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 11 grouping 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.
DraftScripts by ASAP Sports.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports