is Clint Kubiak, second
stint with the team and a former safety at Colorado State. Clint,

(11:23):
congratulations on the victory against Houston. What just in totality,
what do you like about the way the entire offense
is going right now? Yeah? You know, I just like
the way I like the way our team's playing together.
You know, special teams gets a turnover, defense gets the stops,
and then will you get a couple scores? You know,

(11:44):
more specifically offensively, I just think we have balance. I
think we're getting the manageable third downs, and obviously you
we're having some young guys step up, Jordan Jefferson being
number one. Yeah, and with Jefferson man two one hundred
yard games team record Moss in ninety eight he had
four with Justin or Adam or Dalvin for those guys
and helping Kirk like, let's let's stick on Justin, Like,

(12:07):
how is what he's doing opening things for everybody? Yeah?
You know, obviously the minute, the minute they have to
cheat of safety over to his side. Now Adam's got
one on one, or the minute they gotta cloud him.
Now we got a you know, six man box to
run the ball. So it helps everybody. And uh, you
know he's a he had a great training camp too,
and he's just coming on. Spect more from him. But

(12:30):
as far as you know, what I'm in control of
is that quarterbacker room or just worried about, you know,
being prepared to play and put our best foot forward
Southern night in Seattle, and Clint, before we talk about
that quarterback end or Seattle, I'm I'm you mentioned the
words safety and I'm looking at a picture here with
somebody with a forty two inch vertical back left of
the end zone from like I mean, it might be

(12:53):
like twelve years ago. Can can you recall a story
with me? Yeah, let's do it, okay, college days. There
is a picture of this on the internet. I googled
Kubiak interception Keenum and back left of the end zone
forty two inch vertical picked off case Keenum with the
Houston Cougars to walk off victoriously. Will you ever forget

(13:15):
that moment? That was a good day. Good team win
that day as well. But yeah, that was a lot
of fun. I've seemed like a long time ago that
I got to play this great game and still get
to be a part of it coaching, but great memories
as a Colorado State ram safety and uh, you know,
I always talked to Harry you know our safeties here.

(13:35):
I just I have so much respect for those guys
for what they put their bodies through. And yeah, that
was a good day. Yeah. Into before training camp, Agan,
I took my daughter, who as a senior in high
school to Colorado to look at Boulder and to look
at Fort Collins, and I had never been to Four Collins.
I mean that drive to four Collins. Man, Shoot, you
might as well continue to larry me. It seems like

(13:57):
it's right around the corner. Yeah, you don't want to
go Laramie though, Paul's dad, Larimie Pork Collins is just fine. Yeah. No,
Colorado State man and Colorado with a great rivalry. Clint
kubi at quarterbacks coach for the Minnesota Vikings. Kirk seemed
comfortable in the Houston game. Seems like the comfortability is
getting better every single game. Is that a fair assessment? Yeah,

(14:17):
you know, I think he was playing comfortable those first
three weeks. We just didn't get it done as a team.
And it's a team game. He did his part last week,
and we're just we're onto the next one and try
to get our job done one play at a time.
And he certainly is a big part of the solution.
And we's got to build on that, you know, with
the with the way you're you're sharing now, and you
know we started with Mike Zimmery kind of said the

(14:39):
same thing. And I've done this a long time seriously
as a coach and really a player. I mean, you
seriously have to look at play by play, week by week.
I don't want to say to keep sane, but to
keep everybody in their lane, right because I mean, you know,
people are like, Okay, we're one in three, maybe we
upset Seattle, what are we going to do again? It's Atlanta,

(15:00):
gonna buye go to Lambeau. You guys can't do that, right. Yeah.
It's just it's your reality as a player and as
a coach, and there's only one way you can get better,
and is that as the folks on the little details
that make you and make you better. So in practice,
it's an individual What's what little thing can I do
to make make my team rep better? And if I'm
better in that team rep, okay, here we go. In
the game, it's full speed. Now I'm getting better at that.

(15:22):
So control what you can control. It's an old cliche,
but you know what, those clich cliches are pretty damn true, Paul,
and they work for quarterbacks. So one at a time, baby,
that's all we care about. And with number eight Kirk
Cousins sixty two touchdown passes since arriving in twenty eighteen,
most in the history of the Vikings for somebody's first
three years. Here, what what's it like working with Kirk?

(15:46):
You know, it's a blessing because he's such a professional
and he wants to be challenged. And if you're not
on top of your game, okay, he'll challenge you to
be better as a coach. And that's what he does
for me. And that's goes for Sean Mannon as well.
And are they're two young quarterbacks. Really bright room. But
I would just say he's so on the ball that
he forces the best out of you as a coach,

(16:08):
which I really appreciate. Yeah, man and I'm so glad
you brought up Sean Manum because it's the non obvious
and like in the off season when you know Manuon's
on a one year deal and you know there are players, rookies,
free agents, whatever, more physically gifted than Sean, but Sean
is the one you keep bringing back more so because
of what he does with Kirk and with you behind

(16:28):
the scenes. Right, Yeah, it's a you know, there's a
lot more to being a backup, and he brings a
lot of intangibles to the mix. But I also do
truly believe he's a hell of a player. And you know,
he hasn't had a lot of opportunities. I thought he'd
played really well in that Chicago game last year. There's
some things outside of his control. But you want to
talk about a great teammate, a competitive guy, a smart guy,

(16:51):
just the guy that has all the right makeup that
you want in a Viking and a great teammate. So
couldn't be more happier to have Sean And where he's
always trying to get better too. We gotta make him
better so when his opportunity comes, he's ready to fill
in and exceed expectations. Hey, Clint, when you're working with
Kirk before the game, or maybe when you guys are
at a hotel of the night before, can you tell

(17:13):
when Kirk's gonna have one of those lights out games?
Absolutely not, because he's always the same. You know, He's
the same, whether they're they're on him in the papers
or in the media, or whether he just was an
NFC Player of the Month like he was last year.
So that's I think that's why he's been so successful.
He's the same every day and you know what to

(17:34):
expect and his teammates know what to expect from him.
That's a great quality to have in a quarterback. So
you go back to Houston and I mean, you know,
I know, you spend a fair amount of your life
there and your your father grew up five minutes from
NRG Stadium Astrodome. The whole thing. Couldn't really do like
the family reunion barbecue, could you. Yeah? And that wasn't
a bad thing. You know, we got to folks on
the game. I understand that, but isn't it. I Mean

(17:57):
there's so many weird things, man, and so many different things,
and you have to accept as we move forward, push
through this whole thing together. But I mean when you
go back to a place like Houston, you know, and
you walk into that stadium and you got family and
friends there, and you know, to keep things so like
the Titans get bit and then you guys come up
with zero positives over x amount of days, which is

(18:18):
the story of the season. For me, it was phenomenal
how great you guys are handling that. It still is
a little bit of a reality check, right when you
go to a place like that and it's like, oh, okay,
so all right, no barbecue of this side. Yeah, you know,
Coach Zimmer does such a good job of keeping us
on task. You know that we are just we're dialed
into our responsibility in our job that day. So honestly,

(18:42):
to us, it's just another day at the office, another game,
and it all feels the same. That's a testament to
the way he prepares us. Tell me about the Seattle defense.
It feels like Bobby Wagner has been around so long.
He played with the eighty five Bears, Quandre Diggs, you
remember him from the Lions and last year and then
they got this beefeater in the middle poona four. Nobody
ever talks about ninety seven. He's unbelievably good. Yeah, we

(19:05):
have a lot of respect for this defense. Obviously, they
gave us everything we could handle last year, so it was,
you know, we're gonna have to be on top of
our game to have a successful Sunday. And that's what
we're in the works doing right now, Paul. We're putting
in the time watching the film so that tomorrow when
these players get here, we can just feed him great
information and get them ready to play and get them
playing fast and not thinking but reacting. That's the main

(19:28):
thing to do. Get him ready as a coach, last one.
But being Gary Kubiak's son, growing up son of a coach,
just what did you really really absorb that you remember
back to the day, just watching the way he does
it and now you're getting the opportunity to do it. Yeah,
you know, the first thing that comes to mind is
isn't that he was always a dad And so when

(19:53):
I just don't remember him being a coach, I remember
him having a job that kept him away from home
many many nights. But I just that's what I respect
most now that I get to be a dad. I
got three kids, and uh, they shouldn't know that I'm
a coach and someone tells him, you know. So he
was always a hell of a dad and still is.
What a blessing he is to work with him every

(20:13):
every day. It's it's great, what an awesome response. Thank
you for that. So where'd you get the forty two
inch vertical mom or Dad? Yeah, I think you're embellishing
a little bit on that. I think there's a good
camera angle there. But uh yeah, back in the day,
you know, I had some hopsit that was. That was
many years ago, and now I could barely call like
it over a stair. You picked off case Keenum, who

(20:34):
was unbelievable in college and was on one side of
the Minneapolis miracle. I mean, for one second, you can
smell the roses, you know, Yes, one and done. That
was it. Good luck at see alla, Bud. Great work
this year. Great work man. I'll look forward to seeing you. Okay,
see you. Thank you you too. Clint Kooby at quarterbacks
coach for the Minnesota Vikings. Hey Vikings fans, purchase any
twenty ounce Pepsi branded product from Quick Trip with your

(20:58):
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KFA and Radio and the Vikings Entertainment Network for assisting
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(21:20):
seven o'clock, five o'clock for the pregame on KFA and
six o'clock for the Vikings Radio Network affiliates. I'm Paul Allen.
Thank you for listening to XS and OS. I'm the
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