I think a lot of it comes down to rigidity. All of the coaches you listed had set systems and beliefs, or developed them, during their time coaching the Vikings and pretty much every one stuck to that system even when there was ample evidence other teams had figured out how to beat those systems.Mothman wrote: ↑Tue Dec 04, 2018 3:34 pm I haven't forgotten that. Leslie Frazier did the exact same thing, and both did it with a gigantic assist from Adrian Peterson. I suspect he'd have a record pretty similar to Zimmer's if he'd been given the same number of years and the same level of support. Ditto for Tice. Childress had very similar accomplishments over his first 4 seasons. The wheels fell off spectacularly for him in 2010 and Zimmer's avoided that this year but not the championship loss hangover (and that blowout loss was a big flashing warning sign that shouldn't be ignored).
The first warning sign that showed up for Zimmer last season was the 2nd half of the divisional playoff game against the Saints. On both sides of the ball. The Saints controlled that 2nd half in a hostile environment and the Vikings were very fortunate to walk out of that one on the winning side. And then the Eagles proceeded to do what the Saints would have done had they had a full game instead of a half, and waxed the Vikings.
And this year, sure, the system is beating most of the bad teams the Vikings have faced, but against the better teams its been exploited repeatedly. Maybe the Vikings aren't suffering from a lack of fire and prep - maybe they're just playing in their lanes and what is being exposed is the inadequacy of the entire scheme on both sides of the ball, at least from a gameplan perspective.
That's why I have this very real feeling of dread heading into the Monday night game against Seattle, because based on what I've seen so far this season, I think Seattle is going to come out and have little trouble moving the ball and scoring, at least initially. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Seahawks up a comfortable 14 points with about 10 minutes left in the 2nd quarter. And I fully expect the Vikings offense to come out and struggle again for at least the 1st half of the game. If they do score, it will be on their first drive of the game. Otherwise, expect them to more or less get shut down until midway through the 3rd quarter or maybe as late as the start of the 4th. By that time, they'll be so far down that they'll have no choice but to start running and gunning to get back into the game. This has been the script against good teams all season so far, and because Zimmer and his coaches will remain convinced that the problems lie in mistakes in execution and focus rather than in overall strategy, we'll see the same thing repeat itself yet again.
The way Zimmer avoids this outcome is by truly changing some things up, throwing new wrinkles at the Seahawks on both sides of the ball, and telling his players to play aggressive and like they have nothing to lose on both sides of the ball. Chances he will do that are around 0, unfortunately.
I hope I'm wrong.