The Tale of Two 1-3 Seasons
For the second straight year, the Vikings have started their season with a 1-3 record. However, the story of those seasons are completely different. I’ll do my best to not transform this article into one critiquing Mike Zimmer’s defense, but I can’t make any promises. To understand what has been happening in Minnesota, first we need to go back a little further.
The main story of the Zimmer era was that the defense is one of the best but the offense is bad. When we had that magical season in 2017, is fair to say that with a better quarterback we could’ve beaten the Eagles to make it to the Super Bowl. This feeling is what drove the Vikings to sign Kirk Cousins and John DeFillipo in 2018. DeFillipo was an up-and-coming offensive mind from the Eagles, and, with the upgrade we needed at the QB position, expectations were high. We all know the disaster that the offense was, culminating in DeFillipo being fired mid-season.
For the next year, Kevin Stefanski was named offensive coordinator, and the offense improved, despite a shaky start. But the offense is not why I’m telling this story. 2019 also marked a change in the Vikings’ identity. We still had a defensive-minded head coach, but that was the year when the offense started to receive more attention. The defense was still good and helped in a lot of moments, but we could see that it was declining, while the offense was getting better each year. After a win against the Saints in the playoffs and a loss vs. the 49ers, Zimmer, Spielman, and Cousins got contract extensions. The team seemed like it was trending in the right direction.
The 2020 season
The 2020 draft class was a good one, and again expectations were through the roof. But before the season even started we lost Michael Pierce and Danielle Hunter for the year. In the second game we lost Barr, leaving the defense with a bad d-line, a linebacker corps with Kendricks and backups, two rookie corners, Harrison Smith, and Anthony Harris (who played poorly). So yes, the defense was bad – understandably so. And I’m not forgetting Yannick Ngakoue, but he was traded after six games.
The offensive side of the ball didn’t have a good start. For some reason Justin Jefferson would only start in week 3, and the offensive line was again really bad. Kubiak was calling an offense from 1987. After only four games last season, there was no hope for this team. We knew they would be bad and it would be a loooong year.
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The 2021 season
This season, however, the hope was back on. The first reason was totally due to superstition, as we’ve made into the playoffs every odd year with Zimmer. The second was a little more logical. Hunter and Pierce would be back, so the defensive line was going to be better. Then the team also signed Dalvin Tomlinson and Everson Griffen. Barr was back after his injury – but hurt his knee during training camp. After playing with two rookie CBs, the Vikings signed Patrick Peterson, Bashaud Breeland, and Mackensie Alexander. The team let Anthony Harris go in free agency, and brought Xavier Woods in his place. So yes, the defense SHOULD be at least a top-7 unit.
The offense also entered the season with high expectations after a surprisingly good 2020. They were bad against the Browns, but the first three games were amazing. We will compare the stats from this season and last year in a bit, but this is the best offensive start that I can remember. And they can be even better, assuming Christian Darrisaw can at least play like Riley Reiff did last season.
Stats
We will compare some offensive and defensive stats from the first four games in 2020 and 2021. The ones I picked are points per game, yards, passing yards, rushing yards, turnovers, and sacks.
2020 offense
26.5 points per game;
357.75 yards per game;
207 pass yards per game;
152 rush yards per game;
7 turnovers
10 sacks allowed
2021 offense
23.5 points per game
382.5 yards per game
270.25 pass yards per game
112.25 rush yards per game
2 turnovers
6 sacks allowed
2020 defense
31.25 points per game
426.5 yards per game
291.75 pass yards per game
134.75 rush yards per game
3 turnovers
7 sacks
2021 defense
23 points per game
389 yards per game
253.5 pass yards per game
135.5 rush yards per game
2 turnovers
13 sacks
Verdict
While this roster is miles better than last season’s one, we’re still underperforming. Now we’ve made it to the part where I’m blaming Zimmer. I defended him last year when I saw some people asking for him to be fired – for all the reasons I’ve said earlier. But now, with the players he asked for, with an offense capable of putting up points and controlling the time of possession, this team shouldn’t be 1-3. And it’s not the refs fault either. We lost to the Bengals because we had 10 penalties in the first half and the defense had trouble stopping the Bengals’ offense. We lost to the Cardinals because the defense gave up too many big plays on 3rd and 4th down, not because Greg Joseph missed a kick. And we lost against the Browns because we couldn’t stop the run and the offense did nothing.
The problems with this defense can also be seen on tape. Watching the games, you can notice that Zimmer uses two deep safeties quite a lot. Last year was understandable, as he wanted more help for the rookie CBs. But with two experienced guys, and a safety in Woods that should be the deep guy, why is he taking Harrison Smith away from the ball? Put him back near the line of scrimmage, where he’s a threat of rushing the passer, can help against the run, and take away those short and intermediate throws. Also, why is he still starting Breeland? He is arguably the worst corner in the league but he started all four games.
In my opinion, when you have the players and you’re not winning, it comes down to coaching. So yes, to me the problem with this team is Mike Zimmer right now. The offense improved, with a better offensive line and an excellent start from Kirk Cousins (he was pressured 27 times against the Browns, give him a break). The defense received all of the attention during free agency, so there is no excuse. Mike Zimmer is one of the winningest coaches in Vikings’ history, and he put one of the best defenses of all time in 2017, but maybe it is time for a change.
