Four days after Minnesota Vikings‘ skewed 41-17 losing to the Green Bay Packers, offensive coordinator Wes Phillips addressed the players who ignored the team’s recommendation to wear different types of shoes on the harsh Lambeau Field grass.
When asked by reporters about problems some Vikings players had while standing, Phillips said the team had informed the players of the condition before the game.
“The remarkable thing is that it happened to us and not to them,” Phillips said. “It’s a solved problem, but people have to understand that the margin of error is very small.”
Despite strong recommendation to switch to 7-pin spikes, head coach Kevin O’Connell confirmed After the game, many Vikings players didn’t listen. Phillips considers it professional and adds, “We have to get better at it.”
“It can’t be like, ‘Oh, I’ll take it next time,'” Phillips said. “You don’t know how many times you’re going to play that game to change the game or keep driving. We have to be professional at that.”
O’Connell said he hopes his players have learned something from Sunday’s shoe problem. More significant concern, however, is why the players on the team are not yet well aware of what shoes they should wear at Lambeau Field, where they compete once a year.
The Vikings didn’t drop Sunday’s game against the Packers just because they didn’t have the right shoes, but that certainly didn’t help. Minnesota won the NFC North title, so knockouts are guaranteed. However, Sunday’s big loss sent the Vikings down 12-4wipe out any hope of stealing NFC’s #1 seed.
