X's and O's with Mike Zimmer | Week 4

On this edition of X's and O's with Mike Zimmer and Voice of the Vikings Paul Allen preview the game against the Browns on Sunday.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What a scintillating victory for the Minnesota Vikings beating the
Seattle Seahawks. Mike zimmer Head, coach, joins us. Now, the
fans arrived early, there were a lot of them. They
were loud, they stayed late, and it was just wonderful.
What'd you like about it? Yeah, the crowd was great.
They were extremely loud. You know, they're they're very, very

(00:20):
important to us when we play games at home. It
gives us a great home field advantage and the energy
level helps with our team and the opportunity to help
is right in front of you. This weekend, Sunday at noon,
Cleveland is in town. Very good Cleveland Browns team. They're
two and one from the AFC North and they like
to run. Number one in the NFL in rushing attempts,

(00:43):
number one in rushing touchdowns. You see it that way,
I mean statistically that's correct, But is that what they
want to do? First with offense? Run? Yeah, first, first
and foremost, they want to run. They've got two great backs.
You know, both these two guys run extremely hard. Their
offensive line is very good. They've got a good scheme
um and then you know, the play actions come off
of that when when you see their offense head coach

(01:06):
Kevin Stefanski, a lot of Vikings feel with the Cleveland Browns,
a lot of former coaches here or there. When you
see their offense, do you see yours? Do you see
San Francisco's? Is it kind of all the same? There's
some of that. Bill call is their offensive line coach,
and he's done a great job for a number of years. Uh,
you know, they've got they've got the zone scheme and

(01:26):
they've got the gap schemes. So they'll they'll run counters
and stutters and then they'll run to the normal press
plays like wide zone like we do with the With
the two running backs they use most specifically Nick Chubb.
What what does Nick Chubb do? Well? Well, they are
both extremely hard runners, but he's got great vision, sees
the sees the holes. Um, you know, I think, uh,

(01:50):
you know, he's he's able to cut back, but he's
able to get the perimeter as well. And with Kareem Hunt,
I'm more defined for his catching in Kansas City than
his running. Is it still like that? Yeah, they use
him in third down. He's the third down back, but
they'll use him in there, and really run the same
exact runs with him. They have this number twenty five,
this rookie, Demetric Demetric Felton, the UCLA rookie. And they

(02:12):
don't use him a ton. But in that Houston game,
a couple of catches fifty one yards. He dropped a
pass last game that probably would have been a touchdown
or something like that. What are they doing with him? Well,
one was a screen and they're using him as a rocket,
you know, as a guy that used the jet sweeps
and things like that. So let's start using him in
motion to line him up as a wide receiver, could

(02:32):
be in a running back. Sometimes they'll scat him out
of the the backfield in past protection. And you mentioned their
their offensive line, Bill Callahan, as Mike said, super well respected.
He's their offensive line coach, their reich guard Wyatt Teller.
Is he one of the most underrated players in the NFL.
Not a lot of people know who he is, but
all I hear is that he's fantastic. Yeah, he's a

(02:54):
very good player. But you know, the whole offensive line
is very good. They're all big guys. They do a
great job. Um, they're all on the same page. Uh.
JC Trotter gets them in the right in the right
plays and then the guards they do a good job
and the tackles do a good job to a lot
of different schemes. Well, their offensive line, like Seattle's offensive line,

(03:15):
they rotated the right tackles with shell down. But with
the lines you've seen so far Cincinnati, Arizona, Seattle, then
this one with Pierce, Tomlinson, Kendricks, Harrison Smith. What you
bring a teams like, how how does it match up
compared to what you've seen. Well, they do a lot
of things out of like a three tight end, one back,

(03:36):
one wide receiver formation, and they'll give you a lot
of different looks. They'll open up to open up the formations,
and then they'll give you a lot of two tight ends,
two wides like like we like to do. Um. So
they give a lot of different things. We're gonna have.
We're gonna have to make sure we're very solid on tackling.
They're gonna try to make our corners tackle, get bounced
the ball to the perimeter, make our corners tackles. We've

(03:56):
got to do a great job there. So so now
that your former offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski has been there
a couple of years and a couple of off seasons.
Can you see a feel for what he's building with
this offense, with the running game, the offensive line, sneaky
little felt in stuff like that, because I remember in
twenty eighteen when he became your interim offensive coordinator, first

(04:17):
game against Miami, you ran for like two sixty and
and you know, and that's what's important to you to
compliment your defense. Are you seeing that there? Well, I
think that's that's a lot of his EMO. Now. You know,
they're run running the football lot he'll run. You know,
in certain situations, they run a reverse pass, they run
a fleet flicker, they've got some some of the trick
plays that they'll throw in there in double pass one time.

(04:39):
So you know we're gonna have to be on our
p's and q's in that area too. So it all
comes off the running game, though. Big game for the players,
big game for the coaches, just like every single one is.
But seriously big game for the fans too, coming to
hup a win because if they want to run first,
if they get any second and third longs, and you
get a chance to make them left handed as a
pass first team, and that's like big right, Yeah, that's huge. Um,

(05:01):
you know, they don't want to be in third and
long situations if they can help it. But uh, you
know they they're gonna use there, They're gonna spread spread
out in uh no backs at times, and so they
can get some quick throws in there. So we got
to do a great job in uh really first and
second down. Mike zimmer x'es and O's Vikings and Brown's
noon KFA in Vikings Radio Network Sunday, Baker Mayfield their quarterback.

(05:23):
What do you see in him? You know, he's he's
playing really well. Uh. He will scramble when there's times ago,
but he's thrown he's throwing the ball well. I've seen
him make a lot of strides over the years, and uh,
I think he's doing a great job. You know, they've
got the two first picks in the draft, you know,
with with him and Garrett so um, they've they've got
a lot of number ones in their in their system.

(05:46):
And uh and with the Vikings offensive line, their first
round pick Christian Dara saw yet to play. But nevertheless,
you know, all those penalties in the Cincinnati game eight
yards alone on the offensive line last two games looking
at it calling the game from afar, seems like it's
been fantastic with your offensive line. Yeah, it's been good.
We're not shooting ourselves in the foot. We're not taking
a lot of negative plays. Uh, you know, we're advancing

(06:07):
the football, which is always important. Um Cousins has been
playing outstanding. Um. You know, we've got a great effort
this week from from um Um Madison. Madison got it. Yeah,
got a great effort from Madison this week. And uh,
you know on the offensive line did a great job,
tight ends and and the backs, all of receivers all

(06:27):
did a great job with with Cousins and Um and
just what he's doing through three games, no interceptions so far,
a bunch of touchdowns. Um. The you've you've mentioned twice
now after after games, his leadership and you know, without
expounding too much, I would imagine when when you look
for leadership from Kirk that maybe you haven't seen the
first three years, Like what are you looking for? Well,

(06:50):
I think it's just partly the control of the offense
and then and then the other the other part is
you know, uh, there's some been some off schedule plays
that he's made this year that maybe he hasn't made before,
but we've We've had a lot of good conversations Kirk
and I and uh, you know, I understand where he's
coming from a lot of ways. And that's why I
talk about the leadership, and he's talked about wanting to

(07:11):
be a better leader, and I think that's come to fruition.
So when like in the Arizona game, when you see
kJ Osborne get fed early on the busted coverage, but
then late on a huge play, Kirk's thinking about him,
then Conklin scores in the next game. Is that I mean,
is that just the play or somebody willingly thinking about

(07:31):
players other than Justin and Adam? Yeah, I don't think.
I don't think Kirk is really willingly thinking about certain plays.
I think what he's what he's doing is all right,
here's my read. This is the matchup I have, And
let's go to here first and then go to the
second one. You know, not always were those guys that
caught balls that you're talking about being might not have
been the first read. You see Conklin every day in practice.

(07:53):
Is obviously seen him all of his career. Have you
ever seen him run as fast as he did? In
that last game on that play the win straight down
the field whole week. Hal is he fast? Yeah, he's fasts.
He's been fast his whole time. Uh, you know that's
why we drafted him. We like him. Yeah, for sure,
Tyler with a nice touchdown against Seattle UM. And lastly
on Kirk, is it fair to look at it, Mike

(08:13):
that with what you're getting from him and the sliding
and the ducking and the twenty nine yard run through
all of that, you're loving it. His yards per attempt
at seven point seven, so that can even be better, right,
So maybe there's better on the horizon. Yeah, and a
lot of it. Again, it's it depends on what the
defense has given you. You know, they're they're taking away

(08:33):
some of our deep shots. Uh and so. But but
advancing the football. Getting a five eight eight yard game
is big. His announced third in two or whatever it is,
and we have opportunities to to do. You know, we
did much better this last week on third downs and
that was one of our goals this past week. Brown's
head coach Kevin Stefanski came here with Brad Childress and
and you know, through from Childress through Leslie Frasier, uh,

(08:57):
into into Mike Zimmer. I mean, how rare is it
to last that long through three regimes? What are some
qualities that lead to that with him? Yeah, well you
have to be uh, he's very diligent about his work.
He's he's he's a thinker, he wants to analyze things,
he wants to be very organized. Um, you know, and

(09:18):
then then he's got a calm, calming personality that I
think allows the players to play well. Uh. The Brown
special teams coordinator, Mike Preefer was also with Mike Zimmer
and Prefers protege Ryan Ficken is the special teams coordinator. Now,
so we talk about Kevin wants to run, you love
to stop the run. Um, and Kevin used to work

(09:39):
here with you and then Prefer and Thick in one
and one A for so many years that I mean,
what I don't think I've ever asked you this. What
do you think of that special team's coaches matchup? Yeah? Well,
you know, it's at the end of the day, we're
similar in a lot of ways, similar to their special teams.
And what we got to do is have our players
play really good and and uh, hopefully we break some things.

(10:02):
You know, I think I think we've improved on special
teams this year. I think we've been more fundamentally sound.
I feel like, you know, we've had some returns. We
had a penalty last week, but we had a twelve
yard return. Um. You know, we've had had some good coverage.
I think, you know, some of our punts have been
better than what we've had in the pass. So I
think all those things are kind of a combination of

(10:22):
really being diligent and about fundamentals and technique. Now we're
into three. So Patrick Peterson, I mean, sometimes just gets
no action for long patches of time overall, outside of
the sideline play at Cincinnati where maybe he got a
little lost. What have you been seeing from him from Patrick? Yeah,
you know, I think he's done a good job. I

(10:44):
think for the most part. Uh, you know, he's he's
done a really good job. He's trying to do different things.
Uh you know, he's trying to understand the coverages that
we're trying to work. And I think he's been uh,
you know, he takes challenges every single week. You know,
he's he was lining up on metcalf some last week,
he was he was on sixteen some last week, you know, so, uh,

(11:05):
you know, he takes those challenges personally, do you overall
lastly sent your team preshen doing a little not to
the top, But hey, Cincinnati we had this, then Arizona
we had this, then we want and had this? I mean,
is it is it building the way you wanted to
at this stage? Well, I think the big thing, Paul,
is that we're starting to have some confidence. You know,
we believe that we have a chance to have a

(11:27):
good football team. But when you go out and you
go out and prove it, and you see the things
like offensively the last two ball games, what we what
we've done offensively, and then defensively, when we're good, we're
really good, you know. And unfortunately when we were bad
a couple of times, we're pretty bad. But you know,
if we continue to take those little steps and keep
working on fundamentals and technique and everybody being on the

(11:49):
same page, I think we have a chance to be
a good team. And I think they're starting to believe that.