| Opening statement: “Obviously, we have a big day in front of us here. Nothing more important to us than Friday’s and Friday practice – to be able to put some rhythm out there today will be great. Coming off of a short week and really having practice time on the field yesterday, I definitely feel like we need to have a good tempo in practice today. We need to have that timing, that rhythm that you need during the course of the week. We try to build confidence through the course of the week in what we’re doing, so that we can go execute at a high level on Sundays. Good meetings this morning, we’re pushing ahead and grinding away. We’re trying to do everything we can to go play well here on Sunday. (We’re) glad to be home. (We’re) glad to be in front of our fans. You know how it is when you have a couple of long weeks and you finally get to go home and be in fort of everybody that supports you and loves you. We’re excited to do that, and we’re obviously going to go out and try to do everything we can to win the game and play hard. We know we have a big challenge in front of us. Minnesota is a great team and they’re playing really well. They’re very confident in all three phases of the game. They do an excellent job on special teams. I think that’s something that definitely can’t be lost in this game. They do some things really well with their rush units and they do some outstanding things with their coverage units. They have some great players out there. We’re going to need all three phases working together to help us this weekend. That’s really it. Just a work day for us, kind of back at it, and grinding away.” On how he thinks the players have handled moving on from the loss against the Packers: “I think everybody has done a really good job to be honest with you. I think we all understand every single game is a one-week season and you move on really quick and you go forward. You don’t forget about them. You have to learn your mistakes and know the things you did well and know the things you did not do so well, and try to improve on those. If you waste any time thinking about what happened last week, you’re just not putting any effort or time into energy, and what’s going to happen this weekend. I think the guys get that; they understand that. We just have to try to stay consistent. That’s our biggest thing is everyday come in, be consistent, be the same person, and grind at it the same way, so that we can give ourselves a chance to go compete.” On RB Kerryon Johnson’s workload: “I think for us, we’re in the mode every single week trying to do what we can to play that game at the highest level. We’ve had some plays in there where we have mixed in the other guys and tried to get them some reps. Sometimes in a game you might get a feel for a particular player that you think is just having a good game or is in rhythm, in sync and you might stay with some of those guys in those situations. I think we worked through training camp and we worked through the beginning part of the season, and I think everybody understands what we’re trying to get done in the run game. Kerryon certainly knows that we trust him in those running situations to do everything he can, but all of those other guys are ready to go. I would say it’s nothing from a standpoint of calculated to say that he has to be in there every single play. It’s really just a feel for the game. I would say, my preference is to try to divide up as many of those carries as we can when we feel like we can do that, from that situation.” On if RB Kerryon Johnson’s offseason preparation allowed him to take on a greater workload: “I think obviously – for a second year player when you finally get that full offseason in the NFL as opposed to trying to get ready for the Draft and do all that – there is probably a higher confidence level maybe from the coaching perspective to look at that player and say, ‘Well he’s worked for this amount of time in our system. We’ve trained for an NFL season with him.’ As opposed to when you’re getting guys out of college, and they’re doing different types of training before the Draft, and then you don’t really get them before the rookie mini-camps and then OTAs. They’ve kind of missed those first two phases of the offseason. I think you trust those guys that are in the offseason program that when you do all of that accumulative work, that they’re ready for the season.” On how important it is to reassure the team of their goals coming off of a short week: “I think we understand that we try to just look at short-term goals. I think we have to try to take care of our business every single week, and not worry about the big picture. If we handle the details and the small things, then the big things handle themselves. Our main focus is to just try to go out and win and beat Minnesota. We’ll go from there. We’ll take one week at a time and just keep playing football. It’s a long season and there are a lot of things that happen. No matter what, we just want to go compete and play well. I think that’s our biggest focus.” On the challenge of using vertical routes once you get into the red zone: “Good observations as far as the red (zone) area and how that doesn’t change an offense, and how that can affect an offense, and definitely how it affects defense, too. I think defenses from the same thing – there’s not as much depth at defense anymore. Everything’s a little bit tighter at the line of scrimmage. Your run support is a lot faster, whether it is secondary support from the safeties or the corners. Everything happens much quicker and you can also use the end-line for certain coverages, and kind of bracket players different ways based on that, too. From an offensive perspective, when you do have vertical-type plays – and Minnesota is the same way, they have fast receivers that get vertical quick. They like to do certain things when they have the space and then when the space condenses, sometimes philosophies change, and different types of plays come into effect. You have to be able to defend those, and you certainly see that with a lot of offenses.” On if he thinks the defensive line has been playing poorly: “I think in the run game, defensively everyone takes responsibility for that. All of us, and certainly me as a coach, it’ll start with me. I have to coach it better, which we’re trying to do, and trying to teach the techniques and get everybody on the same page. Run defense is all about fits. It’s all about everybody doing their assignment, doing their job, and doing it with good pad level and good technique. We haven’t performed well enough in that area, certainly. We all understand we need to get better there, and that it’s a collective group effort for all of us. We’re working at, we’re grinding at it. Again, like I mentioned, unfortunately this week without being able to put the pads on and take a really good look at it – especially Minnesota’s run game with the way that they stretch the ball, and then they stretch and cut in the style that they run the ball. It’s very difficult to simulate in practice in general, and then to not be able to do that with equipment on is even harder. You just have to continually try to get the right looks in practice and get the right technique and all of that, and everybody just trying to do it a little bit better from that aspect, sure.” On if he pays attention to Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes’ injury last night and how it affects the other NFC North teams: “No, not really. We’re really just focused on us. I think that’s the biggest thing for us right now, in this part of the year – to go back to the question earlier – we’re just focused on our games. I think that’s all that really matters. Again, for us, our philosophy is we want to try to do everything we can to just handle our own business. You never want to be in a situation where you have to root for anybody else. That’s not really where you want to be. For us, it’s just about trying to get ready to go and play Minnesota. The NFL is a crazy season and there are crazy games every single week, and you never know what’s going to happen. For us, just staying focused on us important.” On how important is confidence for a player and what he does to instill that confidence: “I think it’s always interesting to me with players in the NFL whether they’re young player or even sometimes guys that have been in the League for a long time – maybe their roles change; maybe they’re on special teams for a long time, and then all of a sudden they really emerge as an offensive or defensive player. There are quite a few guys that are playing in this game that have walked that path before, too. Sometimes it’s just a unique thing. Sometimes it’s just learning to practice your craft the right way, be a professional. Sometimes you’re learning the NFL game, sometimes it’s all of the knowledge part of it you have to learn. Sometimes there is that light bulb that goes on that just maybe they make one or two plays, and they find that confidence behind them that carries them through. It’s really an interesting phenomenon to watch sometimes. I’ve definitely seen it. I would say for our guys, in general for the team, we always stress building confidence through practice. Making sure we go out every single day and get good communication and get good alignment and do a good job with our execution of our assignments. I think confidence is something I think that is not only just individualized but it has to be built as a team – everybody having confidence in each other to go out and do their jobs, and that’s really what we get out of practice.” On the challenges Vikings DE Everson Griffen presents to the offensive line: “I think Griffen and (Danielle) Hunter have had success versus a lot of people. I think they’re two really, really good players on the edge. They’re long, they’re powerful. Griffen, he’s long, he’s a little bit stouter, a little bit thicker. Does a good job with the power off of the edge, really some of those in the passing game, some of the softer sets that he gets, he’s able to kind of push those guys back into the middle of the pocket and create a lot of stress and tension for the quarterback. Then with Hunter being on the other side, you know, you’re kind of stretched in two different directions to handle the situations. Hunter, I think, is playing at an extremely high level. He’s long, he does a great job with his length, he does a good job of using his power and then taking it away, and watching a lot of the guys on the offensive line kind of get him off-balance and move him one way and then counter back. I think as much as you’re dealing with that, then you have to deal with all the pressure of the linebackers and the safeties and everybody else coming through the middle or off the edge. It’s just really complex from that standpoint. Two really outstanding players on the edge, I would say, just as good as anybody in the League.” On if the rushing style of Vikings DE Everson Griffen and DE Danielle Hunter keeps pressure in the middle: “Definitely, at times. Some of it is pretty calculated as far as what the scheme of the defense might be, where they’re trying to push the quarterback in the pocket. They’re trying to manipulate where he can step up and where he can go from there. Some of it you can definitely see though in their rushes where they have freedom to work off of those guys and work off some of the other defensive players that are in front of them. A lot of that all kind of plays into it, but they have multiple skill sets for those two guys on the edges. They have really good speed get off, they have really good speed to power it, and then they have really good counters. Griffen, one of the great things he does is the spin move off of the counter, off of his power. It becomes really difficult because you’re trying to anchor, set, for that kind of bull rush, and then he takes it away and guys get off balance and things like that. Then he counters back inside.” On how important closing out games and controlling the clock is: “The end of the game is always a tricky situation. You have to take a lot of things into account: special teams, offense, defense, how it all fits together. I would say, it’s something that our team is learning – we’ve been learning here for the last year and a half about how all that fits together and how important it is, from that standpoint, to play complementary football and not give certain teams or certain players too much time on a clock if you have to. Sometimes you have to go faster and try to do everything you can a little bit quicker. All that comes into effect, certainly, from that aspect of it. Independent of all that, everybody knows that when you step on the field, whatever that particular play is, you just have to go do your job. Do your assignment, execute at a high level and things will take care of itself. You do try to emphasis the collaborate effort of all three phases working together, certainly.” On the importance of utilizing K Matt Prater and not passing up scoring opportunities: “For us, I think points are critical. When we get down in there, and certainly, Prater, with his ability to do that for us, especially in different environments and be consistent with it, is really critical. Sometimes it’s a portion of the game where maybe a drive is going on, you’ve eaten up a lot of clock and you’ve had a nice drive and it’s gone down and you necessarily haven’t scored a touchdown, but you’ve maybe shortened the game by two or three series in that phase. You are going to want to make sure you come away with points that affects the overall, let’s call it, ‘total points’ at the end of the game. All those things kind of go into consideration from that standpoint, and having a kicker that we feel very confident in helps make those decisions easier.” |
