Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer
RE: Sacks on Cam Newton game planning or individual effort?
“A lot of it was individual effort. Guys rushed the quarterback well. Early in the ballgame, they had a lot of max protection. If you can get him in max protection, then it gets the other team a bit uneasy. It was important that we did that. We had a couple coverage sacks, a couple pressures, and some individual things.”
RE: Halftime adjustments
“Part of it is that we have smart players. Being in the system now for three years, you can communicate to them very quickly and they can adapt to those things. Honestly, the adjustments at halftime are probably overrated. We talk about things we want to do, things they’re doing, and how to attack it. It helps that we have been running the same kind of system for three years.”
RE: Importance of not letting up on the pass rush
“I’ve said this all along; we can rush the quarterback. We have guys who can rush. I played a little bit more coverage today than maybe I have in the past because some of their receivers are big. Once we were able to stop the run, it’s a lot easier to do that. I felt like because we played the run well, we were able to do that and allowed our guys to try to get after the quarterback.”
Vikings QB Sam Bradford
RE: Offense being shocked early in the game
“I think in the first half we just never really found the rhythm. Obviously, when you’re not converting third downs, it’s hard to get in the rhythm. I have to do a better job on third down of extending drives, keeping us going, trying to get us into a rhythm early. It was one of those things where it was really a tale of two halves. You look at the second half and we were able to come out and kind of get in that rhythm. Once we clicked and found that rhythm, it was good for the rest of the day.”
RE: Halftime adjustments
“I think there are definitely adjustments to be made at halftime. I think you look at what we came out and did in the second half. We got to some of our quicker stuff, we got to empty a few times, we tried to spread them out. As much zone coverage as they were playing we felt like there was some air in there if we could get some space and kind of spread them out and I think that’s kind of what we did.”
Vikings CB Captain Munnerlyn
RE: Preventing Kelvin Benjamin and Devin Funchess from making any catches
“I think we just knew where Benjamin was the whole time. Funchess, we weren’t worried about him. It was Kelvin Benjamin. I’m just going to be honest. Me personally, and I never talk like this, but I don’t think he is that good, No. 17. So, we weren’t really worried about him. We were worried about Benjamin and Ted Ginn Jr. and Corey Brown. We knew they were getting the ball and receiving well. We just tried to communicate and make plays.”
