Just when it looked as if things couldn't get any worse for the Minnesota Vikings, it appears there may be something of a mutiny in the locker room.
After the Vikings dropped a 38-25 decision to the Green Bay Packers - ending their remote playoff hopes - cornerback Xavier Rhodes confessed to reporters that he and his fellow defensive backs decided to eschew coach Mike Zimmer's game plan to have Rhodes shadow Packers wide receiver Jordy Nelson in the first half, choosing instead to do it their own way. The Vikings' DBs choice to ignore their coach resulted in seven catches, 145 yards and two touchdowns for Nelson in that first half, as the Packers cruised to a 28-13 lead.
"We felt as a team, as players, we came together and we felt like we'd never done that when we played against the Packers. Us as DBs felt like we could handle him," said Rhodes after the game, per the StarTribune. "That's how we felt as DBs that we could stay on our side and cover him. In the beginning, we'd always played against them and played our sides, we never followed, so that's what we felt as DBs. That's what we went with."
In the second half, Rhodes and company had second thoughts, and the fourth-year pro out of Florida State stayed with Nelson as instructed. Nelson ended up with two catches for nine yards after halftime.
"That's what he was supposed to do the whole game," Zimmer said of Rhodes, adding that he realized something was off when veteran Terence Newman approached him on the sideline asking to have a run at Nelson. "I said, 'Do what you're supposed to do.' "
Newman clammed up after the game, telling reporters, "I have no idea," when asked about the players' decision.
Zimmer saved the harshest criticism Saturday evening for himself.
"I need to do a better job. I haven't done a good enough job this year," he said. "After the season, I'm going to sit down and evaluate everything, not just the players and not just the evaluations that we do on players, but everything - myself included."
Minnesota Vikings defensive backs insisted on Monday there was no intention to disregard head coach Mike Zimmer’s game plan for guarding Green Bay wide receiver Jordy Nelson in Saturday’s loss to the Packers.
Instead, they called it a “miscommunication” on the first series of the game.
Zimmer wanted cornerback Xavier Rhodes to shadow Nelson in man coverage. Instead, Rhodes stayed on one side of the field and did not follow Nelson.
“It was a miscommunication corrected after the first series. There's no issues. We're all on the same page. We got beat,” veteran cornerback Terence Newman told reporters on Monday, according to Brian Murphy of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Zimmer on Monday took some of the blame for the miscommunication, explaining that coaches changed several of their defensive calls late in the week.
“I probably wasn’t specific enough in the things I was asking them to do,” Zimmer said.
Zimmer said that after speaking to the defensive backs and watching the coaches’ film of the game, he doesn’t think there were any plays in which Rhodes or Newman or any other players, deliberately defied orders.
“They played the coverage that was called but they might have messed it up,” Zimmer said.
That’s a different response than players gave on Saturday, when Rhodes said players decided among themselves to change their coverage plans on Nelson on their own because Rhodes had not been assigned to shadow Nelson in previous games against the Packers.
Zimmer on Monday took some of the blame for the miscommunication, explaining that coaches changed several of their defensive calls late in the week.
“I probably wasn’t specific enough in the things I was asking them to do,” Zimmer said.
Zimmer said that after speaking to the defensive backs and watching the coaches’ film of the game, he doesn’t think there were any plays in which Rhodes or Newman or any other players, deliberately defied orders.
“They played the coverage that was called but they might have messed it up,” Zimmer said.
That’s a different response than players gave on Saturday, when Rhodes said players decided among themselves to change their coverage plans on Nelson on their own because Rhodes had not been assigned to shadow Nelson in previous games against the Packers.
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Vikings Secondary Ignored Coach Zimmer's Gameplan
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