Lions 31, Vikings 29.
A. ...set you back whether it's penalties or communication, whatever it is, a lot of areas we can improve on but I'm proud unfortunate way I guys battled. Came back in the second half. We were able to capture the lead really as a team and they were able to get that last three there. Love to have chance to give Will a swing there at the very end.
A lot of positives and things we'll build off. Going to be a challenging turnover this week from a standpoint of a short week off a physical game. Every guy in that locker room put everything they had into it.
So these are the moments where we truly find out what we're all about. Look forward to leading this group through it.
Q. How close did you need to get before you sent Will out there?
A. Yeah, you know, my confidence in him is -- I was thinking about sending him anyway when up the penalty. I think it would've been about a 73 yard field goal at that point. Just outside his range.
But, yeah, I would've absolutely hopefully gave him a swing there. That's a pretty significant gain, especially with the play we had on trying to make sure we could get as much as possible before a potential Hail Mary chance or last play kind of chance.
But the goal was I thought we were pretty dang close. I got to take a look at it exactly. I didn't get a great explanation and it was pretty loud, but sounded like we were moving or not totally legal, which would've been phenomenal to see Will get a swing from what would've been, what, 68? Yeah.
Q. Offensively you just weren't as crisp as you were before. Do you think the bye and the travel had anything to do with it?
A. I think if you look at the course of the first five games, I don't know if I agree with that. Kind of the previous few quarters and things we really emphasized no self-inflicteds. That is really where you're seeing a lot of it. I think we averaged seven and a half a play. Did a lot of good things.
But it's just these little self-inflicteds, whether it's a formation or hold or pre-snap infraction. I got to get that stuff fixed. When you're trying to win at the level we're trying to win against anybody we play, we can't do anything to help give football teams an out.
We just need to worry about all 11 guys executing the play pre- and post-snap with great detail in all three phases, and I am just going to keep pushing this team every single day to try to do that.
Q. Gibbs' 80- yard touchdown... (indiscernible)
A. Yeah, I would have to go back and look at it. I know third and whatever the D&D was. You're expecting a hell of a play call by them, sneak a run in there. They do that from time to time. Dan will be aggressive on fourth down.
Great play call by them. We got to figure out a way to keep them out the end zone.
Q. They were bringing receivers in to kind of chip on the edge.
A. Yep.
Q. Was that something you had seen them do before?
A. We've seen that from some other teams. There is always still going to be some weakness in there, even if they're doing that. Had a chance to get maybe a little bit more penetration on a couple of those looks. Maybe affect Jared back there a little bit more.
They executed. Had a nice little sequence of three, four drives where they were able a to put some execution on tape. At the same time, it was some self-inflicted things on offense that put the us behind the chains.
We were able to overcome it a few times. When you don't, that's where you have to figure out ways, and that's my job it fix those self-inflicteds. Might not seem like a big deal at the time or when it is in the game, but that's what kind of football games I believe are out in front of this team when you're playing teams that are very, very good teams.
It's going to be competitive, and not just the ones we got left but hopefully more. You got to be willing to clean up those things and have the execution level be to the standard that you need to play in these games. I thought there were some real moments of that. I thought there was some fight. Dealt with adversity in the game.
Clearly if they're able to get a field goal, leave us 15 seconds left, it's not enough.
Q. Coming out of the half was there anything specifically that allowed to you start moving it like you did?
A. Yeah think first and foremost we stopped shooting ourselves in the foot. We did have that drive moving a little bit and then we had the interception. I thought Sam played really, really good football today. A lot of big time throws.
You know, we were able to get the first touchdown in there. Really good execution of a run by Aaron and our group. That's the kind of thing we need to have consistently over and over and over again.
I was very happy with the way we were able to respond in the third quarter and really continue to make that thing a football game and find our way, clawing our way back. But when you had a 10-nothing lead, a little cleaner, complementary football there in the second quarter, we'll take a hard look at that and figure out how to play consistent.
But you're not going to -- really good teams are not going to steamroll through the game and have perfect plays on every play, but you better make sure it's them causing some of those things to happen instead of the self-inflicted things.
Q. (Regarding two point conversion.)
A. Yeah, they passed it off. Some motion there, man coverage there; they passed it off. Sam tried to put it in there into a tight window. Might have had Speedy in the corner. I got to go take a look at it.
Just one of those things where you look back on it and those are the types of things, to get those two points would be massive in that moment. Just some of the plays down the stretch, we got to be able to pitch and catch. Got to be able to have the execution on a third and whatever it was, four, five.
Sam out there, I think all 11 could have been better on the play to make sure the detail is right in those critical moments. There was a lot of great execution of a lot of things today. Explosive again in the pass game. Just I think we're right around 50 plays and still manage to kind of stay toe for toe time of possession-wise, yardage-wise, all the stats.
That's great, but what I want to see is the little things that really good teams do to give yourself the best chance to win football games like this.
Q. Not expecting them to pass it off in that situation?
A. If they do, we have a plan for it.
Q. How impressed are you by Jared Goff's...
A. Yeah, Jared is a heck of a player. I know Jared really well. Got a ton of respect for him. He's tough. Throws it as well as anybody. They've got a really good offense. Ben does a great job calling it. They're well coached.
It's just a matter of you got to be on the screws every single snap. Run game, defense, you've got to do the little things against them with play style and all the things we talked about.
Then when you get them in those situations, how tight can we be in the coverage, how great can the rush be, can we affect him, and if he's going to stand in there and make throws, you got to figure out a way to put them in a D&D that they got to hold it a little more.
And we got to cover a little tighter. All those things, you can go back and watch, which we will. Even on a short week we will get right into it right now.
You're going to find a lot of tiny little details, fundamentals, techniques, calls that you want back. Got to find a way to improve. You can't just enjoy the wins and come back. We enjoy those more than anything, but truly championship caliber teams are going to look inward at the first sign of adversity. We were able to do that in-game, come back, and get the lead.
But challenge everybody to look inward and see if we can do just a little bit more. Can we be a little bit more clean across the board. Because I have a ton of confidence in our team, our players, and how we work to continue to grow and get better.
It's going to be a long season. Proud of the way our guys battled back. Didn't get it done in the end.
Q. Do you think there was more of those little things today or they just showed up more?
A. I think they just show up more in a game like this, the ebbs and flows of it. Yeah, I don't know exactly what the total penalties were. I think both teams had eight. You know, our eighth was that last one trying to get that ball clocked, but that's not so much the volume, which you always want to keep low, it's how does it impact that play.
Because you just never -- in a game like this, our players and coaches have to understand that we cannot just treat the end of game like this is how we're going to go win it. It might be -- your one impact might be a second and eight in the middle of the second quarter. Might be a first and ten in the middle of the first quarter. Might be the first play the game.
But urgency and trying to make sure the standard is driven to a place around here where we get that execution, we make those plays, and we consistently complement all three phases of our team.
Q. Gibbs' catch at the end where he got into field goal range.
A. Yep.
Q. Looked like it was way too easy. What kind of breakdown happened there?
A. Yeah, getting ready to kind of manage the end of that, see if we could save ourselves time if they got a play like that. I have to go back and look at it. A lot of times in those situations you're hoping to maybe keep the back in, keep in him in via pressure or whatever it was.
He got out and they were able to find him. It was an explosive for sure and a critical play in that moment. We got to take a look at it and see how we can try to get him off the field in that moment.
But to me it goes back to how did we handle it when we were able to force the punt there late. Trying to -- you know, we get a couple runs off, get to a third and manageable, and thought we had a chance to convert, maybe eat more clock up, maybe get them to use their time outside.
That's the complementary side of it where I don't necessarily think it's one play. It's a collection of 11 guys needing to do a little bit more, coaching included, where we all just do a little bit more to try and get a win and play the best possible game we can play.
Q. What did you see on Sam's interception? (Indiscernible)
A. Yeah, so it was man coverage. You know, safety was kind of pre-snap leaning to Justin's side. Thought we might have a chance there to maybe get Justin going away from all that. Davis did a nice job through five. Maybe beyond five with a little grab and hold and just throwing the rhythm of Justin off a little bit.
Thought we might have had a chance to maybe give Aaron the ball there kind of as we talked about the play, but Sam had Jordan flash to him and Branch did a really nice job being in the area to kind of jump that throw.
You know, that's one of those things. Sam made so many good decisions today, threw so many highly competitive throws to give our guys chances, touchdown to Justin included, and they got us on that one.
Q. As far as Aaron Jones battling through, what did you make the way he played?
A. He was phenomenal. Really good. He was not 100% but literally from the time we touched down from London to today, it's been sun up to sun down treatment. Tyler and his staff did a great job with. Aaron is a true pro's pro, one of those standards for our team, and the fact he was able to not only make it but have the impact he did on the game, just very, very fortunate to have Aaron Jones on the football team that I coach.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports