Vikings 10, Colts 12
MIKE ZIMMER: I thought there was some better things that happened tonight. Special teams was much improved. Cole punted the ball well. Thought we covered pretty well. We had some good returns. We had some good coverage. I thought we flipped the field position pretty well that way.
Defensively I think we played -- you know, without the five starters playing I thought they did a nice job. We got still tackled better than what we did at the beginning.
I thought Breeland made some nice plays, and then I though the backup defense players played a lot better tonight than they did a week ago.
Offensively it's still a work in progress. I think we had six first downs at the end of the third quarter when I looked up there. We were 1 of 13 or something like that on third downs, so we don't have rhythm going on there and we don't -- we haven't scored a touchdown yet on offense.
So we got to do a lot better in that area. We are going to grind them real hard this week and start to back down of what we're doing, understand who we are, and then figure out those things and go from there.
Q. (Indiscernible.)
MIKE ZIMMER: You know, not enough consistently. I think we had two first downs, was it? And so they had -- they played a little over a quarter. We got to make some more plays than what we did.
You know, seemed like a lot of times and maybe not just with the first team, but seemed like a lot times we had penalties and missed cues that get us in bad situations, so we have to eliminate those.
Q. How do you evaluate the two reserve quarterbacks?
MIKE ZIMMER: Yeah, still work in progress, I think.
Q. The first team offensive line, how do you feel like they performed?
MIKE ZIMMER: Yeah, it's really hard for me to evaluate them. I think did we get beat off the edge one time? I think so, yeah. So I don't know if it was a blitz or somebody got beat or something like that, I don't remember.
But, yeah, I mean, we're not doing well enough. We got to go.
Q. You guys have been talking about the linebackers throughout camp. How do you feel this group did?
MIKE ZIMMER: Yeah, they did better tonight. Vigil, I want to think he had one play where he wasn't as precise on. The backup guys played a lot better tonight than they did before. Dye obviously did some good things.
They're still making little bitty mistakes that we have to try to correct. I know Surratt, I thought he did some good things. He tried to run through underneath a block and got blocked one time.
You know, just trying to think off the top of my head.
Q. (Regarding Ihmir Smith-Marsette and the punt game.) Do you feel like he's advanced himself in that competition?
MIKE ZIMMER: I think he's been dynamic, and also as an receiver I think he got a chance to be pretty good, too. But he took it out from about eight yards in which he wasn't supposed to (indiscernible), but he's got some courage and he catches the ball well and he hits the seams pretty good.
So I thought that part was good. Punt return, didn't he have one long punt return as well? Yeah.
Q. One preseason game left. Do you think it would be a benefit to playing more starters in that to find some of their rhythm?
MIKE ZIMMER: Yeah, I think, you know, for me it's a -- offensively we probably need to play, yeah. Defensively you know, with some of these guys that have played for a long time, I'm not sure. I think about -- I almost played Peterson a little bit tonight, but -- and I kept Harrison Smith out and Xavier Woods had a little knick so didn't really want to risk it.
And then same thing with Barr. So and Danielle. And I think Danielle probably needs to play a little bit. I'll try and get his opinion on where he thinks he is at, but he hasn't played in a year. And Barr, he's missed a lot of time as well, so we'll just try and sit down this week and figure it out.
Q. Is Barr a concern at this point because he did not practice and play so much?
MIKE ZIMMER: He's not a concern as a football player. He's a concern maybe a little bit with his health. So we're taking that with real kid gloves, but we miss him out there. We can do so many different things with him that allows the rest of the guys -- and plus, he does a great job communicating to everybody. We're just being cautious with him.
Q. Is it the peck or something new?
MIKE ZIMMER: No, it's not the peck.
Q. (Indiscernible.)
MIKE ZIMMER: Yeah, he got a knee to the thigh, so he's got a thigh bruise.
Q. Looked like Kris Boyd was taking snaps ahead of Camryn. Is there some improvement he needs to make to his game?
MIKE ZIMMER: Boyd has been doing better.
Q. I don't know how much you can see out of (indiscernible)
MIKE ZIMMER: Yeah, it was -- it really is hard for me to see, but I thought we did a good job stopping the run, and I assume they were a big part of it.
Q. (Regarding backup quarterback.)
MIKE ZIMMER: We'll talk more about it this week. You know, with the monetary situation we have to be careful of that as well.
Q. (Indiscernible) because of his play, because of his game and experience, is his play where it's expected to be?
MIKE ZIMMER: I think it's really hard to evaluate young rookie quarterbacks, and I think you see in all these preseason games these high picks struggle with certain areas.
So he does some good things. I think he had a really good week of practice. I think the best week he's had. Quicker with the tempo, a lot better in and out of the huddle. Started off pretty shaky with the fumbled snap, but the only way to get him experience is to play him.
You know, but at some point we got to get ready to play a game, too. I don't know if he is where he is or where he should be. I just know that he improved this week, and so we just got to keep going there.
Q. (Indiscernible)
MIKE ZIMMER: Well, I think we know, but, you know, they don't, so I'm not going to -- you know what I mean?
Q. On Kirk, from my view point seemed like he's not been super sharp. Have you seen that? Just looks like not as crisp.
MIKE ZIMMER: You know, I don't know if that's really the case. I think maybe in these last two -- I don't know if you're talking practice or games or...
Q. (Indiscernible.)
MIKE ZIMMER: Yeah, I don't know if that's really the case. I think with some of the things we're doing in practice we're probably not allowing him to get to the reads that he wants to get to sometimes.
So part of it is taking what you can get and then going from there, but you would have to ask him that maybe.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports