Tampa Bay - 20, Minnesota - 17
Q. Congratulations, Coach. It looked like you guys struggled offensively in the beginning, first half at least, but then maybe caught some rhythm, and of course the defensive stops.
A. Schematically they gave us a hard time in the beginning. They did some things we had to get used to. I thought the adjustments they made at halftime were outstanding. We start moving the ball some. We stuck with it.
These guys are gritty. It's a tough win, tough place to play.
Q. Very high powered offense you guys went up against. Justin Jefferson was quite the challenge, but your defense was able to get a number of takeaways. Can you talk about their performance?
A. Three turnovers are big. He got some plays. I don't think you can ever stop that guy. We kept him out of the end zone, so that was a plus. He's one of the greatest to play.
Guys were gutsy. We got off the field in the second half, and we made some gutsy stops. I thought they pulled through.
Q. You signed Chase McLaughlin because you wanted his strong leg. He tied a career high. Could you have drawn that up any better for him?
A. Couldn't have drawn it up any better. That's what we got him for. He was accurate, got it through the uprights. He made a helluva kick.
Q. Your quarterback before that last drive was 3 of 12 in the first half. What can you say about his ability to put all that behind him, the offense to put all that behind them, and have such a productive two minutes and second half?
A. Baker is gutsy. He's tough. The guys stayed behind him. The great thing is, when he was having problems, he wasn't turning it over. He was giving our defense, kept them in the game. He kept getting out, but he wasn't turning the ball over.
He stuck with it. He made some gutsy runs at the end, and the offensive line came through for him. The receivers showed up, and it was a great team win.
Q. You told us before you don't care what the outside has to say, but a lot of people didn't give you guys a chance for this game or even for this season. What did today, you think, tell them?
A. I don't know what it told them. It told us what we knew all along, we can go in and win the ballgame. If I paid attention to it, I would actually have something to say, but I don't.
Q. What do you think of the job Devin White did today?
A. He did a helluva job. He did a great job covering that screen game, finding him high. Both him and Lavonte both, they were flying and making some plays that for anybody else that ball would have gotten out of there. That was a big part of their ballgame. Something we really wanted to try to slow down a little bit.
From a call standpoint, he did a helluva job. When he's out there, he we're a better team.
Q. Christian Izien made a couple of big plays. You get that from that rookie, and you get Trey Palmer for the touchdown. Were you impressed with those two rookies in particular?
A. Like I said, they're going to play. They're good football players. You just didn't know their names. They're making themselves household names right now. You don't just make first team nickel as a free agent without being a good football player.
Coach Ross does a great job with them. Coach Johnson does a great job with them. He made some great plays.
Q. One game doesn't obviously make a season, but it's clearly better to get the season off on the right foot. In the vein of that, what does this do for this team right now?
A. It's a great win today. We've got to move on tomorrow, but it's just good to know you won't go 0-17.
Q. (Inaudible) the calf injury. Do you have an update on that?
A. No update. I know he came out because of it. I'll check on it after this.
Q. Any idea if it's more severe than the first?
A. I have no idea.
Q. That first drive coming out of halftime, nine minutes, that was a beefy drive. What did that do for your offense and being able to sustain that and end up with seven?
A. The confidence was great. The continuity in the drive, we kept them out there on the field a long time, and that goes a long way in the last part of the ballgame. That was big for us, coming out, controlling the ball, giving the defense a rest. I thought the defense played a lot of plays in the first half.
Offense came out in the second half and made some plays and consistency and kept them on the field. That took a lot of time off the clock.
Q. It was kind of hard getting the ground game going. What did you notice? What jumped out to you as to why maybe they had some challenges there?
A. We knew they were going to stop it early on. Everybody can play the run in the first and second quarter, but they stayed with it and grinded it out. We've got some good guys up there.
We stuck with it. We got some hard runs. I thought Rachaad and Sean made some tough plays in there, and I thought Baker scrambled when he had to. It's a tough team to run against with the scheme they're playing.
Q. With Chase McLaughlin, was that an automatic decision to kick the field goal, or did you wrestle with the idea of it perhaps being too long?
A. We didn't think it was too long. He's been nailing it. Given the chance, that was a normal deal to kick it that far considering there was no wind or nothing.
Q. What was your mindset when he was lining up to make the kick and he makes contact with the ball? There's a long way to go on that.
A. Like I said, he's been making them in practice. We expected him to make the kick. That's what we signed him for, and that's what he did.
Q. Can you talk about Baker? You mentioned the gutty runs he ran, I think, for a first down and got some yards under his legs. That last throw to Godwin, to hold the ball the final five minutes of the game is not easy to do.
A. Not at all, that was huge for us. Getting us in the right plays, Baker in the second half adjusting to what they were doing was huge for us as well. He played a gutsy, mentally tough ballgame, and to make that throw at the end to Chris right there without even flinching -- he was hit a few times, but he stuck with it. He stayed with it.
Baker's a winner. He's done this before, and the guys really love to rally around him.
Q. What does it say to you about your team? A few years ago, this team was notorious for blowing leads and couldn't come back to win games. The fact that they were able to do that with so many new pieces, new quarterback, so many young guys you're having to count on, what does it say about this group?
A. It's week one. They're still growing together. They're resilient if nothing else. We had a lot of time together in camp.
I think the trip up to New Jersey helped us. We spent three or four days, and we got to spend some time around each other, and they grew as a team. They're continuing to grow as an team. I really like where they're at, and we've got to just keep getting better.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports