*Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer *
OK, after watching the game the other night, back on tape, I thought offensively, pass protection was very good. I thought the run game, there was some good things. I know it didn't look good, but there was some good things. We just had one guy miss here and there. So, we'll keep going on that. Defensively, we talked about doing a better job and getting them in some of the third-and-long situations, which we did. So, I thought that was good, too. (We've) still got a lot of work to do, still going forward.
Q: Teddy Bridgewater wasn't throwing. Is there any concern there with him?
A: No. there's no concern.
Q: He has a sore shoulder?
A: I'm not going to talk about injuries.
Q: Would you expect he'll be playing next Sunday when U.S. Bank Stadium opens?
A: Teddy could have played yesterday, but I decided not to play him – or whatever day it was.
Q: Shaun Hill didn't practice. Was it just a day off, or what's going on with him?
A: Yeah, he had a vet day.
Q: You brought in another quarterback just to get another arm in with a couple guys sidelined? Just talk about bringing in Brad Sorensen.
A: We usually have four (quarterbacks) in camp, and because of what happened to (Taylor) Heinicke, we were short. So, we've been keeping an eye on things.
Q: How do you feel about your depth at quarterback overall?
A: I thought they've done good. Shaun (Hill) played well the other night, and I thought (Joel) Stave, in the two ball games, he has done a good job.
Q: Is there anything, specifically, you've noticed from Shaun Hill as far as wisdom he imparted on Teddy Bridgewater and the younger quarterbacks? He's obviously the veteran in the group, so he has the experience, but is there anything that has caught your eye?
A: No, just a lot of the situational stuff he talks to them about, but you'd had to talk to Teddy about that more. They're together a lot more than I am with them.
Q: How do you access the pass defense now through these couple preseason games?
A: It wasn't too bad the other night. There are still some things we're trying to work on with the corners, but I think overall we were in the right place most of the time.
Q: The 31-yarder to Tyler Lockett, was that something where the safety need to come over there?
A: Who was it on? *(Reporter: Terence Newman was in coverage.) *Yeah, he had bad technique on that one, and honestly, that was a great throw. He wasn't in great position. He was chasing a little bit, but that was a great throw.
Q: Any concern about Xavier Rhodes and a possible injury that I asked about on Thursday?
A: No, I'm never concerned about those guys.
Q: Alex Boone wasn't at practice today, was it veteran's day off?
A: He just had some personal things to take care of.
Q: Was it encouraging have Brandon Fusco back at practice?
A: Yes.
Q: When we get to Wednesday, are you going to plan to treat this as a game week with the San Diego game being on Sunday?
A: We don't really game plan much for the preseason games, but we we'll be on an in-season schedule on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Q: Is that because of the Sunday or playing in the new stadium?
A: No, we would do that anyway.
Q: How did you feel about the run defense on Thursday night?
A: Actually, with the first group it wasn't too bad. They had one ball that bounced outside of Everson (Griffen). Actually, we played pretty good and he got grabbed a little bit. Then there was one other six-yard run I think, but for the most part it wasn't bad.
Q: I think you're averaging 2.8 yards per carry in the preseason, so what's your level of concern for the Vikings' running game so far?
A: Well as I said a minute ago, I think we did some really good things in the run game. But, there was this one play where we had a nice hole and the tight end gets knocked into the tackle, so it gets cut off. There was two times that the back missed the cut. There was two times where we blocked it the wrong way. It's a work in progress, but there really is a lot of good things going on. Obviously we got to do better than two yards per carry, but it's also opening up some things in the passing game as well.
Q: Have you seen a different level out of Adam Thielen?
A: I don't know about a different level because Adam always been (a guy who) comes out and works hard every single day. He's made some good plays and made a really nice catch on the one ball over the middle that was a little bit behind him. You know kind of like he did in Cincinnati too, same kind of scenario. The more you make plays, the more you get to play.
