Presser Points: Zimmer on Hughes Strong Play, Cook’s ‘Dangerous’ Abilities

[Viktor]

“Mike played really well. His technique was really good,” Zimmer said. “He had a couple bad plays in there. The one where they caught the ball just outside the end zone, that should have been his play, and he had one other play that wasn’t very good.


“The rest of the time he played very, very good. He played good in the running game. There was a couple times he could have fit better in the running game,” Zimmer added. “But overall, I thought he played very well. He competed. He used good technique. He got his hand on some balls, so that was good to see.”


According to coaches’ stats, Hughes was credited with a team-high three passes defended against the Giants.


That included a near interception on rookie quarterback Daniel Jones with just over five minutes remaining in the second quarter, but Hughes couldn’t hang onto the diving attempt near the Vikings sideline.


Zimmer also talked about Minnesota’s other defensive backs, including Rhodes, who gave up the defense’s lone touchdown of the day on a 35-yard pass.


“He got in bad position early, and then he did not do a good job of catching up to him before he started looking back,” Zimmer said.


Zimmer noted that he would like to see Minnesota’s secondary improve as a whole going forward.


“I just think we have to clean up some technique with some of our defensive backs, not just him,” Zimmer said. “We’ve got some other guys that we need to clean up our technique.


“At times throughout the game, they might be perfect 60-70 percent of the time and then the other 30 percent, they get sloppy,” Zimmer added. “We have to clean that up.”