Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer said after Sunday's 17-16 loss to the Bills that there would be some second guessing on his part. After watching the film, Zimmer said on Monday that he should've called a timeout prior to the Bills converting on a fourth-and-20 during the final drive.

The Vikings had all three timeouts prior to the play, which resulted in a 31-yard completion from quarterback Kyle Orton to Scott Chandler. Zimmer thought in hindsight the timeout would've settled the defense during a no-huddle situation.

"I think we miscalculated the down and distance they were in," Zimmer said. "We all knew it was fourth down. I just don't know they had the distance they had to go and we ended up being short on the route.

"Thinking on the plane last night and after the play, I should have done it. And we still had a chance to stop them there at the end."

The fourth-and-20, though, stands out. Zimmer said linebacker Chad Greenway was too shallow on the play. He also was still communicating with the secondary to make sure everyone was aligned as the ball was snapped. It's part of Greenway's job to correct the defense's alignment, Zimmer said.

The Bills ran 34 seconds off the clock after defensive tackle Tom Johnson sacked Orton with 1:51 left in the game to snap the ball on 4th down. It was a fairly difficult distance with the game on the line that could cause a head coach not to call a timeout. Everything was going in the Vikings factor, and there's that perception among some head coaches that don't like to use timeouts on defense that Zimmer also holds.

"Right, wrong or indifferent, I've always worked for a lot of guys that don't like calling timeouts on defense because you don't like wasting them," Zimmer said. "That is a little bit of my mentality too is, 'Hey, let's get lined up, do what we're supposed to do and everything will be good.' Whereas probably in that situation — the hecticness of everything that was going on — I probably should have used it and explained to them. We saw all their two-minute routes before, so the routes they ran were not any surprise."

In a similar situation last season against Washington, the Vikings did the exact opposite under former head coach Leslie Frazier. Up 34-27, the Vikings burned two timeouts when the clock was running while Washington faced first-and-10 at the Vikings 25 with 1:20 left and a second-and-goal at the 4. Quarterback Robert Griffin III threw three incompletions on the final three plays to turn the ball over on downs and seal the Vikings win, but Frazier was criticized in the moment for burning two timeouts while the clock ran.

It somehow worked, while Zimmer's approach didn't. We'll see in the future if the first-year head coach changes his mentality about timeouts if he's faced with similar situation this season.