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When Vikings coach Mike Zimmer met with the media after quarterback Teddy Bridgewater’s knee injury in Tuesday’s practice, he mentioned that he’d spoken to his former boss Bill Parcells after Bridgewater got hurt and before he spoke to the media.

Zimmer’s main message was that the Vikings will figure out a way to move forward without Bridgewater, something that Parcells told Peter King of TheMMQB.com was a big part of their conversation. Parcells said that Zimmer is resolute and determined, two things that he’ll need to be now that he’s “driving the train” with “100 sets of eyes” on him while he tries to move the team forward without their quarterback.

Parcells said he told Zimmer that “there are situations that won’t allow you to succeed,” but that this isn’t one of them. He recalled the need to turn to Jeff Hostetler in 1990 after Phil Simms was injured after a great start to the season and said the Giants figured out “ways to win those games” all the way up to a Super Bowl victory over the Bills. He believes the Vikings have the same potential and told Zimmer it’s up to him to figure it out.

“I told him, ‘The first thing you need to know is this: Everyone in the organization, and that includes some of the players and the coaches, are going to think they have an excuse now,'” Parcells said. “Once the shock is over, probably 48 hours from now, they’re all gonna come to you and look at you and say, ‘What are you gonna do?’ Because you’re charged with winning games now, no matter what you have on your team. You need to figure out what works — what recipe works. And tomorrow morning, once the shock wears off, nobody’s gonna give a s—. It’s his problem. He’s gotta figure out how to win now.”

Things didn’t always work out as well for Parcells as it did with Hostetler. In 1999 with the Jets, Parcells had a good team coming back from an AFC title game loss to the Broncos but quarterback Vinny Testaverde tore his Achilles early in the season opener. The Jets turned to Rick Mirer during a 1-6 start that sank their hopes of contending in Parcells’ final year as the team’s coach.

Zimmer’s task will be to avoid similar results and he has a little more than a week to put the pieces in place for Tennessee.