Viktor
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- Mar 19, 2019
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4. Assessing the linebackers
Linebackers Eric Kendricks and Eric Wilson put in a full-day's work in Week 4, as both played all 65 snaps on defense. They were joined by safety Anthony Harris and rookie cornerback Jeff Gladney.
Hardy Nickerson (nine) and Todd Davis (eight) combined for 17 snaps in Minnesota's base defense, as the Vikings continued to adjust with captain Anthony Barr, who is out for the season with a torn pec.
Zimmer gave credit to that unit, and the rest of the Vikings defense, for staying on-point against a dual-threat quarterback in Deshaun Watson.
"It's getting better. We miss Barr, obviously," Zimmer said. "When it first happens, it's kind of a little bit of a shock and what [do we do] with the communication. It's getting better now.
"I thought our linebackers did a really nice job, especially [with Houston] running the tight end back and they run the option, where [the quarterback] can hand the ball off to the back or he can pull it out and run bootleg," Zimmer added. "I thought our defensive ends and our linebackers did a great job on that because it's very complicated. We had to work really hard on that last week, especially with a short week."
Yannick Ngakoue and D.J. Wonnum were credited with sacks on Watson, who rushed for just nine yards on five attempts, while a third sack was credited as a team.