Mike Zimmer will do 'self-scouting' after Vikings' defense wilted in playoffs

It got especially ugly in Sunday's 38-7 loss in the NFC championship game at Philadelphia. The Eagles' 38 points and 456 yards were season-highs for the Vikings' defense.

"There's some things that I really want to look at in this offseason," Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said Tuesday, Jan. 23. "There's some other teams I want to study that have done a good job. I want to go back and evaluate a lot of our rush situations to see if we can improve in some of those areas, go back and see why we were good on third downs."

The Vikings led the league in third-down defense during the regular season, allowing conversations at a rate of just 25.2 percent, the best NFL figure since Minnesota in 1975. But the Eagles converted 10 of 14 third-down plays for 71.4 percent on Sunday.

Afterward, Zimmer, who calls the defensive plays, said he could have "called a lot better game."

"Sometimes when you're sticking with things, and it's been successful for you, you continue to do it, and maybe I did it a little bit too long," he said Tuesday. "That's all a part of the process of self-scouting, evaluation and things as you go forward."

After the Vikings won the NFC North with a 13-3 record and advanced to the championship game for the first time since 2009, Zimmer has optimism for 2018. With the Vikings soon to move their headquarters to the new TCO Performance Center in Eagan, Zimmer pointed to the banners in the Winter Park field house.

"One of the things I want to do is put up another one of those banners," he said.

The Eagles and New England Patriots will meet in Super Bowl LII at U.S. Bank Stadium on Feb. 4.

"This football team did some very good things. ... Unfortunately, we didn't reach the ultimate goal," Zimmer said. "I'm still proud of how this team went about their business this year and the things they were able to accomplish, the fortitude they had ... and really the chemistry they had in the locker room.

"It's disappointing to lose, but we're going to try to figure out every possible way how we can improve."