Presser Points: Zimmer Assesses Sunday's Loss, 1-5 Start

[Viktor]

EAGAN, Minn. – The Vikings head into their bye with a 1-5 record and do so on the heels of perhaps their worst loss of the season.


After weeks of showing improvement, Minnesota struggled in all three phases in a 40-23 home loss to previously winless Atlanta on Sunday.


Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer met with the Twin Cities media Monday afternoon and assessed his team's performance.


The Vikings offense crawled through three quarters thanks to a trio of interceptions thrown by Kirk Cousins, and the defense struggled against the Falcons aerial attack. Atlanta netted 363 passing yards and four scores.


Coming off a bitter, one-point loss to Seattle in Week 5, Zimmer said he expected his team to respond with a vengeance against the Falcons, but that did not happen.


"If we lost a game by one point and we had a letdown in the next game, that would be surprising to me," Zimmer said. "If you lose a game, you shouldn't have a letdown. You should put a foot on the grinder and get back to work."


Zimmer said he didn't buy into the fact that the Vikings had an emotional drop off and noted that Minnesota just couldn't match Atlanta's intensity at U.S. Bank Stadium.


"I don't really ever go on that stuff. We have a week to prepare, a week to get ready, I told them all week long that [the Falcons] were going to come out and play really hard and really well to prove that it wasn't their fault," Zimmer said. "And they did. We didn't play good enough in a lot of different areas.


"We didn't challenge their receivers enough. If you look at the game, we start out with an interception, they hit on a third-and-11 for a touchdown that we would assume if we were in the right place that doesn't happen and then we turn the ball over three times in the first half," Zimmer added. "We don't ever allow the offense to keep the ball, whether it's because of us offensively or because of us defensively, so the time of possession gets out of control and you get to a point where the running game is diminished. I think we had 10 runs in the first half but we had 24 plays, they end up with 80 plays for the game. There's a lot of things like that that didn't give us an opportunity to win the game."


Minnesota is one of six teams around the NFL at 1-5, including Atlanta, Houston, Jacksonville, the New York Giants and Washington. The New York Jets (0-6) are the only team without a win.