Vikings 42, Falcons 21
KEVIN O'CONNELL: Really proud of our team. That's a talented, well-coached team over there. I think Raheem does a really great job and one of those people I've been fortunate enough to work with, have so much respect for him and talented team for sure.
I just felt like winning the turnover battle was huge for us and being able to really put together a complete half on offense that included pretty high-level things in the passing game. And then to have that 98-yarder, 98-yard drive in a mode like that to go score, I think we grew up a lot today offensively and I think Sam Darnold, Justin, J.A., was pretty spectacular to just watch them.
It all comes back to little things. Execution and the details at which they came to the game with today. I think we're still improving as a team, and there's going to be a lot of things we've got to get cleaned up, and we've got an extra day here before a Monday night home game in the division, which will be very, very important for us.
Don't have a lot of real injury updates. Really nothing of concern at this point. We did hold Pat Jones out. Just couldn't quite get there, but he was kind of the only one in the questionable group. But good to see Gabe Murphy get some action, as well as just we were able to get some guys in there at the end to get some valuable work as well.
But a lot of really good stuff. Didn't know it was 20 years or so since it's been a five-touchdown performance by a quarterback. J.A. and Justin, I was shocked to hear that we haven't had two 100-yard receivers with two touchdowns each in our history.
Thinking back, we've had some great combinations in our league's history that have worn this uniform. So pretty spectacular by those two guys, and it's what I believe we're capable of as an offense. Sam Darnold just continues to play at a massively high level that is really fun to watch.
Q. What was most impressive to you about what you saw from Sam today?
A. I think Justin's second touchdown, they had obviously seen something on tape to try to generate a free runner. And his ability to navigate a very, very uneasy pocket, to say the least, and get up and out and still keep his eyes up and find Justin, who really is on a route there that can declare a lot of different ways.
So finding him, even though he was by himself back there, was quite a task, considering the movement he just had to make. I think he was fantastic in the red zone, decisive to Justin on his first touchdown.
I thought the last J.A. touchdown, really the last two were just pretty elite fundamentals in techniques, reads, progressions. Not forcing anything but kind of big-field vision and putting the ball exactly where it needs to go. Incredibly calm. Total ownership, command. Like I said, I was really proud of the guys up front and J.O. and Johnny and C.J. coming in. We got big on that drive and went 98 yards, which is hard to do when a team knows you're trying to work the clock. That was one of the more special drives I think we've had here, considering how we did it and the type of execution we had throughout there.
Q. Kevin, the throw he makes on the second touchdown to Justin, in terms of making that throw on the run, throwing it downfield like he did, how many quarterbacks can make that throw? How difficult is that?
A. Not very many. That's exactly what I told him when he walked off the field. I was a little more detailed with Sam. I'm not going to tell you what I told him in regards to my opinion on how many guys make that throw.
Q. Have you taken it to the next step because you were able to put a team away like this? You had a lot of close games up until now.
A. The number one stat I look at is the turnover margin. We generated a turnover in the kicking game, and we had two interceptions, all of which we were able to kind of at least -- we didn't turn them all directly into points, but we were at least able to sustain some successful plays, move the ball, win field position, and then we were able to turn some of those second half turnovers into points.
I think when you don't do things to lose the game or make it easier on your opponent, whether it's things that I need to be better at, always starts with me, or it's the execution level or it's us having some turnovers that allow teams to have some greater chances of getting into the game and keeping it close to the end, we sure are comfortable in those moments.
But I was proud of the way it just felt like it was one of those days where we needed to keep the gas pedal down, and I think it's the first time getting over 40 since I've been here, and it really -- you know, 53 plays, we didn't really have a ton of plays, but we did get long yardage on a penalty on one pass interference. And, obviously, getting a short field there off the C.J. Ham recovery off of BA.
Brian just continues to show up on special teams and really thriving in that role, which is making our football team a really good team because we've got a lot of guys in the kicking game phase that can affect the game in a really positive way like he did. Just proud of him.
Q. These last four games for Sam, if you had to put your finger on what's flipped for him, if you agree he's flipped.
A. I think there can be incredible growth in moments where maybe on the outside, it seemed leaving Jacksonville like there's something really wrong. They didn't score a touchdown.
I think that's why I was so excited that day to win the game and have such a teachable moment where, in a lot of ways, Sam's going back in Monday morning based upon a lot of things that Josh, Grant, and myself talked to him about. Almost self-coaching in a lot of ways. If I just have better feet there or I don't know why my eyes were there.
What it was, in my opinion, was an incredible growth moment for him to just come back the next week and start stacking some things that are kind of leading into a layered kind of success type approach, which is what happened to a lot of quarterbacks in this league, especially the ones that their trajectory over the course of a season or their career is pointing sky high. They're able to stack days.
This day will be something he can build off of. I truly do believe that. And our offense, there's a lot of things we'll be able to highlight about who we want to be about as a football team that will show up on tape.
Q. I'm not sure if you can see on the Jumbotron, but Sam's up there doing the towel and all that. Very fired up for him.
A. You guys know I'm good for a little emotional moment every now and again. I'm just proud of him. Days like this are so many hours upon hours of hard work and committing to being a Minnesota Viking and making sure that everything I do, every waking moment I have is built on earn the trust of my teammates, performing at a high level, and then stacking successful practices, days, meetings, games on one another.
And then when you have a result like this, everyone's going to talk about the result. I hope they do. But for me and Sam and our team, there's not many guys in the locker room that are surprised about the performance he had today.
Q. You mentioned you felt like the offense grew up today. What do you see as evidence of that? What kind of success?
A. I think the 98-yard drive is a critical thing that's hard to do, especially with the momentum of you think you're going to be starting at the 20, and you're starting at the 2. You're able to stack together -- which I thought the drive was a lot longer. But with the J.O. catch, where we had a few guys available to us on that one, it was only seven plays.
To put the ball over the goal line right there, because you just never know. You go three-and-out down there, give them a short field. Kirk, as explosive as they were today, they would find a way to make it a game. I thought it was a critical, critical drive.
I think some of the off-schedule plays mixed with some pretty pure execution details, motion landmarks, guys being exactly where they're supposed to be. Sam's feet being 100 percent locked and loaded, throwing the ball on time when he could and when he had guys available, seeing the field, seeing coverage, some unique coverage structures that we've seen throughout the years showed up again. And I just think it's a lot of things that kind of come together.
And then the execution of our players. This is 100 percent the players continuing to strive for a total, complete win. I think our defense gave up some yards, but forcing the two turnovers on a day when our offense is able to have 7.7 yards a play, we're going to eventually find our way into the red zone.
I thought third down was huge. I don't know where we were. 8 of 12, and 4 of 4 in the red zone via Sam and our skill players making some plays.
Q. On the field goal, was that something you guys had seen at all before the game and kind of had an eye on something they do? It's not a call you see very much.
A. I can't say that I had. I'll definitely talk to Matt Daniels. Normally, on things like that, I know about some pretty clear-cut things we want to chat with the officials about before the game. That didn't seem to be something that was on our radar. I was glad we were able to -- because you take the points off the board and then get the touchdown, it's big momentum that could go either way at the moment.
Q. There were a few plays where they had defensive backs turning their own way or completely removed from where the ball ended up. Is that scheme? Is that great moves? How does that happen?
A. I think there was a few plays where how they handled motions kind of gave us some information that we were able to maybe make some adjustments on some things to try to stress if that was, indeed, the case, how some things would play out.
It did on -- Justin catches a touchdown. His first one where he ends up matched up on the nickel with that motion. Then anticipating maybe, okay, we've got to make sure we don't allow that again. They keep 24 locked on him there and opens up pretty good leverage for Jordan. A lot of the those things if you guys got the time, we can go through all that nerdy stuff. You've got the time.
But all that, honestly, it's one of those things where players got to be able to execute it. Sam's got to be able to see it and throw it. That's why I just give 100 percent to our guys. Great week of prep, and it showed up today. Proud of our whole team.
But offensively, I think we were waiting for kind of a game where we kind of just hit the gas and were the driving force for our team because Lord knows the defense has been like that for us all season long in many, many huge moments.
Q. Did you get an explanation on the shared reception interception?
A. Yeah. The reason why I challenged it, I just saw only one hand from the receiver on the ball. It looked like Shaq secured it first. So that looked to me like it was not going to be a tie goes to the receiver situation. It was a big play in the game. I thought it was worth a challenge, and I thought we had enough information to at least make them have to take a real look at it. It was deemed to be a catch, and we moved on down the road. But I did not get an explanation.
Q. What did you say to Kirk afterwards?
A. I just told him there's very few days that I get to be the coach of not only this team but a coach in general with my journey early on around Kirk and the two years we had together here. I just told him I'm so thankful for our time I had coaching him as a position coach and then obviously as the head coach when I got here coming up on three years ago.
I love him as a person. I think he's a great human being, great father, great husband. He stands for so many great things that I always really valued. I'm proud of the way he's transitioned down to a new place this year. He's had a lot of success, and I think he's going to continue to do so. That's a talented team with a good quarterback and a great coaching staff, a bunch of them that I respect a ton in this league.
So it was great to see him. I didn't get a chance to see him pregame so I wanted to make sure I got to see him after.
Q. You mentioned today's a validation for Sam of all the work he gets to put in to earn the trust of the teammates. Is there any of that for you guys in the sense you make a quarterback switch from a guy who's been here a long time, trusting yourselves you can make this happen. Is there any part of this game that's a validation of that at all for you and the front office?
A. No. I was ready for -- that's a very eloquent question.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports