Mike Zimmer Embarrassed by His Former Minnesota Vikings OC

The Minnesota Vikings are 2-0 , after an upset win over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. The key to their success has been pretty evident. Kevin O’Connell and Brian Flores might be the best head coach + coordinator combo in the NFL.

It isn’t the first time we’ve had that sort of coaching chops in this town, recently. It’s hard to believe now, but it wasn’t that long ago that former head coach Mike Zimmer, was considered one of the top coaches in the league. Opposing offenses could not figure out his defense, especially his A Gap pressure schemes.

But one recurring issue that Zim had to deal with, as Minnesota’s head coach, was a rotating carousel of offensive coordinators. When the Vikings were good, his OCs were hired away. When they were bad, he fired them. And in-between, there were surprise resignations, untimely tragedies and one mysterious Mike Zimmer eye injury.

Fast forward to 2024, Klint is getting another chance as an offensive coordinator, for the New Orleans Saints. How well is his 2nd OC chance going? Well, his new team is 2-0, with one of the best offenses in the NFL, by just about every metric.

Mike Zimmer vs Klint Kubiak

Meanwhile, after a three-year hiatus, Mike Zimmer is back to coaching football, too. He returned to his historic roots in Dallas, when he was hired by Jerry Jones to fix the Cowboys’ defense. After a pretty impressive week one, his old OC’s new team rolled into Jerry World for a week two matchup between two 1-0 teams.

I can only imagine how cocky Zim was, entering Sunday’s game. I don’t think it unfolded as he planned, though. Because the Saints offense dominated the Cowboys defense. Klint’s crew relentlessly went after Zim’s new defense with a perfect mix of run, play action, screen and deep pass plays. It was almost artistic, in nature. And his old coach wasn’t ready.

Blow, after blow, after blow… the Cowboys defense never got an opportunity to catch its breath. The Saints’ offensive assault was a relentless for 60 minutes. And when the dust settled, a bruised and battered Mike Zimmer left his home stadium after being handed a Texas size, 44-19, L.

Related: Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell Gets Emotional Talking About Sam Darnold

Dallas’ defense allowed a total of 432 offensive yards to New Orleans, who went 5-of-8 on first downs and averaged an insane 7.7 yards per play. Zim’s defense managed to force two turnovers, but that doesn’t matter when you also allow 190 yards on the ground.

At his head coaching peak, in 2017, Zimmer had Pat Shurmur as his OC in Minnesota… until he was hired away in 2018, to be head coach of the New York Giants. And that is where the Zimmer head coaching tenure started to go off the rails, as he shuffled through a handful of different offensive coordinators.

Zim loses battle of Minnesota Vikings coaches

At one point, Zim hired veteran play-caller, close friend and longtime head coach, Gary Kubiak, to take over offensive coordinator duties. His son, Klint Kubiak, had already been a Vikings offensive quality control coach for a couple of years. Then, when Gary retired from his OC post, after the 2020 season, the job was all but handed to Klint.

Related: Brock Purdy Confirms: Vikings’ Defensive Scheme under Brian Flores.. “Man, it’s Crazy”

It didn’t go well, Klint Kubiak lasted one season as Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator, before he was fired, along with Mike Zimmer, president of football operations, Rick Spielman, and just about every other person involved in coaching or the front office, not named Rob Brzezinski.

But since leaving Minnesota, Klint Kubiak as clearly learned from his past and made himself a better coach because of it. Zim proved in a preseason interview that he doesn’t change… ever. And no doubt, the results from this weekend probably reflect that.

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