Vikings 29, Bears 22.
A. Very hard-fought, tough football game. I thought across the board, our team continues to show levels of grit and resiliency that should bode well for us. Don't necessarily think we found that four-corner of consistent ball that we're looking for, but as we've learned, it's not easy to do in the NFL against teams with different scheme variations and a competitiveness. That's okay, but we're still going to continue to work tirelessly to have that.
But once again, very proud of the way Kirk battled until the end, leading us back once again to get the lead back in the fourth quarter of a game as well as our defense not only getting the strip sack there but also then able to take the football away to allow us to take a knee for a victory in front of our great fans.
I thought they were phenomenal again today, three divisional home games down in front of them being a huge part of willing us to these victories late. You feel the belief out of them.
Just want to give you guys a quick update on a couple injuries. Ty Chandler suffered a broken thumb and he'll be out. We'll let you guys know timeline-wise, but we'll get that fixed up, and then Akayleb Evans is in the concussion protocol, so we'll absolutely follow everything from a protocol standpoint what absolutely is in the best interest of the player and get him back when he is medically cleared.
Then just to give one more update on Louis, he did arrive back to the twin cities last night. He's doing well. He's in great spirits. He told me he's going to be watching the ballgame. I'm going to give him a call as soon as we get out of here, and hopefully we get him back into our facility at some point soon to get him around our guys.
With that, I'll open it up to you guys.
Q. You're in first place in the division at this point after five games. Does it mean anything right now?
A. No, it really doesn't. I just think it just means that we're 4-1 after five games. We've learned a lot about our team through five games, but I think what we've learned should really help us do two things in my mind: Have confidence moving forward that we can win football games that are hard-fought and competitive in this league, but ultimately that we can still continue to chase consistency across the board playing our philosophical way that we think we can win a lot of football games with.
I can obviously do better for our team, making sure that I can help with some of those lulls throughout the game, but inevitably they are going to happen in this league. That's part of NFL football, and we'll continue to chase that and push our players, but the best part about it is they're the ones talking about it, not so much us needing to be banging them over the heads with it. They are telling me, our leadership is telling me what we're striving for, so I feel good about it at some point it's out there for us.
Q. You win the coin toss, you take the ball for the first time. What went into that?
A. Yeah, I just thought we knew we wanted to play -- a lot of the things we talked about on Wednesday and Friday with you guys, I just wanted to be aggressive, but there's no rule that says that you can't try to set the tone to play complementary football with your offense.
We've got so much confidence in our quarterback, our group, our coaching staff on offense to help put together a great plan that the easy part is really calling the plays and watching our guys have the plan come to life. I thought we were really good on 3rd down. Kirk was dialed in from the jump, had a great rhythm to him. They kind of morphed throughout the day how they were defending us a little bit, and he adjusted seamlessly for a team record 17 straight completions early on, and then I could have done a better job helping our offense out a couple times there when we were unable to get points, and I think Kirk would like to have that keeper throw back that was intercepted.
But for the most part, it was an aggressive decision. I know the analytics folks might get angry with me at times for stuff like that, but when it works out in our favor, it's obviously a good thing, and we'll obviously circle back and make the decision we think is best for our team each and every week.
Q. What went into the decision on the 3rd and 5 at the end to take off and run?
A. Huge play, yeah, I thought it was just a huge play, 12 of 15 on 3rd down for the day, and our quarterback deserves a ton of credit for that, as well as the O-linemen up front giving him time, and then our guys consistently winning on the perimeter. Kind of a mix of man and zone, some disguised man that you've got to react to post-snap. Really playing quarterback today as far as playing the game post-snap, throwing completions, being accurate, and then the details of our guys, whether it's Irv or K.J. or obviously Justin and Adam getting vertical yards after catch.
I just thought there was a bunch of hidden yardage in this game that you'll go back and see, that really it's a great testament to our players and their ability to understand how we're being defended and then as it adjusts throughout the game, they're a really smart group.
Q. The exotic plays that you called, I'm wondering if we can read anything into that, that you feel a step better about your offense and how it's executing.
A. Yeah, you know, I wish we could have got a little bit more out of that flea flicker screen. But it's all situational for me. Sometimes those plays are going to come up in early downs, early downs no-huddle, and they're going to be chunks we need to get back. We were in kind of a long yardage situation right there after a penalty. We went back to, whatever it was, 2nd and 10.
I think our team can handle a lot because our quarterback can handle a lot. We're trying to find that right balance between giving them the tools for success and then ultimately allowing them to play within the offense we want to be with great comfort and confidence in what we're doing, and it's really about all 11 and how they're executing. It allows us to continue to build on where we're at. We've got a long way to go, five games in, but we're really seeing some of our philosophy come to life.
Q. When you look at a game like this when you're up that big in the first half and say, this is one that should turn into a relaxing win, or is it just kind of the nature of the league where a lot of it is going to come down to the last couple plays?
A. I think it's both. I think there's some things that I go back to and can point to that maybe could have helped contributed of those early-down kind of negative runs that kicked us behind the chains and then ultimately led us to kind of need to be a little bit more conservative with some of those 3rd down calls. But like I said, 12 of 15, we were able to battle back from some of those longer yardage situations and at least give ourselves a chance, couple chances at field goals there that didn't work out, but ultimately I've just got to continue to do a better job being razor sharp for our guys for four quarters, and that starts with me. I want to set the tone for our group because I've got so much confidence in our guys, what we're putting out there offensively, defensively and special teams to go perform.
Q. You mentioned the 17 for 17 with Kirk, but they were also like I think almost every one of those was to a pretty open receiver. Are you seeing an evolving nature across the board of understanding of scheme or execution of scheme or was that just a good match-up for you guys, or why was there so many open --
A. Yeah, I think it has to do with I think Justin. Really kind of as the game went on there, Justin was able to attack some one-on-one coverage early on, and then they kind of settled into a little bit different philosophy defensively, and that's what I meant by Kirk making that seamless change to understand what the picture was looking like pre-snap, possibly post-snap, change into a different defense, and then ultimately the respect that people have for our skill players. They're playing so fast, they're running off the ball, and then Kirk being decisive like that, it leads to great chances and examples of yards after catch.
You don't have to throw it over people's heads all the time to generate explosives. Some people just don't allow that, and that's when we kind of have to lock into a mode of all five eligibles coming to life, attacking coverage within depth, and our guys just have done a tremendous job.
We've learned from some early times during the season where maybe me especially have learned to kind of adjust in the real time and just let our guys play football.
Q. Were you aware that was a team record, 17 in a row, and are you aware when it was going on that, hey, he hasn't had an incompletion?
A. Yeah, somebody told me at halftime. I had no idea. It just felt like he was playing really well and the ball was coming out. Very decisive and really taking advantage of the plan that we kind of put together.
He's going to continue to have comfort, and also continue to have a say in what we do offensively. I want him comfortable with not only the plays I do call but him and I spend a lot of time together, and if there's plenty of them that I can take a red pen to and gone to the old-play graveyard, that's okay, too, but I want whatever comes out of my mouth on game day for him to have ultimate clarity because where he's at and where he's headed in this offense, I feel very, very good about Kirk Cousins.
Q. How would you assess how your defense played today? Seemed like they continued to bend but didn't come up with big plays in big moments?
A. Yeah, I thought it was kind of a back-and-forth there a little bit, a couple loose plays. They kind of helped extend some drives for them, but I thought they were physical up front. I thought Ed did a great job kind of mixing personnel to try to take away what we thought was coming with different personnel groupings, saw some different guys in there at times, both on the front and at the -- in the secondary and linebackers, just to try to fit with how we want to play and turn guys loose in those situations. I thought that contributed to the strip sack there towards the end of the game, and then ultimately Cam going to get the ball.
Just like offensively, there's a lot we can do better. Special teams is the same. I thought we could be cleaner there. But I think for the most part, complementary football means a lot of things, and sometimes it means picking each other up or playing off of the momentum of those other sides and just continue to want to see more consistency out of our group, but it's great to be able to say that after another win here at U.S. Bank.
Q. Kevin, Adam was saying that you spent a lot of the off-season really emphasizing execution late in games. What do you see in this group coming together that has allowed them to just keep their heads about them and even whether things are going good or bad to finish like you have with some of these games here?
A. Yeah, I think especially for our offense, we've got some guys that have played a lot of football together and learned a lot along the way about each other. The scheme is one thing, but what allows a lot of that to come to life is my comfort not only in Kirk as our quarterback, but those guys up front to give him enough time, and then our guys' execution. Very similar play to what we had, a little bit different variation, but it's a very similar play even at the end of the half that K.J. catches there, gets the yardage we need and we show that as long as the defender doesn't knock the ball out of our hands, we're going to at least have a chance to kick a field goal at that point. Those are little plays that although it didn't work out, I care about the process at which we've continued to show great understanding of how to close out halves, how to be aggressive at the end of halves, but also go win a game when you have to, however you have to do it, and I think that bodes well for our team in the future.
Q. How do you feel about being 3-0 in the division, and how weird is it all your home division games are now over and all the road ones are late in the year?
A. Yeah, we talked a lot to our team in training camp about we're going to get three opportunities to play in the greatest home environment in the NFL against divisional teams to start the season. Let's make sure we use that. So I'm proud of our guys for doing that. I'm proud of our fans and what they've been like for us here at home, like I said, willing us to some of these victories, and just being in a tough, tough environment to come in and play at for a road team.
Now we'll take our home games whenever we can get them, but we've got to be able to, like we did last week, travel and take our outfit on the road. We've got to go try to win a lot of football games on the road against some really tough teams.
Q. You mentioned the Dantzler play at the end. He starts running but then he goes down. I know that's small in the overall scheme of things --
A. It's not small to me.
Q. To what extent do you kind of coach that and talk about that? We've seen games around the league go awry after that point sometimes.
A. Yeah, Ryan Cordell, Mike Pettine, they do a great situational masters meeting every single week for our team, and it's very, very important, no matter how little or how little time we have in a stressful busy week coming off of a long trip. We've got to have that meeting because we have a saying, the tape makes itself, because every Sunday in this league you can watch teams win and lose games with little decisions that they make, when they have the ball in their hands, when they don't, how to get it back, how to manipulate the clock, how to be great at the end of the two-minute and at the end of the first half.
But I think those guys do a great job teaching, and our players are -- Friday morning early, you look up there and you've got guys on the edge of their seat just wanting to learn football, and I think it's a huge part of what we do here, and like I said, Ryan Cordell has been phenomenal with me on game day as well as with our team, with Mike Pettine right there with him.
Q. Cam Dantzler has been coming off plays the last couple weeks. Is this something you saw coming?
A. I just think Cam is a talented player, and I just continue to tell him, be confident in your abilities. You can get around the football when we're competitive and trying to be tight in our coverage and trying to fit into the scheme and our disguise, but ultimately go play football and be physical. He's been great in the run fit. He's been great tackling. Pat P, as well. Those guys are a huge of us being able to hold our shells but still play a lot of single high coverages because we're asking them to do a lot of different jobs. But at the end of the day, making tackles and getting the ball out and being phenomenal, Pat P blocking a field goal earlier this year, almost had another one today, I like where those guys are at, and we'll continue to mix our scheme up, build as the season goes on, and I'm proud of the way Cam played. That's why I gave him a game ball today.
DraftScripts by ASAP Sports.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports