Vikings 23, Packers 7
MATT LaFLEUR: Obviously wasn't very good. That starts with me. Definitely have to have a better plan for our team and get our guys better prepared. Certainly give the Minnesota Vikings a ton of credit. They came ready to play. They obviously had a great plan, and we knew going into this game that stopping their lead dogs really offensively and defensively were going to be an important part of it, and certainly we didn't get that done.
Anytime Jefferson has almost 200 yards receiving and two touchdowns, and then on the other side, I think they had four sacks or whatever. Didn't stop their big-time playmakers and allowed them to make big-time plays. If you do that, you're not going to win very many games in this league.
Q. Was there any thought to actually (indiscernible)?
MATT LaFLEUR: Yeah, it doesn't necessarily always work that way in terms of -- if you just commit to playing man coverage the whole game, sure, you can do it. But they do a nice job of putting them in different positions, whether it's in the slot, whether it's motioning. It seemed like he was in motion quite a bit, just moving him all over the place. You've got to give them credit. They put him in premier spots and attacked our coverage well, and certainly we had a couple blown coverages, as well, where we're cutting him loose, and if there's anybody you don't want to cut loose, it's No. 18.
We'll go back and look at the tape. Obviously, again, we have to coach so much better. This is two years in a row where we've come out week 1 and have not looked prepared.
I think all of us will look inward and we'll make the necessary corrections because there's no time to feel sorry for yourself in this league and we know we're going to battle a Chicago Bears team that's going to be coming in flying after off a big-time upset of the 49ers.
Q. How much did that Christian Watson drop and the 4th-down stop change the tenor of the game?
MATT LaFLEUR: Yeah, certainly those are plays you definitely want back, but those happen in this league, and you've got to capitalize when you get those opportunities, and we didn't. But to say that play or the goal-line stand made the difference, I think that's unfair to say.
Q. How long did you have that first play (indiscernible)?
MATT LaFLEUR: I actually thought about it I want to say yesterday or two days ago and just wanted to showcase his speed. He certainly ran pretty fast on that play. We've just got to finish the play.
Q. When did you know that you weren't going to have Dave and Elton, and how much does that complicate your play calling when you don't have your premier guys at those spots against their premier guys?
MATT LaFLEUR: Yeah, like we've said all along, Dave and Elton are doing everything they can do and are day-to-day, but certainly it does put a little bit of strain, but that's not an excuse. We've got to adapt. We've got to adjust. We obviously didn't do that, and we've got to be better.
Q. What type of impact did Za'Darius have on the game tonight?
MATT LaFLEUR: I think a tremendous impact. He had a critical sack fumble. He had another sack on a 3rd down.
You know, we knew Z was going to be amped up and ready to go, and he's a great player. We got to witness that firsthand for a couple years. He made a huge impact in our football team and our ability to win games.
He's a guy that you've got to account for on every play, and it does make it tough when there's two creatures out there that are pretty good.
Give them credit; they had a great scheme. They weren't going to try to give up big plays. They definitely kept a lid on top of us for the most part, and when you do that and you're trying to throw some big-time plays, that allows sometimes the pass rushers to hit home.
Q. It seemed like one of the areas your offense had success was (indiscernible) yards per carry. (Indiscernible.)
MATT LaFLEUR: Yeah, absolutely. Anytime Aaron Jones comes out of the game with eight touches, that's not good enough, and AJ Dillon, what did he have, 10 or so? That's not good enough.
Q. After what you saw from the defense all camp long, were you surprised how today's performance went?
MATT LaFLEUR: Yeah, I would say so, but you've also got to give Minnesota a lot of credit. We knew that they've got some really good players, starting with the offensive line. I don't think they get the credit they deserve. I think that everybody knows about the two receivers; Irv Smith is a hell of a tight end; and you've got Dalvin Cook and Madison to worry about in the backfield; and Kirk has been playing at a high level for a really long time in this league. That is on paper, and then they went out there and executed.
That's a really good offense. I've got a lot of respect for Kevin O'Connell and Wes Phillips in terms of their ability to coach, and I know where they come from, and I know they're really great coaches. That can be a deadly combination.
Q. What Dave said about the defense on the offensive side, any surprises that that was kind of the case today a little bit?
MATT LaFLEUR: No, I mean, you never want to go out there in a football game and put up that kind of a performance. We've got to look at the plan that we had, making sure that we're putting our players in a good position. I think we just talked about it in terms of AJ Dillon and Aaron Jones, how important they are to our football team. We've got to get them more involved, whether it's in the run game, pass game, however it may be.
But we've got to lean on those guys.
Q. What happened on that 4th and goal at the 1? Obviously Za'Darius came down, but was there anything else at play on that one?
MATT LaFLEUR: Yeah, we had it was an RPO zone read type of play, and they did a nice job defending the pass portion of it, and we gave it, and Z did a good job crashing. He's unblocked on that play, and he made the play.
Q. Did you have a line on that play on 3rd down (indiscernible)?
MATT LaFLEUR: Yeah, no, that's something that we were talking about prior to the 4th down play is if we got inside the 3-yard line that we were going to go for it. We had a couple different plays dialed up. Certainly wish I would have called one of the other ones but didn't. We've got to learn from it, and we've got to be better because that was something that has definitely hindered us if you look back in the past to last season, as well, where we were not finishing in the red zone.
Obviously got to do a better job of putting our guys in better position.
DraftScripts by ASAP Sports.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports