The 2020 Minnesota Vikings defense bottomed out in an unforeseen fashion for Mike Zimmer. Before 2020, Minnesota’s defense was the second-best in the NFL from a points-allowed standpoint under Zimmer, trailing only the New England Patriots from 2014 to 2019.
Zimmer’s defense surrendered an average of 19.5 points per game in his first six seasons, tumbling mightily for the pandemic season to 29.7 points per game — a dastardly 52% spike in one season. There was no other way around it; Minnesota’s defense was stinky.
Zimmer’s bunch ranked fourth-worst in the business in the aforementioned points allowed metric.