Vikings - 23, Cardinals - 22
JONATHAN GANNON: That's a good football team. I thought we had chances, and we didn't close out the game. It goes into really two phases. I thought special teams did well. You know, Kyler scoring points in the red zone. I think we got on five on the last drive, went backwards with two penalties. It's tough to go. Couldn't get a stop there, got it to fourth down. Give credit to them.
But we'll be back at it tomorrow. What have you got?
Q. What were the issues in the red zone today?
A. I've got to look at the tape. Obviously went backwards on the last drive. That was brutal. Just got to figure out ways to punch the ball in for touchdowns there, not field goals.
Q. On the second to last possession you had an opportunity maybe to go for it on fourth down at the goal line, but what led to the decision to kick the field goal?
A. I thought about it. I wanted to go up more than a field goal there. Definitely a decision point that we talked about. So be it.
Q. Did you think it was important to go up and do the field goal instead of pushing in to score a touchdown?
A. They had to score a touchdown to beat us there.
Q. The penalties, obviously you've been so good about it all year. Did you feel like -- I know sometimes there's different crews and that can change some things. Did you feel like --
A. We fouled too much today because that's a low flag crew. To have whatever we have, almost 100 yards in penalties, we're shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit.
The one DB, bang, bang, whatever. Instead of presnap penalties on offense, we're going backwards. These are negative plays because of our own accord. So got to get that cleaned up.
Q. Another decision at one point late second half. You had a chance to clinch it to go up 14 by going for two and went for the extra point. What was the thought there going for two?
A. There was no thought there.
Q. Why not?
A. Because of where the game was at that point.
Q. How do you assess Kyler's play today, especially in fourth quarter where offense went down?
A. I thought he did enough today. I'm sure he'll want some plays back, but I thought he made plays with his legs. The touchdown pass, a couple conversions in there. I thought he played well enough to win.
Q. Would you like to change up anything you saw specifically? Did the Vikings change up anything that you saw?
A. A little bit early they decided to play a couple different things, but that's a good defense, man. That's a good defense. They made it hard on you. They made it hard to operate.
I thought we operated pretty well on offense, it was just on our own accord going backwards, that's what I thought. Turning into kind of what we had to do better to win the game from the offensive side of the football. So that's on coaching. That's on me.
Q. Do you have to manage emotions after a game like this at all?
A. No, they can get down, but it's the NFL. They've got to put all their energy and focus into tomorrow.
Q. On those types of decisions, what goes into that? Is that purely analytics?
A. A lot, a lot. It's not purely analytics.
Q. Who makes those decisions, entirely you?
A. Yes.
Q. What did you see from Darius in his debut?
A. I think he had six plays in the first half. I thought he was disruptive, one run. I thought he was disruptive. I thought he was getting back there a couple times. Got lots of plays he's got to clean up. It was good to get him out there. He'll play better next week.
Q. How do you think the O-line played today?
A. I thought pretty solid. I thought the run game was okay. We kept the quarterback upright for the most part. When he had a lot of pressure, I felt like they were adding people in, which that's legitimate. I thought they battled and played well.
Q. Zero sacks, obviously O-line plays huge role into that. How did you like Drew's play calling to get the ball off quickly?
A. I liked it. I liked some of the third downs. We popped a run on the one even on third and long at the end when we decided to kick, I thought that was a really good call. The screen to Trey, middle screen to Trey. Then Kyler bailed us out a couple of times, to your point, with his legs. You've got to do that versus those guys because that's what they do.
So kind of the game kind of played how we thought it was going to play, and they made a couple more plays than us. That's all.
Q. How did you like the play call in the first half with the slant to Trey and got tackled at the 6. 17 seconds left, and you guys end up spiking and kicking the field goal. Would you put that more on the play, or would you put that more on Kyler's decision to throw to Trey in that situation?
A. No, I love the play. They were playing a defense that didn't allow you to attack the end zone. The question was -- I thought that was really good.
Now, how fast that happened, I'll look at it tomorrow, that was all along we were going to get up and slow the clock there and kick the field goal. I like how the first half ended a lot. It did happen fast where maybe you could clock and take a shot to the end zone. Felt good about going up 9-6 there. I love the play.
Q. How do you assess the corners? I know you haven't watched tape yet, but just what you thought?
A. I think how we decided to play those guys, I think Jefferson had a little too much for my liking honestly, but it wasn't corners. It's everybody. How we were kind of playing with some air and space on them, a lot of times those corners weren't even on them.
It's a credit to those guys finding soft spots in the zone. We had a couple chances a couple times I thought, but they did a good job.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports