Head Coach Mike McDaniel (transcribed by ASAP Sports)
Q: You look at the stat sheet, you guys had yardage and plays and all that stuff. How do you look at this team?
MIKE McDANIEL: You know, it’s disappointing. Guys put a lot into this game. I was very happy with our preparation during the week. I thought we took a step forward in that way. I think the direct result was you saw a team ready to play in the first half. Now I have to look at the tape. I don’t want to jump to complete conclusions and be result oriented, but we were all there and knew it was a flag fest. When I watch the film, I’m anticipating people or players potentially doing too much, which is common, very common thing when you lose a couple games in a row. You start to press. I was very, very happy with the way we prepared. I think guys were ready to play. Then a lot of stuff happened, which is the nature of football, so then I also look at the end of the game where we took a step forward in our resolve and how guys tried to finish the game when it’s — it’s a very, very frustrating process when you feel like you’re ready to play and you don’t get the direct results. I see it as — it hurts. It hurts the locker room. It hurts a lot of people. But it can be a step in the direction we want to go if we use it appropriately. Yeah, I was surprised. I think we’ve been — last week we were up in the numbers in penalties. We had started the season off pretty good in that regard, and they kind of piled up, definitely hurt us. Turnovers hurt us, and overall the tightness of the ship, which that’s what the head coach is there for, so you take that square in the eyes and you let the guys know that you’re going to bring a better effort next week.
Q: How tough is it that for the third straight week the quarterback who prepared most with the ones is out of the game…? How tough is that for the quarterback coming in? How tough is that for the offense for things to smoothly run?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, all of it, I guess, you can look at it as difficult. You can look at it as a reason for X, Y or Z. I challenge the guys not to. We have a lot of faith in all the players that we have on this team, and the quarterbacks that we’ve been working with since last April, any one of them we have high expectations to go execute and succeed. Now, of course it’s not ideal. You want the guys that get all the reps during the week to play, but you always know that that’s a possibility. I think — I’m going to demand that the team does not point at that to be a reason for what’s happened or a reason for the loss. I think that’s the easy thing to do. I think that’s the path of least resistance, and generally the path of least resistance doesn’t lend the results that an ambitious, convicted, all-in players’ team, organization wants. Yeah, there’s always difficulties and adversity within NFL football games. I thought we had the capability to overcome that, and we didn’t.
Q: We saw QB Skylar Thompson go out with a thumb injury and then came back on the sideline, but QB Teddy Bridgewater stayed in the game. Was Skylar able to come back into the game and play or did you just make that decision?
MIKE McDANIEL: No, he was — he wouldn’t have been physically capable to come back in so it was not any indication or decision based upon his play. I would have definitely stayed with him had he been able to proceed, but he was not.
Q: What’s the status of his thumb?
MIKE McDANIEL: You know, it’s a little early to tell. I know he was — the biggest issue was that he wouldn’t have been able to — he didn’t have any strength holding the ball, which is an issue when you’re trying to throw it. I’ll have to get a lot more information tomorrow. You don’t know with those type of things. I literally have no idea if it’s anything that’s going to be an issue for a while or if it’s something that will heal pretty quick. We’ll see. We’ll get more information on Monday.
Q: You mentioned last week that part of the reason why Skylar had a tough time was not taking starter reps and not working with the first team. How much of a problem was that today for Teddy having just cleared the concussion protocol on Saturday?
MIKE McDANIEL: I think the obvious answer is it does make it more difficult, but I don’t think Teddy nor any — my expectation, I know Teddy won’t, and my expectation for the team is that you don’t take that easy out, that you don’t say, well, shoot, man, we’re getting — it’s hard for us. It’s hard for everybody. Definitely not the ideal set of circumstances. It is unique to my NFL career with regard to the things that have happened probably in the last three weeks. Does that mean that because of that we’re unable to win the football game? It does not. I think the tape will be obvious to all the players. The hard part is when you invest, like I said — I was really pumped about the work week we had, and you don’t get the desired results. So you get to find out a lot about who you’re working with. Every indication that I’ve had since I’ve been in the building, I don’t have anything to worry about how players are — how the organization, how staff, how the coaching staff, how people are going to respond. We will find out if — that’s the great thing about the game of football. It checks you. There’s nowhere to hide and you work really hard, and as a team we fell short. It’s one of my favorite things about football, is that it’s not for everybody, and this is difficult, but so? We’ve had three games in a row where we’ve finished a game with a different quarterback than we’ve started with. And? I don’t think anybody has the mindset that, well, that’s the reason why we’re losing. We’re fully capable of winning this game. I think that’s obvious to everybody. It’s a simple, simple formula. You look at the tape. You don’t hide from it. And then you move forward and try to use the learning experience to get better in the middle stretch of the season, pushing forward to the end.
Q: Were T Terron Armstead or T Austin Jackson close to playing at all today?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, they were, and they’ve really done everything in their power. That’s one really cool thing that I’ve learned about both of those two players is how much they love to play the game. This was a circumstance where we came to a decision with both of them that it was in their best interest not to try to push through to go ahead and go with the guys that we went with, which our team was confident in.
Q: Defense did force a lot of three-and-outs, but no takeaways again. Losing the turnover battle 3-0 obviously difficult to win the game that way. Your assessment of what could be done better?
MIKE McDANIEL: No, I think as a team we need to play better complementary football. We really do, and utilize momentum. I think the defense took a step in the right direction for sure this week. But the number one indicator in wins and losses has been and forever always will be turnovers. When you’re minus-3, you’ve got to be pretty epic in other ways to try to come out on top, and we just didn’t have that really in our game this week. We’ve got to continue to stress it because it happens to a lot of teams. Almost every team during the season, you go through a lull of turnovers, whether it’s getting them or giving them up, and sometimes it snowballs into two, three games, but what you don’t do is deviate from the points of emphasis just because you haven’t gotten the results. You keep trying new things. I’ll be doing my best with the coaching staff to try to problem solve that, but if you’re trying to win more than you lose in this league, you’d better be on the plus side, and that’s just a fact.
Q: Do you have any updates on the injuries that we saw? We saw DB Keion Crossen leave. CB Nik Needham got carted off. LB Trey Flowers. Do you have any update on them?
MIKE McDANIEL: I don’t really. It would be a little too early to say. I know Nik (Needham) was in pain, that it felt real, but they’ve got to — I’m not quite sure if it was the way it was either higher ankle or Achilles. I know that, just by being on the field with him. He’ll get updated on that or I’ll get you guys an update on him specifically tomorrow. Keion (Crossen), I believe it was a knee and that definitely needs some more information before I’m comfortable speaking on that one.
Q: WR Jaylen Waddle (indiscernible)?
MIKE McDANIEL: You know, Jaylen went back into the game. Level of concern, it’s one of those things that I’ve learned about Jaylen, that if there’s a will, there’s a way. He is a tough kid. A real tough kid. He really didn’t give anyone an option whether or not to be in there at the end. He was pretty hard on himself with that last fumble. If he is, I’m not terribly concerned because if it’s legit maybe AC joint, which my non-medical expertise would have guessed. I don’t really have information on that yet, but regardless of whatever it is, I know he’ll be back sooner than later, and we have plenty of players on this football team that if he is gone for a week or two that there will be no batting of an eye in confidence. Those aren’t the things that are keeping us from where we’re going to go. It’s stuff that we can figure out within ourselves, and that’s all we’re going to be focusing on.
Q: What was the risk/reward that into going into the thinking of going for points at the end of the first half?
MIKE McDANIEL: At the end of the first half? You know, the thinking really is a lot of the stuff that when I’m making those decisions, it’s based upon the whole team and where we’re at, and I wanted to — there’s been some stuff that whether it’s true or not true, it feels on the field when you’re getting a slew of penalties, it feels like it’s out of your control. It always is in your control, but it feels, and knowing how the defense was playing, I think it was — we had the opportunity to get the ball back after halftime, so I saw it as a time that would really benefit the whole team if we could go get those points. I always do that based on what’s best for the team, fully knowing that it is result-based. Great calls if it works, terrible calls if it doesn’t. But I think at that point in the game, it would have best served us to have a little momentum going into halftime, and I’ll always make that decision if that’s the case.
QB Teddy Bridgewater (transcribed by ASAP Sports)
Opening statement:
TEDDY BRIDGEWATER: It’s unfortunate today, especially tough loss today. We can’t get that one back, but we can get the next one. Just got to get our minds right, learn from today, come to work tomorrow, watch the tape, see what we did well, see what we didn’t do so well, correct those things so that we can turn this thing around. It was great being back out there on the field in front of home fans. Obviously we’d like to win to just give them something more to cheer about, but it’s unfortunate today, especially even some of the things that happened today, but this is a tough team, man, a team that just faces adversity and embraces it. You watch as the game continued to go on, the defense continued to fight. Offensive guys continued to fight as the game went on. Things just didn’t work out for us. But we’ve still got more work to do
Q: With your situation during the week how prepared were you to get in there and how much work did you do during the week?
TEDDY BRIDGEWATER: The toughest part about this kind of situation is it’s similar to last week, what happened with Skylar (Thompson). I got an opportunity to just prepare mindset as I’m a starter this week, get all the reps in practice, and then boom, I went down first play. Skylar had to get in there and just run plays that he didn’t really rep physically. He had to throw a lot of mental reps. It was the same today for me. Limited reps, but it’s an offense that I know. It was just cool just getting back out there running around, competing, getting hit a little bit. But obviously we want to win these football games, and obviously we want to execute better, starting with me or whoever is out there. It was a tough situation to come into, but it was one that I was prepared for.
Q: This is the first time we’re speaking to you since you were cleared from concussion protocol. Obviously a unique situation with the spotter saying that you stumbled in the Jets game. Did you get an explanation why you were taken out? Did you think you stumbled and did you have any concussion symptoms the past few days, the past week?
TEDDY BRIDGEWATER: You know, I talked with the doctors and stuff, and different people throughout the week and those conversations I’d rather not talk about. But I was just happy to just continue to practice this week. Just happy I got an opportunity to go in the game today and who knows what’s in store.”
Q: Did you take any snaps before today?
TEDDY BRIDGEWATER: Yeah, I took a couple snaps Thursday.
Q: Can you describe what it’s been like for the quarterbacks as a whole? Four straight games where the guy who doesn’t prepare as the starter has to go into the game.
TEDDY BRIDGEWATER: Yeah, it’s tough, man, and it’s just our luck that the guy who didn’t get to prepare as a starter has to go in the game and play most of the game. But man, this game is so crazy. It just applies to life, also. You wake up one morning prepared to do one thing, and boom, something happens, and how do you adjust. And I think this team has responded well to adversity, to the bad luck in the quarterback room, if you want to call it that. But I think the team has responded well. And the good thing about this team is they have faith in anyone who’s out there, whether it’s Tua, Teddy, Skylar. Those guys show up to play. Hell, even if we had to put Thomas Morstead down there at quarterback, those guys would be ready to go to war. It’s a great locker room who just give their all for this team.
Q: How would you assess the job Skylar did?
TEDDY BRIDGEWATER: Skylar did a great job just executing his first game. It’s totally different from preseason, and for him to go out there and execute the way he did. I was very pleased with just some of the things he was able to do, whether it was competing or completing passes, keeping plays alive, scrambling, protecting himself. It was great just to watch the young old fella go out there and have fun.
Q: How do you feel your chemistry has been with the receiving corps? You had over 300 passing yards this game. How are you feeling with them?
TEDDY BRIDGEWATER: Man, it could have been better. Missed a couple throws. Jaylen (Waddle) on a crosser. The pass before the interception before the half, if I hit Jaylen in stride, who knows, he’s one on one with the safety; he might make him miss and run. But it was a low ball on his hip, had to go to the ground. You know, I want to be perfect when I’m out there, and no one has ever played a perfect game, but we take pride in just being accurate as a quarterback room, as a team. I take pride in being accurate just as a quarterback. Obviously the numbers say whatever, but trust me, there are some things that — some throws I would like to have back. Some ball placement things, intentional grounding, and probably just trying to do too much. So yeah, it was just cool, man, but I obviously want to play better.
Q: These new rules being what they are, first couple was a couple times today you got hit and you bounced right back up. It was almost as if to say “look, I’m fine.” Is that in the back of quarterbacks’ minds now that the spotter can see whatever and that’s it? Do you have to…
TEDDY BRIDGEWATER: Man, your pop-up game, got to be elite. You get hit, you’ve got to pop right up these days. I’ve always been a guy who takes his time getting up, mad that I might have gotten hit, slapped the ground frustrated, and then okay, next play. But can’t do that anymore. Today I was just popping up just so it wouldn’t happen to me again.
Q: When you walked off the field last week did you feel like you could play again and were you frustrated, angry? What were your emotions when you learned you could not go back in that game after one play?
TEDDY BRIDGEWATER: Yeah, frustration definitely sets in when you’re told you can’t play again because you spent so much time preparing for that game, just being focused and ready for that moment and then being told that you can’t go back in, yeah, you get a little frustrated. But obviously the league is just trying to protect us, and I respect it. Just being a guy who’s had multiple concussions and things like that. So I understand their viewpoint, but the competitive nature in me it’s like, man, I’m good, let me get out there. But I respect that they care about our safety.
Q: You know Dalvin (Cook) from (indiscernible)? What were you thinking when he ran for that touchdown?
TEDDY BRIDGEWATER: I was hoping he tripped. (laughter) Yeah, I was hoping he tripped over the turf or the grass. He’s a little bowlegged or parrot-toed, and sometimes when he runs, he trips, and I was hoping he had one of those moments where he tripped and our defense would get a stop. But hats off to the Vikings, man. They’re a great team. They’ve been playing some good football offensively, defensively, and we came up short today.
Q: Do you talk at all to Jaylen because of a fumble? It’s something that’s going to happen to every player, but you have seen it in the league. Do you go and talk to him? He’s still a young player.
TEDDY BRIDGEWATER: Yeah, you definitely just go tell him it’s going to be all right. These guys here, they’re wired different in a good way. Like they’re so competitive, and they want to perfect every play, every rep, and it’s fun to see that in these young guys like Jaylen where every play you’re getting 1,000 percent from him. So when he fumbles on a play like that, yeah, you’re mad, because of when it happened, when it occurred in the game, but man, if you look at it, he caught the ball and he ran, made a guy miss and just guy made a great play getting the ball out. But he was straining, and we always talk about straining. He was straining just to try to get to the end zone. Like these guys, man, they strain so much. Every time the ball is in their hands, they’re trying to just maximize every play, every rep, and I just love it. We’ll look at it like oh, man, we can’t fumble in that situation, but I’m just happy to see that strain out of him.
TE Mike Gesicki
(Despite the loss, you had a really good game. Just talk about getting a part of the offense. I’m sure that had to feel good for you and you lived up to the promise. You made sure you Griddy’d, probably the longest one ever.) – “I tried to enjoy that one. You have to maximize the opportunities when you get them, when they present themselves. I tried to do that today. But that’s been unfortunately the storyline, people talking about me fitting in the offense—do I fit? Do I not fit? It’s not about me. It’s not about me when I have one catch for one yard and we win and it is not about me when I go whatever the heck I went today. It’s not about that’s about that. It’s about whatever we can do to help this team win football games. If my number is called to make a play, I’ll do it.”
(With all the adversity you guys have faced, you still gave yourselves a chance in those closing minutes. How encouraging is that and is that something you guys can build off of and maybe take a positive of the loss?) – “Yeah. For me, I have been through this before, that’s what I look at. I am not going to dwell on a loss and (think), ‘Aw, man. We’ve lost three in a row.’ I look at the positives of things we did and guys that stepped in and made big plays. So, I think we got better today. I’m excited for the future of the Miami Dolphins and starting up tomorrow morning when we get in there and get into meetings because there’s a lot of positives of things we can correct and get better from.”
(Coming in on a Monday morning after a loss when you know you get your starting quarterback back in the next game, just kind of another pep in your step?) – “Yeah, absolutely. The other two guys who have played, played their tails off and made a ton of plays for us. But if he is back and Tua is ready to roll, then obviously we would love to have him back and we would love to go out there and make plays for him.”
CB Xavien Howard
(Is it frustrating? You were once 3-0, and now here you are, back to .500.) – “It’s football, man. It’s hard to win each Sunday. We just have to keep going, like I said, and keep getting better.”
(What was it like covering WR Justin Jefferson today? What’s it like going up against him?) – “I accept the challenge. We came to win, so I feel like I didn’t get the job done.”
(How quickly will you guys turn the page with QB Tua Tagovailoa coming back, Sunday Night Football? It’s a big week coming up.) “We have to watch film, see what we did wrong. We’ve got Tua (Tagovailoa) back. Like I said, it doesn’t matter who’s at quarterback – we still have to score touchdowns, make plays, special teams – everything. I challenge everybody, we’ve got to make plays.”
S Brandon Jones
(How tough is it to start a game so well and coming up short…?) – “It’s tough, it just shows you that in the NFL, the margin for error’s very slim. They’re a good team, obviously, and stuff doesn’t always go your way.”
(We know that injuries are a part of the game, it just seems like the injury bug is tearing you guys up. How mind boggling is that right now for this team?) – We’re big on next man up mentality. I think we have guys that when injuries happen, they come in and they do the best they can and everybody rides for the guys that have to come in through the injuries. But it’s part of the game.”
(If you had to put your finger on it, what are the things that you definitely want to work on immediately to get back on this winning streak?) – “Everything, especially on defense. We just have to play our brand of football, all three phases, and once we do that, I think our team will reconnect for sure.”
T Greg Little
(How hard is it when it’s another game where the quarterback at the end of the game is not the same one you start with? How difficult is it when the guys behind you are changing every game?) – “It’s really about everyone being ready to play. Everyone has to be prepared. You never know what happens out there, who might go down. So we don’t really think about that kind of stuff. We prepare and everyone prepares the same as a starter. That’s our job.”
(The quarterbacks – do they move differently, have a different cadence? Does that make it harder?) – “Life is a challenge. You have one play to get used to it and then you’re rolling. You can’t really think about who is back behind (you). We all have a job to do..”
LB Jaelan Phillips
(Obviously you guys talk about the next man up mentality all the time but how tough is it when you see CB Nik Needham go down and DB Keion Crossen go down? CB Noah Igbinoghene and CB Justin Bethel made some good plays but how tough is it to keep having to deal with this injury bug week in and week out?) – “Yeah, I mean it always sucks to see one of your brothers go down. We just feel for them. But like you said, (it’s the) next man up mentality, and I was proud of the way the guys stepped up today.”
(The pass rush got going today. How good was it to see you guys on that side of the ball and get to QB Kirk Cousins a few times and pressure him and take him down?) – “It was great. But we definitely got more. We’re going to keep working, keep practicing and hopefully the result will be different next time.”
(What’s the feeling in here now as far as the 3 losses? Frustration? Do you understand injuries play a part? How do you take these?) – “Definitely frustrated, but it doesn’t shake our confidence. Our eyes are onto the next week already, so we just got to get back in here tomorrow and get back to the drawing board and make the adjustments that we need to.”
LB Jaelan Phillips
(Obviously you guys talk about the next man up mentality all the time but how tough is it when you see CB Nik Needham go down and DB Keion Crossen go down? CB Noah Igbinoghene and CB Justin Bethel made some good plays but how tough is it to keep having to deal with this injury bug week in and week out?) – “Yeah, I mean it always sucks to see one of your brothers go down. We just feel for them. But like you said, (it’s the) next man up mentality, and I was proud of the way the guys stepped up today.”
(The pass rush got going today. How good was it to see you guys on that side of the ball and get to QB Kirk Cousins a few times and pressure him and take him down?) – “It was great. But we definitely got more. We’re going to keep working, keep practicing and hopefully the result will be different next time.”
(What’s the feeling in here now as far as the 3 losses? Frustration? Do you understand injuries play a part? How do you take these?) – “Definitely frustrated, but it doesn’t shake our confidence. Our eyes are onto the next week already, so we just got to get back in here tomorrow and get back to the drawing board and make the adjustments that we need to.”
WR Jaylen Waddle
(How tough was this one to swallow knowing you guys had the opportunities and just to fall short there at the end?) – “I think it’s very tough. We responded well. There are some plays we want back – I want back. But you got to give kudos to the Vikings; they made the plays when the needed to be made and came up with turnovers.”
(How is your shoulder? You looked like you landed awkwardly there at the end.) – “I’m going to be alright. I’ll be alright. It’s good.”
(Injuries are part of the game, but it seems like the injury bug is really getting you guys right now. If it’s not one thing, it’s another, especially on that side of the ball.) – “It’s just part of the game. It’s a physical game. It just comes with it – it’s part of our jobs. Hopefully we get some players back, get healthy and get things rolling.”
(On the play with the fumble, you were obviously trying to get yards after the catch. What happened there?) – “I tried to make a play. Ball came out. They recovered it. I wish I had that one back, but it comes with the game.”
(What are you feeling right now? How tough is this?) – “I think it’s very tough. Just knowing how hard we worked this week. Try to get back on track. We going to do the 24-hour rule. When we win, (or) we lose, we have 24 hours then we’re onto the next.”
(Another game where you finish with a different quarterback you started with, how difficult is it as a receiver knowing you got different guys going at you under center?) – “I don’t think it’s that difficult. We’re confident in all our players, all our quarterbacks to come in and handle business. I don’t think it’s that bad.”
(Getting QB Tua Tagovailoa back this week, will that sort of energize the locker room?) – “I feel like definitely – that’s our leader, that’s our captain. So having him out there battling with us, I feel like is good for the team.”
Coach Kevin O’Connell
Visitors Postgame Presser
Vikings 24, Dolphins 16
KEVIN O’CONNELL: Okay, obviously I felt like our football team — I give our sports performance staff all the support staff that helps our team prepare for these games, maybe not in an Xs and Os way but to come here and have that kind of resiliency and fight. Played a lot of snaps on defense, special teams got back to who they really are, and offensively not our best performance. Way too much of a struggle today, but to find a way to score some points to help our team win, I think it speaks to the mental toughness of those guys in that locker room. We can do a lot of things as coaches better to help our guys. But I’m really, really proud to be 5-1 right now. We talked last night about anyway it would take, any means
necessary to get to 5-1 going into this bye. We’ve learned a lot about our football team. We also have learned, coaches included, we’ve got a long way to go and a lot of room to improve, which I’m really, really excited about, not only getting that opportunity this coming week but to get our players back here, but they’ve earned the right to get some time off. They’ve battled for us. They’ve done everything we asked. I love this team and cannot wait to get our next opportunity together. Came out somewhat pretty clean injury-wise. Like I said, Tyler having that group ready, it was a significant temperature difference on our sideline, and our guys were ready for every snap, every next snap. We rolled guys, we played a lot of guys. Like I said, defensively we gave up some yards, but critical, critical plays. Only two penalties by our team. I think we had a mentally tough football team that will only improve from here.
Q. You said you wanted to roll some young players in today. Was that mostly weather related especially in
that first possession getting so many different guys in and out?
KEVIN O’CONNELL: Yeah, I think it has to be when you come here. Especially when they were able to sustain some drives and keep us on the field defensively. At times we felt a little bit bend but don’t break, but ultimately when you can hold a team to 16 points, and at one point hold a 24-10 lead in the fourth quarter, you feel good about where we’re at as a football team to manage that end of game situation. The three turnovers were huge, and like I said, the only two penalties in that environment gives you a
chance to play a clean football game. Probably creates a lot of hidden yardage in the game for them to maybe convert some plays but not necessarily convert 1st downs. I think our defense held them to 4 of 14. There’s a lot we’ll be able to pull from this tape to hopefully build upon with our defense, a lot of corrections and things we can do better, coaches included, with our offense, and like I said, I’m proud of our special teams, Ryan Wright. He worked way too much today obviously with the 10 punts, but he got himself a game ball, and hopefully we get him something cold to drink with as much work as he had today.
Q. How about the defense the last couple games. You always seem to come up with that key late play and
then today it was Smith forcing the fumble. Your thoughts on the way you keep doing that in games and
then that play.
KEVIN O’CONNELL: I don’t think it’s by accident. Those guys know the way we’re playing schematically, especially with guys like Tyreek Hill and Waddle and no matter who’s playing quarterback, those are explosive playmakers in a scheme. I have so much respect for Mike McDaniel and his ability to scheme up. Obviously similar defensive schemes that they see even in their division. It’s something we knew would be a challenge, and we wanted to — there was a couple times there where the ball almost got over our heads, and the guys were able to put a roof over it and not allow the big-play touchdowns, those
one-play catastrophic plays, and then for us to not turn it over on offense I thought was a big deal. We were far from to our standard, but to not have any turnovers, limit penalties, and Kirk to really run the show in a tough environment against a defense that applies pressure in a lot of ways, we were able to overcome, and like I said, find a way to win the football game going into our bye at 5-1.
Q. What do you think they were doing that made it so tough early on?
KEVIN O’CONNELL: Yeah, they played base defense to 11, which is not something we should really have to be taken out of the way we want to play, but they also have some really good players up front. So big, strong guys up front and taking you out of some of the core things you want to do. We tried to get big at times and had some success, worked in some play pass hits there where we were able to get our first touchdown with some keepers and Justin coming alive. I thought Kirk was consistent all day long. It was never going to be a game where we could just pin our ears back and just turn our offense loose because you second you do that here, I have some experience here where you could end up with a five or six turnover type of day. We wanted to account for a lot of things, maybe play it a little bit more
conservative and as we tried to find our footing offensively, our guys just battled, and then for Dalvin to pop that long run then, that’s an attrition type of run where our guys are leaning on him, leaning on him. They were a tough front to run the ball against, but you pop one like that and get yourself to a two-touchdown lead.
Q. Seems like you’ve been close a couple of games to (indiscernible). Is that just a reminder that you can
(indiscernible)?
KEVIN O’CONNELL: Yeah, it’s just a next-snap mentality, and trusting that we’re going to get guys covered up. We’ve got great movement on the play, kind of called a little bit more of wide zone type of play there.
I thought the first run of the drive was indicative of — led us into — he was downhill, shot out of a cannon, and then we come back with kind of a wide zone over there behind CeeDee and Ezra and obviously with CJ Ham in there again, I’m sure — I haven’t had a chance to see a replay of it, but I’m sure he was doing his job and then some like he always did, and then those receivers getting downfield covering people up. That’s the type of run, that cut, that’s a game-changing cut that only certain players in this league can make, and it was a critical run for us at a big moment in the game.
Q. Looked like you had a smile on your face before the long pass to Jefferson. Did you see that one popping?
KEVIN O’CONNELL: I did, yeah. We were kind of in the mix, in the midst of hunting that look with how they were playing him, and that base two, our 11grouping kind of made us have to protect the passer in some unique ways, and what we were able to do there was all on Kirk. He had some options at the line of scrimmage, and the second I saw him get to that play, I figured we had a pretty good chance to pitch and catch that one. Those two guys when they get a look like that are going to hit that 100 out of 100.
Q. What do you think about Patrick Jones?
KEVIN O’CONNELL: Yeah, huge. Two snaps and really he had a look in his eye this whole trip. It’s hard to explain. But I remember seeing him last night, came down in the elevator with him today at the hotel, and he was just a man on a mission. I’ve said from day one that we feel like we’ve got two really good starters, impact players in Zi and Danielle, but D.J. Wonnum has played really, really well. Unfortunately, just
couldn’t turn him over. He’s doing really well now, but wanted to give him the weekend to feel better, and then Pat Jones knew, hey, this is going to be my turn to really hold up, provide some real critical snaps for us to not have Danielle and ZB completely gassed at the end, and he goes out there and gets his first two career sacks, and I’m telling you, you could see the look in his eye early this morning, and great to see him go out and do that.
Q. Your sideline was hot; how did you approach that during the week? Did you talk to players about it? Did you not want to talk to players about it?
KEVIN O’CONNELL: No, we talked about it. I showed some examples of what it would look like. They somehow, some way at 1:00, at kickoff, their sideline is completely in the shade and you’re looking at probably a 25-degree difference. It was all about hydration. It was all about preparing our guys, not last night, not Friday night, it was an entire week-long process of making sure those guys were understanding what we were going to run into today, and then we had some great people on our sidelines with some
of the shading over the benches that can help, and then we brought in some cooling benches from kind of a local supplier. But everything you can do. You guys saw smooth I or Gatorade slush I see and different types of hydration and obviously some of the medical things you can do IV-wise.
We tried it all because we knew it would be like this.
Q. (Inaudible.)
KEVIN O’CONNELL: Not that I know of. I know there was a couple guys late defensively that were trying to avoid going into cramping, but the way they were rolling them, they were able to come over, get some fluids and go right back out there. I can’t say enough about Tyler and Uriah and those guys and the just way our players are prepared for multiple ways and challenges that come about during an NFL season, and heat and humidity and coming down here, it’s a winning edge for this team, and we were able to
at least, although not playing our best, we were able to overcome adversity, and our guys keep doing it. I’m so proud of this team, and we’re going to face many more days of adversity ahead, but we’ll continue to come together and find ways to win football games, and I think we’ve proven that.
Q. You’re 5-1 with a two-game lead in the division going into a bye week. What does that mean to you?
KEVIN O’CONNELL: What it means is I think we’re six games into our season. I told the team last night, by this time tomorrow, we’ll have six examples of who we are as a football team, and will we come out of this stadium 5-1 and be able to say we’re a little bit more of a third of the way through our season with different identities, sometimes it may feel like to Vikings fans, depending on what Sunday it is, but what I would say is we’ve got a tough resilient group that maybe doesn’t always play the most consistent, but they are willing and able to have each other’s backs in all three phases. We rely on one another, we mush each other and not one time did you see any finger pointing, any kind of negativity on our sideline. What you felt was just support and you felt like we were going to believe — we all believed we were going to win that football team. I feel like this team has great leadership. I feel like this team is tough. I feel like this team has the ability to win football games a lot of different ways, and we’re probably going to need to with the type of schedule we have the rest of the way, but I’m really excited about our group. I’m proud of our toughness mentally and physically today.
Q. Six wins facing (indiscernible) defenses have shown you including today, how well prepared do you think that makes you guys as an offense?
KEVIN O’CONNELL: I think it’s important that we can make note of just the different variations. I think there might have been one snap of base defense to 11 personnel, and we got it the entire football game. I’ve seen this before, I think when you have playmakers like we do and I think a scheme that we feel very strongly about, we’re always going to give us four quarters and give us some time, we’re going to find ways to put points on the board, but ultimately we’re also going to see some different defense from people than maybe they show coming into games and there’s some really good coaches in this league, there’s some really good defensive coaches on that sideline over there that I have a lot of respect for, and I tipped my cap to them early on in that game. They were able to obviously give us some tough, tough downs, and I put that on myself. I’m always going to try to find a way, and I think our guys will never feel me.
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