*Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer *

Q: How's Sam doing today?

A: He's doing good.

*Q: When do you think you'll know who your starter is? *

A: Sunday.

Q: It'll come down to then again?

A: It's day to day, how do I know? 

Q: What's are the challenges for players when they don't know who the starting quarterback is?

A: There's no challenges. Just go out and do their job.

Q: What are you seeing from the Tampa Bay defense after they had such a good week last week?

A: Well, they are very similar to us in a lot of ways. Scheme wise they're very similar, safeties are aggressive, linebackers are fast. Gerald McCoy is a great player at 3-technique. Corners play a lot of off coverage but they're in a lot of man-to-man. They're good. They're a turnover machine. They got four last week. That's kind of been their "M.O.", last year same thing. They play fast and they play hard.

Q: With Gerald McCoy on the inside what makes him so powerful?

A: He's big, powerful, quick, great first step quickness. He gets off the ball and goes. He wreaks a lot of havoc. 

Q: How has Case Keenum evolved from when you first evaluated him?

A: He's learned a new offense so I don't know the evolvement. He started off well with the Rams last year and played good. He's a kid that is smart, understands his ability and where he's at and understands the offense.

Q: How does Case Keenum's experience as a starter help in the huddle and the locker room?

A: I don't know about credibility but he's great in the huddle. He's quick, he's energetic, he's got excitement to him when he comes in there, he calls the plays good, see things. He's been through it before.

Q: You talked about him dropping back too far, overall how do you think Case Keenum's pocket presence is?

A: I think what I said was it's a combination of both. Sometimes he flushed when he didn't need to.

Q: Coming off of 11 penalties is there anything special you do when approaching the team about it?

A: We come out and work on it in practice.

Q: When you take out the penalties how do you asses how your defense has done over the past two weeks?

A: I think we've been decent. Obviously, we've been pretty good on third downs. We've been pretty good in the red zone, pretty good against the run for the most part. We've given up too many big plays, too many penalties.

Q: What makes their run defense so effective?

A: Well, they got up 26 to nothing too. Some of the run game went out the window there, but they ran for what was 20 or 30 yards. They're aggressive. They have fast linebackers that will take good angles to the ball. Two aggressive safeties. They'll get a lot of extra guys in the box. 

Q: Is that aggressiveness able to open them up to explosive plays?

A: Maybe, if you can hit some those they'll get a little tighter. If you can hit some runs they'll get a little tighter. 

Q: What is the biggest challenge facing Jameis Winston?

A: He's a very talented guy, very strong arm, moves well in the pocket, gets out of the pocket and he makes big plays, he's looking to throw the ball down the field. He's got two excellent receivers, actually he's got a few guys. I think he believes he make every throw and sometimes he's going to take his opportunities to throw it.

Q: How does Mike Evans challenge the defense?

A: Well, he's big and strong. When Jameis gets in trouble he'll throw it up to him and it gets to be a jump ball. He's a physical receiver. He presents a challenge and so does DeSean Jackson. So are the two tight ends they have.

Q: How do you describe Anthony Barr's play this year?

A: I think he's played well.

Q: Do you see any differences from Barr's play this year versus last year?

A: Yes. It's two games and he's worked hard trying to improve and he's doing a good job.

Q: What is the difference between Tampa's offense and the West coast offenses you're used to?

A: Well, they have some more maximum protection things that some of them don't have. They have a combination of everything really. I think the difficulty is that these two receivers they're big play guys. They were what 53% on third downs last week? I mean they're unbelievable.