Vikings rookie cornerback Mackensie Alexander was thrust into duty Sunday due to injuries at Washington.
The second-round pick saw the field for 14 defensive snaps and talked to Andrew Krammer of the *Star Tribune *about his performance.
Krammer wrote:
The future was Sunday for the Vikings' young cornerbacks. At the forefront was Alexander, whose lesson plan accelerated in a blink in Washington. He played 14 snaps after the Vikings lost (Xavier) Rhodes and were already without injured cornerbacks Captain Munnerlyn and Marcus Sherels.
After Rhodes was hurt on Rob Kelley's big run, Cousins targeted Alexander for his two longest completions on consecutive field goal drives that were the difference in the Vikings' 26-20 loss.
*It was an early lump for the 23-year-old Alexander, who has now played 47 snaps in spot duty for the Vikings. *
"He's young man, that's all I can tell you he's young," Munnerlyn assessed. "Got to keep working, got to keep studying the film and start competing. Nobody is going to tell you it's easy. It's not easy."
Alexander told Krammer that he's going to use Sunday's outing as a learning experience going forward.
"It's different stuff I have to learn coming into the game. When I come in, be ready," Alexander said. "I have to just prepare and be better with those things. It's definitely something I'm learning every day and a game situation is definitely different than practice."
Shared blame
Tim Yotter of Viking Update wrote that Head Coach Mike Zimmer "believes everyone, including himself, is trying to do too much" to fix a four-game losing streak after winning their first five of the season.* *
It's a streak that has the team ****frustrated***, maybe confused, and perhaps having their confidence beaten down. *
"Most of my guys are pretty smart. We understand that we've lost some games, but this team is used to winning so they don't like it. They're frustrated by it; I'm frustrated by it," head coach Mike Zimmer said. "But the bottom line is we need to win football games. The best way to do that is to do what we normally do – prepare, win the crucial situations of the game, study, work hard in practice, play hard in the games and execute."
Yotter noted a multitude of issues that have kept the Vikings out of the win column since their bye week:
*The issues have been centered on different components of the team at different times. There have been missed field goals and extra points on special teams, along with returns for touchdowns. There has been a consistent struggle to run the ball efficiently as the team with the worst rushing average in the NFL. There have been extended stretches in which the offense hasn't been able to produce points and times when the Vikings were in prime position to win and the defense has allowed late scores, despite being the NFL's stingiest defense in points allowed. *
"Some teams just don't know how to put their finger on what's going on and we're kind of in that situation," veteran cornerback Terence Newman said. "We just finished the halfway point and we still have a chance to do some things that we wanted to do. It's not a place to panic right now, but we do understand we have some problems that need to get corrected."
