Whats happened to Zimmer's D?

Exactly. Why didnt Zim switch Waynes and Rhodes up on covering Sutton? Why wasnt Sutton double teamed  in the first place (maybe he was but I didnt see it if he was). Where the heck is Hill? Still in Zimmers doghouse? It really is too bad Hughes and Mac have no chance what so ever to defend the bigger, more talented WR's. He need to start drafting slightly bigger CBs. That can play the way Rhodes did in his earlier years. OFC, if the D came out ready to play at the start of the game, instead of waiting till the second half, there would be a lot less pressure on the D, esp. on the CBs.

Just from a passing standpoint its a delicate balance. When you can pressure you secondary doesn't have to cover as long, and when your secondary is great and can cover longer, your pass rush has more time to get to the QB. If one or both start to faulter due to age, or injury, the house of cards comes crashing down. In the Vikings case I'd say it's more a combination of the secondary no longer being close to as good as they were just two years ago in combination with offenses no longer going with long drop backs, but rather looking to get the ball out quickly against the Vikings. That last part gets really easy when Rhodes has a hard time covering the grass under his feet and Waynes regressing back to his subpar play.

I don't think Zim or any other defensive coach can scheme away poor play and/or fading skill levels. I think thats the reason he's been having the secondary play off most of the time and running the dreaded bend but don't break defense.

Good question, I just checked and he didn't play a snap last week... with Waynes healthy, they went back to the Rhodes-Waynes-Alexander combo with Hughes spelling them every once in a while. It's kinda baffling with how poor they've been playing as of late.

And for anyone wondering about PFF scores... out of 113 qualifying CBs, Alexander is ranked 36th, Waynes is ranked 77th, Hughes is ranked 92nd, and Rhodes is ranked 100th.

I agree about the double A blitz. It has worked well. Teams soon figure out some of these blitzes, but they are still effective percentage wise. Zimmer knows how to blitz as well as any coach in the NFL, I am afraid hes gotten so conservative lately, that he thinks about them failing more than about how good that blitz can be. Same with Smith blitzing, its such a thing of beauty. The things that were so effective in Zimmers early years are rarely played anymore. Like I said, I know other teams figure blitzes out, but you still try and disguise them, and keep doing it. Esp. when the front 4 isnt putting the pressure on. Hard for CBs to cover that long.

I dont think its natural regression. Every team thats ever played has that, and its doesnt usually have such a large impact in a couple years.

I think Zimmer fundamentally changed some aspects of this defense. It plays even more conservative football then when he fist got the HC job. Now I know you dont have to play like the Gophers do and go for everything ALL the time. But football, like most things in life, is about balance. And Zimmer has no balance unless its do or die time. Like waiting to play good aggressive D until the opponent is in the red zone.

Also, why does he take so long to make adjustments? Is he incapable of making them on the fly?

Does he take over Stef job during a game and make it become so vanilla?

Why dont the teams this year look so unprepared at the start of the game? Almost every game starts out poorly.

Why dont the O and D play good football at the same time?

These are all questions that run through my brain during the season.