Zimmer Wants Vikings Young CBs to Play More Aggressive

[Viktor]

Against the Falcons, the Vikings secondary allowed 363 net passing yards and four touchdowns to quarterback Matt Ryan, a former league MVP.


Zimmer said the problem wasn't that players lined up incorrectly or didn't understand the coverage. Instead, Zimmer noted, they just weren't aggressive enough.


"I think it was just guys playing unsure. It really wasn't coverage lapses. There wasn't hardly any busts," Zimmer said. "We just didn't challenge [Falcons receivers] enough. There wasn't really much of that.


"The one [fourth-down] play on the scramble that Gladney gave up … he saw the quarterback running, he had [Julio Jones] and started to come off … and then all of the sudden he tried to get back, and by that time it was too late," Zimmer added. "The long ball down the sideline on Dantzler, he didn't get into [Jones]. There were a couple times we were way too far away from the receivers and gave up easy catches. We didn't contest any balls. That was disappointing."


In his Monday video conference with the Twin Cities media, Zimmer was then asked if it's simply the case of growing pains with a young cornerbacks group.


He again emphasized that his players were in the correct spot, just that they weren't as assertive as they needed to be. Zimmer also put his teaching hat on and explained what he was looking for from Gladney, Dantzler and others.


"It's not so much lining up. I'll give you a couple examples," Zimmer said. "When you're playing off coverage, the two most important things are the speed of the receiver and the release of the receiver and when to turn.


"When you're playing press, it's about getting in the right position at the line of scrimmage and then being good on top so you can be good at the top of the route," Zimmer continued. "And so right now our guys, I think they're kind of looking in the backfield a little bit, trying to see the play-action, the runs, things like that.


"Consequently, we're not getting tight enough to the receiver," Zimmer added. "We're giving them way too much space, wherever he is, as opposed to getting into the receiver and using our body on their body to try and affect the route."