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At the end of last season, Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said the team's fall from a 5-0 start to an 8-8 record would lead him into a period of "soul-searching" as he tried to pinpoint what went wrong.

"I met with a lot of people this offseason, a number of head coaches, talked to them about how I can do things better," he said Friday.

The upshot of that stretch of self-examination, apparently, is that the Vikings need to be tougher.

Zimmer said he plans to set a more exacting standard in his fourth season, returning to the way he'd coached at the start of his tenure in Minnesota. The Vikings went 11-5 and won the NFC North in 2015, but saw their 5-0 record dissolve in a tempest of injuries, confounding performances and late-game losses in 2016.

"Going into last season, part of my whole goal was, I thought we had a pretty good football team and I wanted to make sure we got to the first game healthy," Zimmer said. "And so maybe I was a little bit cautious in some of the things. We're going to get back to being the Vikings. We're going to be blue-collar, and we're going to do the things that got us to be, where we played teams, that they respected the way we played."

Mothman wrote:First we had Rick Spielman diving deep into OL research to come to the obvious conclusion that offensive linemen drafted early are more likely to be successful. Now we have this:

http://www.espn.com/blog/minnesota-viki ... ar-vikings
I don't find this particularlyencouraging and I'm hoping it's just because the press is putting a simplistic spin on things. I hope Zimmer realizes the Vikings need to do a lot more than just get tougher. They need to play smarter.

Mothman wrote: at the Sgt. Carter reference!

CbusVikesFan wrote: I just couldn't help it when as soon as I read that Sgt. Carter popped into my head. "Okay Boone, MOVE IT, MOVE IT, MOVE IT!

I don't find this particularlyencouraging and I'm hoping it's just because the press is putting a simplistic spin on things. I hope Zimmer realizes the Vikings need to do a lot more than just get tougher. They need to play smarter.

Mothman wrote: Zimmer even has the haircut!

Mothman wrote:I don't find this particularly encouraging and I'm hoping it's just because the press is putting a simplistic spin on things. I hope Zimmer realizes the Vikings need to do a lot more than just get tougher. They need to play smarter.

Demi wrote:Didn't some people wonder if the hard practices, training etc were part of the reason for the injuries and players wearing down as the season went on?

chicagopurple wrote:I hate this old school bullcrap.
Hard practice wont create talent, it wont make fail OL picks smarter or larger or faster.
Its all just smoke and mirror bull to satisfy the masses.

What we need is for the GM to do his damn job and get some top shelf talent to compete with the best teams in the league

What we need is a Head Coach who can prove he is more then just a really good Defensive Coach who gotta a lucky break and knows how to run an offense.

We need a Real WR threat who is a #1 receiver before the season starts.

mansquatch wrote:In general I agree with SI97.

However... rolling in the mud...

One might have a different take and interpret this as Zimmer saying that as a coach last year he wasn't his best. I do no think such an interpretation is a reach. Whether one agrees with his prescription to fix the issues or not, you have to be happy that he is at least acknowledging that he needs to be better.

I do not recall Childress ever displaying any amount of humility, FWIW.