Zimmer cost the Vikings the game

[flyerhawk]

the FG was a gimme. they make the kick, and even IF the seahawks take the eventual possession and score, they still have to get the 2pt conversion and even then, the game only goes to OT.

Wilson has the most come back victories in the NFL since he entered the league.

Obviously in retrospect he should have kicked the field goal. But it wasn't a bad decision. If the Seahawks don't convert TWO 4th and longs, people would be applauding Zimmer for making Wilson go 94 yards for the win.


In fact Carroll's decision to twice punt on the Vikings side of the 50 were BOTH worse. He got bailed out by Wilson and Metcalf though.

 

[Ojb81]

Wilson has the most come back victories in the NFL since he entered the league.

Obviously in retrospect he should have kicked the field goal. But it wasn't a bad decision. If the Seahawks don't convert TWO 4th and longs, people would be applauding Zimmer for making Wilson go 94 yards for the win.


In fact Carroll's decision to twice punt on the Vikings side of the 50 were BOTH worse. He got bailed out by Wilson and Metcalf though.

sorry, you can sit here and suck zimmer's dick all day long, but in the end, it was a bad decision. he has a history of this.

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

sorry, you can sit here and suck zimmer's dick all day long, but in the end, it was a bad decision. he has a history of this.

Oh Zimmer bombed this game for sure.

I'll admit... I'll be honest... I turned it off. I thought there was ZERO way Seattle was coming back in this game. I turned it back on in the final seconds and was very happy, but for Zimmer to blow this one.. WOW.... Vikes need to let him walk, much like Seattle needs to let Norton walk.

 

[flyerhawk]

sorry, you can sit here and suck zimmer's dick all day long, but in the end, it was a bad decision. he has a history of this.

I couldn't possibly care less about Zimmer. The Vikings have never beaten Russell Wilson. They are 0-6 so I'm always happy when we play them because there is always a way we win.

My point is simply that fans only judge coaches based on results rather than on probability.

 

[PnkPanther]

You should play it safe as the 1-3 football team.

A 2-3 start isn't horrible. 1-4 is.

He treated that decision as if they could afford to lose another game.

i disagree, you're 1-3, you got nothing to lose to really. MN isn't going anywhere, be aggressive, seattle is the better team.

My beef wasn't going for it, it was that we chose to run behind Samia who had been abused all night.

 

[boogiewithstu2007]

The announcers cheered on Zimmers' decision, but it was a terrible one. Here's the deal: you kick a field goal and you're up by 8 points. The Seahawks would have to score a TD and convert a 2-point attempt. At worse, you go to OT. I thought it was a bad idea from the start.

Agreed, I was baffled by the call, but happy how it ended up... Vikings running game was working, that played a part in his decision.... Zimmer wanted to go for the the jugular and end it there and not give Seattle’s O any chance ... BUT you gotta go up 8 there and keep the momentum.... When Seattle made that 4th down stop you just knew it was trouble for the Vikings .... Wasn’t worth the risk .. Go up 8, force Seattle into scoring a TD and 2 point conversion....

 

[GNG]

i disagree, you're 1-3, you got nothing to lose to really.

Only the game...

 

[Myles]

I couldn't believe it when they decided to go for it. What a stupid decision. Zimmer should be feeling lots of heat for the call. The FG would have required them to drive all the way and score a TD as well as the 2 point conversion just to send it to overtime.

 

[ducky]

It was a bad call IMO. Knew it at the time.

You kick the FG and you make it so you cant possibly lose during regulation.

Collinsworth doesnt know what he is talking about. ESPN's win probabilities are bullshit. They are based on on a models meant not to predict an NFL teams chance of winning.....but a model based on how Vegas should set their lines for in-game betting. 2 entirely different things.

If you felt like you needed a TD or a first down in order to win the game, then you should have done a playaction pass on one of the previous plays and went for the win that way.

 

[Manster7588]

Zimmer should have had a Belichik mask on hand. That way after he screwed the pooch by going for it, he could have put the mask on to get into Wilson's and Carroll's heads.

 

[ducky]

And for those calling for Zimmer's head: not going to happen. He just signed an extension and has been a solid coach during his time here.

Couple that with the fact that our team is designed for his style of play and likely wouldn't fit well with another coaching style, and you give him one more season after this year.

More of our problems have to do with the GM than the coaching this season anyways. It is hard to win with a non-mobile QB and an offensive line that cant pass block. And sadly this isnt news to our GM. We knew that the last 2 years too. The fact that they didnt bring in any interior OL help this offseason was a glaring omission and absolutely dumbfounding. Before the season even started I gave the Vikes offseason an F for this very predictable reason. We knew the OL was going to hold this team back.

 

[jerseyhawksfan79]

I would have taken the FG Att and at worse go into OT, but I do get the 4th down call. Before all that happened, I have to wonder why did Zimmer go away from the cover 2 that had Russ and the offense baffled?!? Seems like once he went to man coverage the Hawks got into a tempo.

 

[flyerhawk]

The Winners and Losers of NFL Week 5

Alex Smith’s return and Dak Prescott’s injury were reminders of just how brutal the sport we love can be. Plus: Romeo Crennel may be the best interim coach in NFL history and Fitzmagic complicates yet another QB-succession plan.

www.theringer.com

The Minnesota Vikings were in a win-win scenario. They were up 26-21 with two minutes to go, and were facing fourth-and-inches on Seattle’s 6-yard line. They had two choices: The conservative route was to kick a chip-shot field goal, which would have given them an eight-point lead, which would’ve forced Seattle to drive the length of the field, score a touchdown, and hit a two-point conversion. The other was to go for it and try to seal the win by picking up a first down. We could yell about which decision was correct, but let’s be clear: Both were pretty good calls. Let’s ditch the highly unreliable win probability charts and use some stats and logic to think about how likely a Vikings win was in every scenario.


Teams pick up fourth-and-inches at a remarkably high rate. Vikings fans, if you don’t believe this is the right call, ask your own team’s performances over the years. Since 1994, the Vikings have gone for it on fourth-and-1 or less 137 times and made 99 first downs—a 72 percent success rate. So that’s a 72 percent chance of absolutely guaranteeing a win. But even if they’d missed, the Seahawks needed to drive 94 yards to score a touchdown. Since 2001, the Vikings have given their opponents the ball within the opposing 10-yard line 280 times, and they’ve allowed scores on 52 of those drives—just 19 percent. So in the 28 percent of the time that Minnesota misses on fourth-and-1, the Seahawks had a 19 percent chance of scoring. That means going for it gave Minnesota roughly a 95 percent chance of winning, and we’re being generous. This was fourth-and-inches, not fourth-and-1; and that 19 percent figure includes field goals, while Seattle needed a touchdown.


But Minnesota also probably would have won if they’d kicked the field goal. That’s a 23-yarder, an absolute chip shot. After making that field goal, the Seahawks have to drive the length of the field to score, and then pick up a two-point conversion, and then win in overtime. Teams convert only about half of two-point conversions, and both teams have about a 50 percent chance of winning in overtime. On drives starting inside the opposing 30, Vikings opponents have scored touchdowns 16.1 percent of the time. Cutting that in half and cutting it in half again means that if the Vikings make the field goal, they have about a 96 percent chance at winning.


So without fancy charts, we’re giving the Vikings a 19-in-20 shot at winning here. But the Vikings weren’t just playing any team—they were playing the Seattle Seahawks. My colleague Kevin Clark sent a tweet about the Seahawks last year that is so aggressively true and has struck such a chord with Seahawks fans that he’s probably going to get a decent amount of votes in the next Seattle mayoral election: The Seahawks have literally never played a normal football game.

That sums it up pretty well.

 

[GNG]

And for those calling for Zimmer's head: not going to happen. He just signed an extension and has been a solid coach during his time here.

So you don't mind mediocrity.

 

[ducky]

One thing that never got brought up and one thing that might have been in the back of Zimmer's mind:

 

[Manster7588]

In all honesty either call would have been correct if they worked in his favor.

If they got the yard he was correct.
If they got the 3, and held Seattle he was correct.

He didn't get the yard so he was wrong.
If they got the 3 and Seattle ties it up he was wrong.

Classic, damned if you do, damned if you don't, situation.

 

[ducky]

So you don't mind mediocrity.

Andy Reid
Doug Pederson
Gary Kubiak
Tom Coughlin
Mike McCarthy

5 head coaches that have won a ring in the last 10 years.

You could have said the same thing about them at certain points of everyone of their career's. Simple fact is that having an average head coach with certain strengths and certain weaknesses doesn't disqualify you from winning a ring.

 

[mr.hockey4242]

That was 100% the right call. Zimmer for once in his tenure played to win(instead of playing not to lose)

The issue was the fact we fucking ran the ball.

Kirk Cousins is 6 feet fucking tall. 1 yard=3 feet. Fall fucking forwards. First down.

Tom Brady has 6 rings because the Patriots mastered the logic of a QB sneak.

 

[ducky]

That was 100% the right call. Zimmer for once in his tenure played to win(instead of playing not to lose)

The issue was the fact we fucking ran the ball.

Kirk Cousins is 6 feet fucking tall. 1 yard=3 feet. Fall fucking forwards. First down.

Tom Brady has 6 rings because the Patriots mastered the logic of a QB sneak.

I dont sneak the ball either with Cousins considering how weak our interior 3 OL are and now weak Cousins is.

I'm still shocked that they didn't go for the win a play or two earlier when Seattle was selling out against the run. They go play action the play or two before and they likely are able to sneak out Rudolph for a wide open TD catch or just let Thielen or Jefferson work on Seattle's left corner. Either way that would have been a high percentage play with the way Seattle was selling out against the run.

The fact that they didnt go for a playaction pass TD that would have sealed the game led me to believe that they were happy running out the clock and kicking the FG and letting the D take over in a no lose unless it is OT situation. I was shocked when they lined up to go for it....and actually snapped it.

 

[Ojb81]

One thing that never got brought up and one thing that might have been in the back of Zimmer's mind:

a kick from 5 years ago? in sub-zero temperatures? from a different kicker? with basically a completely different team, including the kicking team? if that really DID pop in his head and forced him not to send the kicker out there, then all the more reason to can his ass