Sloppy Vikings suffer 1st loss

Published 9:09 am Monday, October 24, 2016

PHILADELPHIA — The offensive line couldn’t block, Sam Bradford couldn’t protect the football and the defense couldn’t bail them out.

A sloppy, mistake-prone offense and a special teams breakdown left the Minnesota Vikings unbeaten no more and had coach Mike Zimmer fuming despite his team’s 5-1 record.

“Embarrassing is the word, at least in two of the three phases,” Zimmer said after the Eagles beat the Vikings 21-10 Sunday. “I’m very disappointed.”

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Zimmer was especially critical of his offensive line, which is missing starters Matt Kalil and Andre Smith. Jake Long made his Vikings debut, rotating with T.J. Clemmings and Jeremiah Sirles.

“We didn’t block anybody. They were soft. They were overpowered,” Zimmer said. “The safety beat the tackle one time and beat the back a couple times. It was basically man-on-man and we got whipped.”

Bradford had no chance against a fierce pass rush. Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz used the blitz far more than usual against Bradford and it worked. The result was 19 hits on Bradford, six sacks, two recovered fumbles and one interception.

“They were playing aggressively. They were blitzing a lot. I would, too,” Zimmer said. “We didn’t pick up anybody, so they might as well.”

Schwartz changed up his game plan because Bradford is familiar with his defense. He faced it every day for a couple of months before he was traded to Minnesota eight days before the season opener.

“We know that Sam struggles in trapped coverage so we wanted to run it a few times,” said safety Rodney McLeod, who had one pick, one sack and one forced fumble.

Bradford, who was 7-7 for Chip Kelly in his only season in Philadelphia, heard boos when he ran onto the field and never appeared comfortable. He overthrew a few receivers, made poor decisions and seemed more concerned with avoiding the rush than keeping his eyes downfield.