Following the 38-25 beatdown Minnesota endured from rival Green Bay, reports came out stating defensive backs Xavier Rhodes and Terence Newman ignored head coach Mike Zimmer’s game plan to shadow wide receiver, Jordy Nelson.

According to reports, veteran cornerback Newman pressured Rhodes into following his plan, which was for Newman to cover Nelson without any help over the top. As a result, Nelson hauled in seven catches for 145 yards and two touchdowns in the first half.

In the second half, Rhodes followed Zimmer’s script and Nelson only totaled two catches for nine yards. After the game, Zimmer was asked if the defensive backs intentionally disobeyed his game plan.

“No. Never,” Zimmer stressed.

Zimmer went on to elaborate.

“They played the coverage that was called, but they might have messed it up,” noting: “I can think of one specifically: There was one where we were playing a man within a zone, and both guys played zone, and we turned a guy loose. There’s things like that, but that happens every day.”

This could just be a case of Zimmer defending his players in hopes of killing this storyline moving forward or maybe this was the actual truth. We’ll never know, but nonetheless, after starting the season off 5-0, this isn’t the way Minnesota wanted to end their campaign.

Source: NFL