Minnesota Vikings - 19, Detroit Lions - 17
A. It was heartbreaking. I was proud of the way our guys fought. Man, that's the first thing I told them. It's tough to be 0-5. It's tough to lose like that again.
But I was proud of them, man. I'll tell you, you don't find a way to get yourself back in the game and get to where we were at if you don't believe and give all that you have of it. So we just once again made one more miss than they did and it cost us.
Q. Did you feel any different losing this game and what's the emotion behind it?
A. It's tough, it's tough. Look, you want it for yourself, as an organization, and for all of us. But you want it for those players. I mean, they're out there busting their ass. And, you know, it's tough.
Q. You look a little emotional about this loss. How difficult is this coming week being that you worked so hard for it?
A. No, you just -- when you see your players give all that they have and you lose that way, it's tough. You know, you don't want that for them. But we'll be better for it.
But, again, credit to Minnesota. But, you know, we made the one mistake that cost us, you know? And so, ultimately, you know, it -- we didn't do enough to win. But I was proud of them. And I love the fight that they have in them. And I love the grit, I do.
And when your defense plays that way, you got a chance to win every game. I thought our defense played lights out today. I really did.
Q. What was going through your mind during the kick?
A. He was going to miss it, that's what I thought was going to happen. And he didn't. So, you know -- so then when it happens, you're surprised because you're expecting him to miss it.
Q. What did you say to your team in the locker room?
A. The same thing, I was proud of them. Proud of the way they fought. I like the guys we got on this team. I like what they're about. I like how they come to work. I like how they haven't given up. They just go. They just go, you know, and it will pay dividends.
Q. (Question concerning Jalen Reeves-Maybin defensive turnover.)
A. It's outstanding, you know? And I said this -- you saw this last week and I've seen it the week before. The guy goes after the football. It's what he -- this is not by accident or coincidence, he goes after the football.
He makes a conscious effort to punch the ball out. And that becomes contagious, when you get more than a few guys doing that. And he earned that. He earned it for us. It was big, it was huge when we needed it most.
Q. You mentioned the one mistake a couple of times. Are you talking specifically about --
A. Well, what you -- I think we all know there's a couple mistakes in there that cost us.
Q. Well, the one that --
A. Well, one, when you turn it over in the plus territory, I mean, that could be the difference in the game offensively. Once again, we shoot ourselves in the foot. And it hurt us, it hurt us.
Q. Can you talk us through the decision to go for two points there at the end and your faith in Jared?
A. Yeah, just -- there again, I wanted to win that game and I wanted to finish it out. And I felt the best way to win that game was to go for it, go for the two-point and be done with it. I trusted our guys.
We worked this week. And I trusted Goff, I trusted our O-line, our receivers, our backs. Yeah, so I didn't -- that was not -- that, to me, was an easy decision for me to make.
Q. Without watching the film, do you have any steps of what was wrong in the operation of the final drive?
A. You're talking about at the end?
Q. Yeah, Minnesota being able to drive 46 yards there.
A. I mean, look, there's -- you're going to have some windows in there. Certainly, we don't want to give up as much as we did. But, you know, they made a couple plays and got down there.
Until I can get my eyes wrapped on it and really digest it, you know, unfortunately -- or fortunately, however you want to look at it, at the end of the day, that still wasn't an easy kick. That's not like that was a chip shot, you know?
And so, they made it, they got in position, two time-outs helped them with that much, you know -- with that much time with two time-outs, you really have a lot more time than you think do.
And during the flip side, it's easy to say, Hey, run the clock, but score a touchdown. But that's not as easy, so anyway.
Q. How badly did you want that first one?
A. Well, I mean, look, it's -- of course, but it's -- there again, when you fight the way that you -- when you put everything out there on the line like they did and like they do, you want it for them and you want it for everybody, you know?
I mean, everybody gives themselves a lot of time, a lot of effort. Hey, it's what we do. And you just -- you know, you want it. You want it for everybody, man. And you want to earn one.
And we're this close. We haven't done it. So we're still -- we're not quite there. We haven't quite gotten over the hump.
But I do think in the long run this is going to pay dividends for us. As ugly as it is right now and hard to swallow, I do think we're building something special here that's going to serve us well in the long term.
Q. (No microphone.)
A. Well, I think sometimes when you do that, you expose your outside -- you know, you expose your secondary more when you rush four.
And so, there's -- if you rush four and then that happens, and you got a shot play, maybe we should have been a little more conservative.
So I think there's -- man, there's a give and take there. There's a risk/reward by both. You know, well, you had success pressuring and -- so I think you got to weigh the options as what they're going to do and then who you feel like you kind of need take care of.
Q. (Question concerning the turnovers by Jared Goff.)
A. Yeah, that will certainly be something we look at, you know? Because it has, it's killed us a couple weeks in a row.
Whether we got to -- you know, it could be as simple as, you know, trimming the calls back a little bit to where it's a little bit more mainstream and to the point, quick, easy.
I see it in my head, we get lined up, it -- you know, just a little less moving parts, if you will. Maybe that's where we can help a little bit. So we'll look at everything with it. But, you know, it hurts us.
Q. Is it hard for you to believe that you're standing here twice in one season, five games in your coaching career, basically, describing the exact same scenario, exact same score? Is that hard to fathom?
A. I mean -- no, look, anything can happen in this league. Here's what I always -- I try to just keep picturing in my head, because I know it's coming. We're going to be on the winning side of these before long. Hopefully sooner than later. But it's coming.
I just don't know when, but it's coming. When you play that way and fight that way and clean up a couple of these little mishaps that have shot us in the foot, our days of being on the winning side of that are coming.
Q. (No microphone.)
A. Yeah, it looks like it's in the shoulder front area. It could be his clavicle, could be his shoulder. But it doesn't look good.
Q. (Question concerning Dan Campbell's aggressive coaching style.)
A. Yeah, I don't know. You know, it's a good question. It really is. It's a good question. There again, I just think you have to make a decision with what you think is best, versus pressure, versus coverage, versus who needs help.
You know, for example, when you see them and they're in a double tight empty wing and they're going to pound the edges, the pressure does you real good and you just bought yourself time to push the ball down the field, you know?
So some of those showed up, not a ton, but there are a couple. And you don't know when those are coming up. And so, you play the odds.
You got to be careful even if you want to rush four/five and they're going to somewhat max protect, or at least pound it and get out of the flats, you know, bang the edges.
And, you know, you expose yourself and then you'll be kicking yourself that you weren't more in a rush three. Maybe you're playing coverage over the top or kind of a double-double, you know?
And there again, you're playing for chunks. Look, it didn't work out. It sure didn't. But we're going to be -- we'll look at it. We're going to look at everything.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports