It’s been a rough year so far for the Vikings offensive line. Injuries, a revolving cast of replacements, and your boss calling you “soft.”
But they also realize there’s only so much they can do at the moment.
“I think it’s just playing better with what you have,” veteran left guard Alex Boone said, via Matt Vensel of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “I mean, what are you going to do? There’s not much you can do. It’s not like you’re not going to go down to Carl’s Jr. and find somebody.”
They’ve done everything but so far, including dragging Jake Long out of what appeared to be retirement to start at left tackle. And the lack of continuity is as important for an offensive line as any group in the game, and with both starting tackles on IR, that’s hard to find.
But the ultimate indignity was being labeled “soft” by head coach Mike Zimmer, who added for good measure: “We didn’t block anybody.”
“We’ve got to play better. That’s the bottom line,” Boone said.
When the “soft” remark was run by him again, Boone kept it low-key.
“I feel like we’ve got to play better. I think when you get your quarterback hit that many times it’s a problem,” Boone said. “So we’ve got to play better.”
Of course, there’s a meat-grinder aspect to the Vikings season as a whole, but after Sam Bradford was sacked six times and hit 13, they may need more than a sack of burgers (or the guy who sells them) to fix things.