MANKATO, Minn. -- Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer raised his preseason record to 10-1 but that doesn't mean he was smiling when his players returned to work on Sunday..

"Not good enough," said Zimmer, whose Vikings will have three days of practice before heading off to Seattle to face a Seahawks team that beat them 10-9 on a missed a 27-yard field-goal attempt by Blair Walsh with 22 seconds left in last season's wild-card game.


After controlling much of the action in two days of joint practices with the Bengals, the Vikings started Friday's game with poor defense and worse pass protection. After winning the coin toss and deferring, the Vikings were pushed down the field. Cincinnati missed a 48-yard field-goal attempt, leading to a Vikings' three-and-out in which quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was sacked once and pressured heavily two other times. That was followed by a 22-play Bengals drive that consumed 12 minutes before finally being stopped on fourth-and-1 at the Vikings' 3-yard line.

"We were soft in some areas," defensive tackle Tom Johnson said Sunday. "They creased us on a couple of plays when we were playing soft in the defense. It was a small adjustment, small things. We're really not worried about it. We're going to go out and dominate teams, but we didn't do it that night. We have that run defense as our emphasis point this week. We're going to come out and battle and tweak a few things around against Seattle."

By the time the Vikings touched the ball for their second possession, the Bengals had 132 yards and nine first downs. The Vikings had one net yard. Bridgewater had to stiff-arm defensive tackle Geno Atkins to avoid being sacked on his first snap of the game. On the next play, left tackle Matt Kalil gave up a pressure that forced Bridgewater off his spot and led to a sack by Atkins. Then, right tackle Andre Smith was beaten badly off the other edge by Carlos Dunlap, who forced an incompletion with a knockdown.

The Vikings didn't intend to play the starters into the second quarter, but changed the plan after getting only three snaps in the first quarter. Bridgewater took advantage of his second and final series, going 5-for-5 for 89 yards, including a 49-yard touchdown that displayed his offseason progress in downfield aggressiveness and accuracy. He stepped into a deep ball that traveled 52 yards in the air to an open Charles Johnson at the goal line.

Zimmer got the win, but was able to keep his boot on the players as he continues to harp on how they can't rest on what they did a year ago when they were 11-5 and unseated the Packers atop the NFC North. Although Zimmer wasn't thrilled with the first offensive series, he was most disappointed with his defense, which allowed the Bengals to convert 7 of 10 third-down situations in the first half, including four straight third-and-ones.

As is typical when the Vikings stumbled defensively, inconsistencies against the run played a key role in throwing everything out of whack.

"They ran the same play against the same defense for that (1-yard loss) as they ran earlier on that drive that ended up being about a 6-yard run," Zimmer said. "And it really was nothing different. We had the exact same call. The safeties were not involved in the play where you would think they would be down near the goal line. But we did that one right. It's just some corrections. I'm not discouraged with it yet. But, obviously, we still have a lot of work to do."

It didn't help that the Vikings were without three defensive starters. Cornerback Terence Newman, middle linebacker Eric Kendricks and defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd all were held out with injuries that aren't believed to be serious.

Zimmer, however, isn't one to make excuses. Despite the win, he's going to be even harder on the players after assessing where they are heading into the second game of the preseason.