Vikings 23, Cardinals 22
SAM DARNOLD: Another resilient win. First and foremost, man, the way our defense played, the way they were able to stop the field goals early on, even late in the game as well, they continue to come up big for us.
Just the resilient, resilient effort by the offense, man, as a group. It wasn't the first half we wanted. We've got to get better in a lot of ways. Learning from that first half is going to be huge. The way we battled in second half was awesome.
I give a lot of credit to Arizona. Their defense, their players, they played really, really hard. Budda Baker, obviously, on the other side is a heck of a player, the way he flies around all game. Really, all their guys were flying around all game, and just a lot of credit to the way Arizona came out.
Just proud of all the guys in the locker room.
Q. Sam, what makes their defensive structure so tough?
A. I think just some of the way they mix up certain coverages, present different looks. It's obviously a lot of similarities between their defense and the way our defense plays.
So, yeah, just there were a couple of times I felt like early on I could have made some calls that would have changed some of the protections and kept me from getting hit. But in those situations, just got to continue to protect the ball, which I felt I did a good job all day of if something wasn't there, whether it was taking a sack or throwing the ball away.
But, yeah, I felt like their defense was rolling today. And just, again, proud of the way we responded.
Q. What was your sense of how Aaron Jones was dealing with the day and just being ready to make the catch on that final play?
A. You want to talk about a guy who's mature, been through a lot in his career. Just so, so proud of him. The way, obviously, he responded really, really well in the Chicago game, he did the same thing today. We're just going to continue to trust him. I'm going to continue to trust him, throw him the ball, because he's a heck of a player and he does a lot of good stuff for us.
Q. Sam, what is your mentality coming back on the field knowing you need to go to the length of it?
A. Just one play at a time. That's been my mentality all year. I think early on in the drive, completions, that's another big one. And if they present us with a look where I feel like I can fit a ball in there or make a big play, obviously I'm going to take it in time, you know, within the timing of my feet and my eyes.
But other than that, if it's not there, just being able to get completions to start the drive especially.
Q. Justin said when the play call for the fourth and 5 came in, he thought he was going to be free. What was your first impression of the call, and what did you see on the play?
A. Loved the call, obviously. It was just a really good job by Jets. The same thing in practice, finding the soft spot in the zone and we connected op it really very similarly to the way we did on Thursday in practice.
So just they brought a really good pressure on that play as well, but I was able to get the ball out and convert. It was a huge play, obviously, by Jets -- really by all 11 -- to be able to execute on that fourth down.
Q. Following the challenges of the first half, was one of the adjustments trying to get some quicker hits? Felt like you were a lot quicker developing plays in the second half. Was that part of it?
A. Yeah. There were a few adjustments that we made in the second half. Not going to go into a ton of detail on that. But we made a few adjustments and I was very, obviously, happy with the way we came out. One, I put the ball in the end zone, obviously.
But just the way that we responded, especially when Arizona was able to take the ball back, score, get up two possessions. To be able to go down and score a touchdown was absolutely critical. And just, yeah, I can say it a million times in this press conference, but the way that our offense and our defense, our special teams, our whole team just kept our heads down and just played through that game all the way until the end, yeah, it was awesome to see.
Q. Have you learned anything about yourself this year?
A. Haven't really had time to think about that, to be honest, but I'm just going to continue to do my job every single day and just going to keep it that simple.
Q. How about having ten wins on December 1st. Your coach made a pretty big deal about that post-game.
A. Obviously it's nice to be able to get that tenth win in December, especially early. But we still have got a long way to go to be the team that we want to be. That first half wasn't our brand of football. We're going to continue to learn, watch it, and grow as a team. It's nice when you can play like that in the first half and continue to grind through it and get a win. It's awesome when that happens, obviously.
Appreciate it, guys.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports