Vikings 23, 49ers 17
A: Really proud of our football team. When you play the defending NFC Conference Champions, you know you are signing up for a 12-round heavy weight fight. We talked a lot about play style, we talked about how we want to play as a football team, regardless of who we are playing. I really want those things to show up, because we've made such an emphasis on it. We've built our team around it this year. There is a lot of examples around the tape, but first and foremost I want to start out and thank our crowd. I thought it was absolutely spectacular. The energy from the jump, when we needed them in the third quarter, converting some of those third downs on that last long drive for the field goal. You just kind of felt them willing us further and further to go get this thing done. So I want to complement our crowd. I obviously love, love, love our fans. I love this team.
You guys, it takes a result sometimes for people to see it, and I understand that, and I'm very proud of this result today, but it is just one game against a really good team, but I'm most proud of what led into this football game. There are a lot of individual performances we could talk about, and I'm sure we will, but this was the epitome of building a football team with a mind-set through many, many months ago of what we wanted to play like, how we want to battle and ultimately how we wanted to come together and find a way to win a football game.
I thought our defense was fantastic. I thought our O-linemen, guys that had been banged up throughout the week battling, rushing over what ended up to be 6.1 yards a carry, phenomenal against that defensive front, and couldn't stop without mentioning Justin Jefferson and Sam Darnold. Jets, would have loved to have him for the whole football game, got knocked out there, I will give you an update on him in a little bit. Like to finish with Sam Darnold against his former team, you know, just -- the amount of work that goes into that position on your quarterback journey when everybody decides that you cannot play. We always believed in him, and felt awesome to watch him go do that thing so really proud of Sam Darnold.
Q: Kevin, when you are talking about play style how much is it in the back of your mind that you see this team --
A: You know it's coming. You know they're on the schedule and they literally are -- I give Kyle, his coaching staff and all those players so much credit for what they have been able to sustain for so long, and they do it by playing football the right way.
And imposing their will on opponents, and this team is -- that's a fantastic football team.
If you want to go any in this league, especially in our conference, we know, it's proven, last year and a few before that, that it's going to be a team on your schedule whether they were on it initially or not. You're going to have to eventually play 'em. We just got to get the first crack at 'em in week two.
But I can't say enough about what Kyle does, that organization, John Lynch. They do everything the right way and you know you're signing up for everything you possibly can give on a Sunday afternoon. At US Bank Stadium when you welcome them to town.
If you can't tell, I'm absolutely exhausted. I know our team is, but that's what this is about. I love this football team already. Just because it might seem early, but there is so much, that went into this up until today's performance.
Q: Kevin, that last drive by Sam (Away from mic.)
A: Yep. He's playing quarterback and playing it at a really high level. Some huge third down conversions. We were able to kind of piece together some plays there. A lot of guys taking reps. I want to highlight Keenan McCardell and that receiver group, because we're already down Jordan. We're already down T.J. Plays are built with No. 18 as a focal point. We got a lot of double coverage today on him, and he was able to have his impact.
But then when he goes down there is so many moving -- it's musical chairs. I rely on those guys in that moment to try to piece together some plays on the fly there, and I thought -- only for a field goal, but I thought it was our biggest drive of the day, for sure.
Q: Can you give us a preliminary update on Jefferson?
A: I can. So it was a quad contusion. I think Fred might have went flying in to make a play, like he does a lot, and Justin was I think working on the run game on the backside and just kinda got a -- not intentional but got a little leg-to-leg contact on that. It's pretty sore, but he's already up and moving and we'll just treat that thing and hopefully he will be day-to-day, and we will see how his status looks for next week.
Q: What's Dallas --
A: Dallas Turner. Just to update, late there, felt a little thing in his knee. We think it -- we will have to evaluate it, but more than likely not going to be something I don't think will be long term, but always careful to overanalyze, you guys know this. I am certainly not a doctor, so I'm just going off the updates quickly there, but it did happen late.
We will keep you guys updated through the week
Q. Take us through the two big throws. I know he probably made more, but the long touchdown to Jefferson also the back shoulder down the middle to --
A: Yeah.
Q: Which is most impressive to you as a quarterback coach?
A: The 97-yarder was one of the prettiest throws I've seen. It actually goes back to a play we ran on them last year. Similar presentation, similar everything. That one has been in the hopper for a little bit. Did not know I would call it, backed up with our feet in the paint a little bit.
Great protection in that moment. Elite execution by both Speedy -- I think Speedy would have been a long hit as well, depending on who Sam chose, and he chose the right one launching that thing as pretty of a throw as I've seen, especially in those circumstances.
And then Speedy's play style finish to go get the block to get Justin in the end zone. So many examples of awesome stuff by our guys, and the other throw, I'm glad you asked about that. That's a throw that a quarterback makes and if he doesn't make that one, don't know where that ball is going, we were kinda letting Speedy take the middle on that thing. He's got to read coverage, and it presents itself, and Sam put it in the only plays you could.
That is big-time quarterback play for all those folks that want examples of it. I think we got two weeks of some pretty tangible examples of some quarterback play from Sam Darnold. I'm really proud of him.
Q: Kevin when that 97-yard play is in the air, what are you thinking?
A: Oh, man, it seemed like it was in the air forever, so you're just hoping -- once I saw the look, pre snap, I'm not a big throw my hands up in the air when the ball goes up if I think I have something, but I was pretty darn close on that one, just knowing we got the look, the great execution, the great protection, and finding Justin like that in the moment where we need a play to kind of reset, reset the whole game, and I thought the fact that we were able to get the lead and not give it back was a real credit to our guys.
Q: How important is Justin's ability to finish there, doesn't get tackled at the 35, doesn't get pushed down at the 5?
A: Yeah, I think its over 400 receptions, 6,000 yards now. Tied for the fastest ever to do it. Justin Jefferson is an amazing football player, but he's an even larger competitor. I always know -- I can see the look in his eye -- it's go time. He sees coverage. I know there are a lot of great players in this league. But without Jordan and TJ right now, Justin is going to see a healthy amount of defenders around him, especially on those weighty downs.
Almost had Speedy for a touchdown there early in the game, based on how they had the double on Justin and we were maybe a little late, maybe a little soft with the throw, but there are so many times -- and that's why I want to credit Sam. You can't prepare a guy for coverage that you see. We anticipated it. It's not something that they have shown a lot of, but I always know in my back pocket that we're going to see the Justin Jefferson coverages, and going on two years and two games now, it's been something we have all grown and are working through, and just the execution by Jets alone is fantastic, and so fortunate to coach him.
Q: Kevin, end of the last drive with the first half, Sam had the interception and you still being aggressive and going after points there, is that another sign of the trust that you have that--
A: Yeah, we wanted to make sure they didn't touch it again, so we huddled in the middle, and I was hoping for 3 on the drive if we could get it, and knowing we were getting the ball coming out of half. And we went three and out to start the half, a weird intentional grounding there on the second down, but I thought it was a big example of Sam, just one play at a time. You know he tried to force it over the best linebacker in football who can sometimes look like he's seven feet tall out there. Might have had Jets on the backside but it will be a great learning example of just great quarterback play.
There is nothing wrong with forcing yourself to say no sometimes on a look where it wasn't the intended look, and maybe we gotta progress and put the ball in play. Loved our screen execution with a chance to put the great many away, and Aaron Jones is right behind C.J. Ham as somebody I totally trust with the ball in his hands, and he was sniffing the goal line again, and who was it, again, Fred Warner popping that play out. When you are an All-Pro you're going to be making plays all over the field, and he certainly had a chance to do that to help keep them in the game when we had a chance to stretch that lead a little bit more.
Q: Kevin, when you are taking that 97-yard shot, what goes into your thinking?
A: There is some self-talk that goes into that, Ben. There is definitely some self-talk of understanding it's the momentum of the opportunity is there for both teams when your heels are in the paint like that, not even snapping the ball and really think we were, what, 3 yard line. So you are relying on a lot of people, a lot of time on task to trust 11 guys to go execute kind of a designer kind of play like that, just huge, huge play for our team.
Q: Jones comes into the season as maybe your third or fourth outside linebacker. Now he's got four sacks in two weeks and what does that say about him?
A: The depth of that room and Mike Pettine coaching them up, with Imarjaye, Flo understands what he's got. I mean, Van Ginkel almost ended the game on another one, just sniffing out what their answer might be to the pressure look down there in the red zone.
Every single guy in that room I look at as a guy that can start and play every snap if we needed him to. We just have the luxury -- Clay has put together a roster and we gotta a bunch of plays that can all play, and we're really using those guys. I want to credit Flo for how he's using them. Cash had a huge game, IP was physical all day long. That's a tough out outfit to defend for quarters.
I know we had 7.5 yards per play offensively, but we still only had 54 plays, either short field, we convert that interception into the third down, it's a one-play drive, and then, you know, the blocked punt. We're right back on the field and find a way to get some points there.
So those guys have been on the field for a little bit more snaps than I'd like. We gotta continue to grow from a ball possession standpoint, but that's probably the hardest team in the league to do that with.
Our goal coming into the game was to break even or better on the turnover margin. We're 19-0 in the regular season when we do that, and that shows you it's a winning formula when you pair that with what we want our play style to look like.
Q: (Away from mic.)
A: I did. I got a good look at that fumbled punt, too. I saw that ball all over the place as well. That's what good football teams, two good football teams -- I told our team last night I think we're a really good football team. And although others might be talking about us potentially and whatever that means. You can tell a lot of jokes about potential versus reality. I know that. I expect our team to prepare in the same way. I expect us to go out there and systematically build game plans and execute them, in the end compete our tails off every single week with those principles that we built this team around.
And it's only going to get harder, the journey is going to get difficult. We're going to be punched in the mouth a lot along the way. We've got to be ready to overcome adversity, but there is no group I would rather do that with than the coaches and players in the locker room.
Q: What did you think you were getting from Cashman when you signed him in the off-season, and what are you seeing in the reality?
A: Great athleticism, burst speed, flies around, instinctive, good cover player, good tackler, and what we expected coming in and he has confirmed is great communicator. That is not an easy job. In fact, both of our green dots on offense with Sam and Cash on defense, Flo and I, we're doing a lot of things. There is a lot of things where we're checking things, getting to different personnel groupings, offense, defense. The communication today I thought was elite, to go along with the elite effort by our crowd today to make it extra difficult on those guys and we want to play well at home and we've got a tough home schedule, but to have our defense humming and playing like that and piece it together how we want to play offensively, really, really good start here at US Bank Stadium. Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports