Mike Zimmer Remains Adamant that the 2021 Vikings Are a Good Football Team

Zimmer believes better days are ahead for the Vikings. He might be out of a job if he's wrong.

Mike Zimmer hasn't changed his tone all year.

Prior to the season, after an 0-2 start, after a big win over the Seahawks last week, and again following an ugly loss to the Browns on Sunday, the message has been the same: Zimmer believes the Vikings are a good football team with a chance to do big things this year. This is a guy who is known for telling it like he sees it when speaking to the media, a coach who last year called his defense "the worst one I've ever had."

Even though the Vikings are 1-3 thanks to a trio of avoidable one-score losses, Zimmer seems to legitimately believe they've got a chance to be great in 2021.

"We made a couple too many mistakes to win the game, but I firmly believe that this is a good football team," Zimmer said. "We’ve got, offensively we can move the ball — obviously we didn’t very well today — and defensively, when we’re playing good we’re pretty darn good, and special teams, same thing. We’ve just gotta stick with it. I believe, we’ve still got a lot of time left, we’ve just gotta get going and gotta continue to win some games."

This was by far the Vikings' worst offensive performance of the year, which certainly warrants concern. The O-line was thoroughly dominated by the Browns' outstanding defensive line, Kirk Cousins crashed back to earth, and the end result was Minnesota's first game with seven points or fewer since September 2019.

But there are still positives to take away from this loss. The Vikings' pass rush and secondary were impressive in holding the Browns to one touchdown and 14 points. Dalvin Tomlinson and Justin Jefferson were excellent. There wasn't one specific moment of late-game heartbreak like Dalvin Cook's overtime fumble against the Bengals or Greg Joseph's missed field goal against the Cardinals, but the Vikings had a bunch of opportunities late in the game that they couldn't turn into points. Two questionable decisions by the referees hurt their chances, even if that wasn't the reason they lost.

By the way, the three teams the Vikings have lost to are a combined 10-2 this season. They probably should've beaten a Bengals team that is now 3-1, definitely should've beaten a 4-0 Cardinals team that has won its other three games by an average of 18 points, and had countless opportunities to beat a really good Browns team.

Maybe Zimmer is onto something.

"I think each game is going to be a little bit different," he said. "Did we get pushed around today? Probably. But I’m telling you now, [the Browns] know how to run the football and those two backs run hard. I’m not discouraged one bit about the lack of stopping the run. At the end of the day, they scored one touchdown against us. I still believe offensively, we can look like we did a week ago and two weeks ago, as well." 

"Like I told the team, I’ve been doing this 27 years, I know good teams and I know bad teams. I know this team has a chance to be pretty darn good. We may not look like it right now because we’re 1-3, but even like Kevin [Stefanski] said to me before the game, 'you got a really good football team here.' And they do, too. They were just a little bit better than us today."

For Zimmer's sake, he better be right. The Vikings have two winnable games up next in a home date with the winless Lions and a road game against Sam Darnold and the Panthers. Another 1-5 start probably gets Zimmer fired, and even 2-4, depending on the context, could be enough for the Wilfs to pull the trigger on major changes. 

Who knows whether Zimmer truly believes the Vikings are good or if he's just trying to stay optimistic — and plead with ownership for patience — because he knows his job could be on the line soon. Either way, if the Vikings really are a good team, it's time to start showing it by winning football games. 

Nothing else matters.

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