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          Mental mistakes at heart of Vikings "uncharacteristic" performance in Philadelphia

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          After loss to Eagles, is it fair to criticize Bradford's game? (2:28)

          Stephen A. Smith explains why he thinks the Vikings are not Super Bowl contenders with Sam Bradford as their quarterback whereas Donovan McNabb says as long as Bradford doesn't turn the ball over, Minnesota's defense will take it to the big game. (2:28)

          • Ben Goessling, ESPN Staff WriterOct 25, 2016, 07:00 AM ET
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            • Previously covered Vikings for St. Paul Pioneer Press
            • Also covered Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Wild and Washington Nationals
            • Twin Cities native and University of Minnesota graduate
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          MINNEAPOLIS -- As simple as it would have been to pin the Minnesota Vikings' 21-10 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on overconfidence -- in the league's last undefeated team as it returned from a bye week -- coach Mike Zimmer's postgame film study unearthed a different culprit.

          "You know, part of it was some of the things we did do that were so uncharacteristic in this ballgame -- things that we’d worked on for three years since I’ve been here, trying to be a smart football team," Zimmer said. "We jump offsides inside the 5-yard line, we get the ball on first-and-goal on the 2 and first-and-goal on the 8 and first-and-10 on the 17, and I think we come away with 3 points and an interception. We don’t go out of bounds twice with two different people in the two-minute drill. There’s so many of these things that are so uncharacteristic of our football team. It was really disappointing to me. But the thing I admire about the good teams is, whether they win by 50 or lose by 50, they move on."

          As much of a point as Zimmer has made to craft a team that does not beat itself -- the Vikings committed the fewest penalties in the league last year, and hadn't turned the ball over all season before Sunday -- the events of the Eagles game had to be particularly irksome. The challenge for the Vikings now, with an extra day to prepare before a Monday night game against the Chicago Bears, is to identify the source of the problem and stop it.

          "Some of it is guys pressing," Zimmer said. "I talked to Adam [Thielen] there [after he fought to stay in bounds following his 25-yard catch with 2:18 left] and he said, ‘I’m trying to score a touchdown.’ Well, if the guy's got you around both arms and both legs and you're 2 inches from out of bounds ... He said, ‘I know, Coach.’ This team typically knows when they make mistakes and they’ve been told."

          The Vikings' most uncharacteristic efforts in 2015 came when the team seemingly was too wired (before a Monday night season opener in San Francisco and a late Sunday afternoon game against Green Bay), and it's possible the same phenomenon was at play on Sunday in Philadelphia. Whatever the cause of the issue, Zimmer seemed intent on rooting it out this week.

          "We’re going to change some things up this week [in practice], yes," he said. "[The players] don’t know it yet, so we’ll just let them figure it out."