EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Time was starting to heal the emotional sting from Sunday's loss for Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer as the raw feelings started to subside a day later.
The passionate coach dissected film of Minnesota's 17-3 loss at home to the Detroit Lions during what was likely another sleepless night. Zimmer said he re-watched the disappointing effort "several times" and surely had replayed in his mind the pointed postgame comments he made in saying his team is undisciplined.
Zimmer spoke to the media on Monday much calmer and more measured in his approach.
"I just kind of flew off the handle a little bit yesterday," Zimmer said. "I'm kind of an emotional guy. It is not lack of discipline. It's we're not performing as well as we needed to. . . . We're not looking for excuses, we're looking for solutions and that's what I'm trying to do is try to find solutions."
A day to reflect changed Zimmer's tone, but not so much his message.
"I want them to understand that it's not OK to lose, that we have to change the mentality and the mindset of this," Zimmer said. "I can remember telling the defense the same thing in Cincinnati a long, long time ago. That we have to develop this mindset that it's not OK to lose. It's not business as usual. I'm not very accepting of these kind of things."
With emotion from Sunday starting to subside, Zimmer delivered his message to players again in meetings.
"I was a little nervous going into (the) meeting," fullback Jerome Felton said. "One thing about coach Zimmer, he always keeps it 100 percent real with you. You know where you stand and you can respect that as a player."
As for Zimmer's message?
"It was just, like I told you guys, straight forward," Felton said. "You don't perform, you won't play. That's what people understand, that's what players understand. That's what the case will be moving forward."
From the moment Zimmer was hired, he had been compared to the way he was portrayed on the HBO television show Hard Knocks as the Cincinnati Bengals' fiery and expletive-prone defensive coordinator.
Zimmer has been more restrained in his time as a head coach. But emotions can still get the better of him. Unprompted, he mentioned after Sunday's game that he's had to fine players for missing or being late for meetings and treatment.
A day later, he knew the comments had received plenty of play.
"That was probably Zimmer being Zimmer," he said. "I was not in the best frame of mind at the time. This team has not had an issue, continually an issue, of being late. Every time a guy's been late, been anywhere, I've fined him so it's not been an issue. I had two practice-squad players miss lifting on Saturday, so that was kind of sticking in my mind."
Zimmer also made comments that players were speaking to officials, even though he has told players not to talk to officials during the games. He had to address the topic again on Monday.
"I don't think that we're undisciplined," Zimmer said. "I think we can be more disciplined than what we are."
The message is clear. The players need to follow through, as well as hold each other accountable.
"It's a challenge because you're dealing with grown men," receiver Greg Jennings said. "So you have to have . . . an inner accountability, first and foremost. If you don't have that, then you don't really care. Again, we have to do a better job of doing that police work with one another and making sure that everything is important. It doesn't matter what it is, whether it's weights, special-teams meeting, training, treatment, everything is important."
Zimmer said Sunday that he's still trying to figure his team out. The Vikings' first-year coach is trying to get on the same page as his team and both sides are learning each other.
While he said he needs to keep his emotions in check, it will be tough for the coach not to be "Zimmer being Zimmer."
"I'm always going to be pretty honest, I think," Zimmer said. "That's my creed. As best I can be, I'll continue always to try to be honest with you. Maybe do a better job of trying not to let some things bother me as much.
"I am learning, trying to be a good head coach, I am trying to learn. I'm trying to do a better job every day, every game. I'm not perfect, just like the players aren't. So I'll just keep trying to do better and trying to get my team to be better."
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