Vikings 34, Texans 7
A. Credit to the Vikings. They played a really great game today. They beat us up and down the field physically. They were a really good team, and they made a lot of plays today, so credit to those guys, really well-coached team, respect those guys, and they did a great job today.
For us, we didn't do anything to help ourselves. Way too many penalties, again. That starts with me. That's too many penalties back to back games. Over 10 penalties is unacceptable. You can't win that way when we have something positive going, we negate by the penalties. That just saps the energy out of everyone.
Turning the ball over -- a lot of miscues today, and you can't do that and then expect to win in this league. So we have to -- hey, we take the loss, and we've got to move on.
Q. You guys talked before the game (indiscernible) adjustments tried to stay ahead of things?
A. Yeah, I thought we had some really good looks. We had some good protection early, and just down the road, Brian did a really good job. Those guys got after us pretty good up front, and if we want to be a good football team, you have to win in the trenches. It all starts there, O-line and D-line for me did not play well enough today to help us win the game.
Q. How would you assess how the pass coverage was today?
A. With the coverage, we have to make plays. We're in position, we have to make plays at the end of the day. That's what it comes down to. In the red zone there we got them, 3rd down a couple times in the red zone, and we did not make the plays.
That will never change in this league, like playmakers have to step up and make plays.
Q. What other reason was there for the offense not (indiscernible)?
A. Yeah, it was just a lot of negative plays. We couldn't get the run game going like we wanted to, so a lot of negative plays there. You have that many negative plays, it's hard to do anything positive when you continue to hurt yourself.
We have to go back to the drawing board, figure it out, and not let one become two.
Q. When you go back to the drawing board, what do you do to fix the pre-snap penalties?
A. The pre-snap penalties, it's self-inflicted, so we have to take ownership of it. First and foremost, we have to take ownership of it. We all have to man up and be man enough to just do what we're supposed to do and be where we're supposed to be and play smart, clean football.
Q. To be in 3rd and long (indiscernible)?
A. Yeah, 3rd down, we'd definitely love to be better on 3rd down. They won the battle on 3rd down on both sides today, and that's the difference in the game. They were able to get off the field when they needed to, and we did not get off the field as many times as we needed to in the red zone and forced them to kick some field goals to keep the game closer.
Q. Not to harp on the penalties, but playing in a hostile environment like that, how much is that (indiscernible)?
A. It was a great crowd. Minnesota has a great crowd, everyone knows it, one of the loudest places in the league to play. You know that going in, so that's not an excuse. You have to lock in and be on the details every job.
Q. (Indiscernible).
A. Yeah, we'll see how Tank goes throughout the week, but he should be fine.
Q. (Indiscernible).
A. Yeah, he can't harp on it. He can't harp on it. We'll go, we'll watch it tomorrow. You learn from the mistakes. It's all about what do you learn from this loss, what do you learn. You learn and you make the proper corrections for the next week. We should play better next week.
Q. Seemed like another (indiscernible) why do you think that's the case?
A. Yeah, one of our No. 1 keys to success was protecting our quarterback, and we didn't do that, and we didn't win the game. Don't want to see your quarterback hit as much as he was hit today, so we have to get it fixed.
Q. You wanted the team to learn after (indiscernible).
A. The main thing is everybody just has to be accountable for their role, their job. It takes everybody. It's not just about one person. It takes everybody working together. Again, we'll go back and look at the mistakes that were made on the film and see how we -- how the Texans can help the Texans. Right now today, the Texans helped the Vikings a lot, and the Vikings played really good. That's indicative of the final score.
Q. It was a heavy dose of Justin Jefferson in the first half and you guys weren't able to (indiscernible) what was kind of the checks and balances of cutting down their No. 1 but then their other guys (indiscernible)?
A. Yeah, it goes back to you have to make plays in this league, no matter who you're lined up against. You have to make plays. Justin is a really great player. He made some big-time matches on us there on 3rd down. He made some catches to keep drives going. That's what he's done every week, so credit to him, a big-time player, made some plays, and I think we adjusted well in the second half.
But again, you've still got to cover everybody. We still have some work to do there.
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