Vikings - 34, Texans - 7
KEVIN O'CONNELL: The energy from the jump, five false starts by the Texans today. They're part of the formula here at US Bank Stadium. They deserve to be able to show up and hopefully enjoy what they see on the field for three and a half hours every op we get. So very, very excited about what our fans bring to this building on a week in, week out basis. Two weeks in a row of the standard of tough and physicality. We knew early on it was going to be that way. So proud of our defense.
I want to highlight a lot of guys on our defense. But as a whole just felt like the pre-snap and post-snap was pretty effective all day long. Flo called a phenomenal game, the scheme, understanding what we're trying to get done by our players on the field; the tackling, keeping the chunks off the tape for the most part -- they got losers plays there in the second half.
But so proud of our guys. Kamu stepping in and getting that early interception was huge. I thought Jonathan Greenard was absolutely fantastic all day long. JG has been huge for us all year with pressure production. But I know all of us are great to see him ring the bell three times right there with three sacks.
Offensively, I thought Sam Darnold was really, really good all day long -- smart, really decisive, took care of the football, accurate. We were good on third down. We hit some chunks when we needed to. Didn't expose ourselves to negative football -- outside of some of the self-inflicted things that I have to get cleaned up to keep us traveling forward throughout our possessions.
And then I thought Aaron Jones, to get over 100 and really 148 all-purpose, affecting the game in so many ways.
Just really proud of where our group's at. Jets was really solid all day long. Had some critical play that nobody will ever know about, blocking the corner on the kind of double pass we called. If he doesn't block that, we don't draw the penalty and then we're not punching it in there.
So he's doing the things that everybody knows Justin Jefferson for, but he's going above and beyond to execute even when his number is not called.
Will Reichard with a 58-yarder -- total, complete win. Proud of our team. On to the next.
Q. What does it say about Brian Flores, your defense, that you've done this to two excellent teams and excellent offenses the last two weeks?
A. We have a lot of respect for everybody we play. We know any Sunday in the NFL you'll line up against teams that can be explosive, teams that can try to come at you and dominate the line of scrimmage.
Our guys are answering the challenge. It's a collective group effort with total scheme ownership.
Flo, as I said, has been calling really, really good games, balanced -- keeping us balanced while keeping our opponents off balance is the best way I can describe it. And staying aggressive, who we want to be.
And then really two weeks in a row of really on both sides, offense and defensively, that play style showing up, like some of those short-yardage conversions we had offensively. And defensively the physicality, I saw.
Q. You challenged this team to prepare, to not go for the ups and downs of the NFL. Is that going to be this team's identity that you guys just come in ready to play like this?
A. I think we had -- it was a physical game last week. That's always going to be -- when you kind of play these two teams back to back, you really ask yourself -- you know, and I asked our football team early in the week, are we willing to do the things that we thought it would take to win the game? Are we willing to kind of prove some early-season discipline of handling some success, handling a physical football game, finding a way to prepare and showing up and doing it again.
I think it's a good benchmark early here for our team to develop some real confidence in the process through our coaching staff, how we deliver the game plans and then how we execute it. And then getting the chance to talk to them every Saturday night before these games and provide the ultimate clarity of, they should have confidence and if we do these things, which many of them we did today, we should have a great chance to win the football game.
Q. (Indiscernible) pre-snap, post-snap stuff, you talked about defense. Did you do that expecting C.J. (indiscernible).
A. Yeah, that's one of those things -- C.J. is -- I told him after the game -- I think he's one of the best quarterbacks in our league. I think he's going to be it for a very long time. I'm a huge fan of C.J. Really always have been.
But you could just feel kind of the, just the back and forth of what each snap and the stress of each snap and the potential based upon the looks that they were getting, what that was kind of doing. There's a little bit of kind of mental attrition that takes place where every snap you just don't really get a lot of plays where you can just call the play, snap the ball and just go.
And they still made some plays. That's a super talented group. I think that's as good of a group of three receivers that you'll find in this league. The crowd was huge because those pre-snap penalties, forcing them to go backwards kept them out of some manageable third downs early and helped get us some momentum for sure.
Q. Speaking of Sam, I'm sure he checked out fine after that one play that he came out?
A. Yeah, I think he got rolled up a little bit on the penalty. They were kind of low on him. He checked out and came back in the game.
He'll go through an evaluation just to kind of rule anything out. But was proud of Sam coming back in the game and helping take us down the field.
Q. When he did come back in, I don't know if you heard during the midst of it, but the fans reacted very positively to him. Wondered if you heard that, noticed it in the moment, what it felt like for you?
A. Yes, I did. And regardless of how I felt about it, I know Sam probably very much appreciated that.
Just goes right along with tipping my cap to our fans and what they're all about. I've said it before, I'll say it again: I think we got the best fans in the National Football League. Not particularly close.
Q. How does that emphasize things or amplify things for a defense when you have that kind of noise?
A. It stresses communication. And your tools to deal with whatever you're looking at from the 11 guys across the line of scrimmage, we're not just standing there. If we're standing there, more than likely we're all standing at the line of scrimmage.
And it requires communication. It requires all 11 being on the same page snap after snap after snap. And we have not talked about what happens when the ball does get snapped yet. I think it's a combination of a lot of things.
Really proud of Flo. Having an absolute blast coaching with him, putting game plans together every week and kind of propelling this team that we thought we had.
I told our guys last night, I'm not all that concerned about who or what is said about our team. We keep doing what we're doing, there will be plenty of things talked about having to do with these guys because they deserve it because it's the players making this come to life.
Just so proud of them right now, but divisional challenge. We've got to be ready to handle just like we did a week ago, we've got to be able to do the exact same thing and ready to go try to win a football game in the division on the road, which is very difficult to do.
Q. (Indiscernible) about the way that Sam kind of progressed in a lot of those red zones?
A. I think looking at the touchdowns that he threw today, Justin's is really an example of some off schedule. Great job by him not getting pushed out early in the game and working back. You guys have seen us work that drill many times in practice. And Sam's athletic ability to create off schedule is a huge weapon in the red zone.
And that doesn't mean running the quarterback or RPOs. That means drop back and progress in rhythm and finding a way to get up and out and attack the defense.
And touchdown number one right there -- obviously the one that really kind of sticks out to me is I'm trying to figure out, normally I can remember these things, but when you throw four of them they're sometimes hard to remember. But the two that really stick out to me are the Speedy touchdown, that's total reset on the backside of a formation -- feet, eyes, ball, location, a thing of beauty.
And then Johnny Mundt's is the exact opposite, a play where he's getting us to the right play to start and then understanding how we've kind of talked about the motion, how it might affect the defense. There could be little slivers of space within the zone coverage. And he knifes his first progression right into Johnny, which I thought was a great catch in traffic.
We knew it would be kind of like that. You get down there tight against a team that predominantly plays a lot of man down there. But when you've got the weapons we do and people know that Sam's going to be surgically accurate with his accuracy, you're going to get some zone coverage with a lot of bodies in there, and you've got to be disciplined and detailed to be accurate, away from defenders.
So the full kind of spectrum there of different aspects of what Sam's showing on a day in and day out basis. And just really proud of him. Another day for really good quarterback play.
Q. Is this the kind of running game that you've been wanting for a while?
A. Yeah, that's a physical front. They were activating a lot of things that, quite honestly, remind you a little bit of our defense when they're starting to activate corners and safeties and double edge pressure.
I thought our guys handled it and kept playing the next play. And then Aaron pops the long one, and that's how games like this against good, physical defenses are going to be.
And I just thought we stayed after it. Some negatives in there, but you're not going to throw it a hundred times. You're going to try to be balanced and I thought our guys really kind of maintained that next-snap kind of mentality with our run game. And then we hit some nice chunks when we needed to, especially to kind of flip the field. Screen game came to life again for some plays.
So just really proud of overall, it's not going to be -- it's not necessarily going to be a box score that jumps out at people, but there were some really good football in that tape today. I can't wait to watch it.
Q. Last year you seemed, I guess, particularly bothered by not winning at home?
A. Very much so.
Q. Why was that such a big deal for you?
A. I think just the knowing the potential we have if we can get off to good starts, if we can protect the football, force some turnovers, have our fans feel the momentum of their role on third down. It just kind of feels like a little bit of a tidal wave of momentum, energy. And our players feed off of it.
And I just think when fans are willing to show up and have the type of performance that they had, we like rewarding that. We like allowing them to have a very enjoyable Sunday afternoon.
Q. For giving up 30 points in three games, as an offensive guy is that mindblowing, three games into the season?
A. As the head coach of this team, playing against that outfit over there and last week, I think our week one opponent had some success today.
So really what I'm trying to stress to our team is we must respect and understand who we're playing every single week because I think every team in this league is capable of playing at a really high level. And if you don't play at a high level, none of that matters.
The opponent, the circumstances of the game, we're going to continue to coach these guys up incredibly hard. We're going to demand a level of performance that our guys are responding to that. They're pushing it further. They want more. They want more scheme. They want more ownership of being able to drive this thing forward.
This thing is really about the players in that locker room. Our job as coaches is just to continue to provide them with the toolboxes they need to go perform all 11 at once, whatever phase we're in. I thought special teams.
I thought defense for sure, and offensively is as efficient as we were and putting the ball in the end zone, complementary football, sudden change with the early turnovers, seven points.
I was proud of that drive coming out of the half to put seven on the board right there, too, to try to make sure we could continue holding on to that momentum.
Q. Aaron's touchdown catch, was that designed that way for Jalen to clear out for him or was it designed that way?
A. No, it was designed. We went on a speed, very quick cadence, really kind of moving a couple guys around in the formation with Justin in the backfield and Aaron kind of assuming Justin's role, how quick can you get aligned, how quick can you snap the ball, be legal. Details are in it. And actually really wasn't something that I was particularly going to call at that area of the field. I just had an idea that we'd get some man coverage and wanted to kind of have a ball-out type play to mitigate the rush and have a chance for Aaron to come flying across there if they were able to match Justin out the front of the formation. So sometimes they're simple plays and it's just who is where, but other times there's a lot that goes into it, just in the formations and the shifts and ultimately the quarterback's ability to command the ship and run it all. And Sam's doing all those things right now.
Q. At halftime, they showed Justin kind of like doing gripping his hand and putting his glove on and off. Is he having any issue?
A. Justin Jefferson, I'm not aware of anything in that regard. But I'll definitely keep you guys posted throughout the week, if anything else comes up.
Q. How much fun do you feel like Flo is having?
A. Yeah, he's definitely having some fun. The players are. I've been trying to spend a little bit more time with that unit this year, either on Saturday mornings or throughout the week. We got a bunch of great, great guys on that side of the ball. Smart, tough, love football.
New additions like JG and Blake and Shaq and Van Gink, and then the guys that are -- I'm hoping they don't get tired of me -- the Harrison Smiths, (indiscernible) and Phillips -- because I'm having an absolute blast coaching this team. And I think we're made of the right stuff. And we've just got to keep proving it.
Because that's what this league is all about, as great as this feels for our team to start out 3-0 and beat some football teams and win at home, every week is going to be a challenge. How disciplined are we going to be to have the best possible Wednesday practice we can this coming Wednesday and then worry about Thursday next.
It sounds cliché, but if your players are willing to commit to that process and demand it of each other, we're going to be okay.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports