Saturday, August 2, 2014

Zimmer excited for second night practice

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said he's excited to have another night practice at Blakeslee Stadium, feeling the players get more interested in the workout when there's more fans in the stands and the lights are on tonight.

But he also said he's looking for improvement, noting his disappointment with the how the team practiced on Friday.

"I'm looking for a better performance," he said. "We have an expectation level that we need to meet."

He said he was happy with the progress of the offensive line, especially in run blocking. He said he's a little disappointed with the defense's ability to line up in the proper positions.

"I'm not happy, but satisfied," he said. "I'm never happy."

After tonight's practice, so of the focus will shift to Friday's preseason opener against Oakland at TCF Bank Stadium. Zimmer said that some of the coaches have already started looking at the Raiders, but he's been doing more work on game situations and strategy, such as replay challenges and use of timeouts.

He said he started working with general manager Rick Spielman on 15 scenarios Saturday and has four more days to work on those things.

He said that the first preseason game is more about coaching and evaluating his players and less about tricking the Raiders.

Zimmer said that safety Robert Blanton, who had been working with the No. 1 defense, will be out a while with a hamstring injury, while cornerback Josh Robinson is close to returning from a hamstring injury, though he won't participate tonight.

Tight end A.C. Leonard is still undergoing tests for a headache that has caused him to miss the last three days.

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