Minnesota Vikings 16, New York Giants 13
MIKE KAFKA: Just a couple injury updates from the game. AT, hamstring. Flott has a knee. JMS has a hand that we're working through. D.J. Davidson, neck. And then Burns and Nubin, they were both cleared. They were cleared during the game. Then Runyan, his wife went into labor. So you know, thinking about him as well as he's going through that process with his wife.
I think that's pretty much it.
Q. Any concern on Flott, could it be serious?
MIKE KAFKA: Yeah, we'll see. I haven't had a chance to meet with the doctors yet and stuff but yeah they are looking at him right now.
Q. What was it about their defense that was so challenging to your passing attack today?
MIKE KAFKA: You know, they did a nice job of pitching up some coverages, some pressure packages, and the attempts that we had, which were limited, we had some coverage zero alerts, some tags built into it. Just need overall better execution there from the whole group.
Q. It seemed to be a very conservative game plan, run heavy game plan. Was that the way you wanted to go into this game?
MIKE KAFKA: I wouldn't call running the ball conservative. I would say, you know, I think for us, we just wanted to try and minimize some of that pressure package and let our run game go. So we were mixing a couple different personnel groupings. Getting a couple 13 personnel, 12, a little bit of 11, but trying to create an advantage for us.
Q. Is minimizing that pass rush and throwing four passes in the first half, so what -- was that -- seemed like you never could get into your passing game in any way, shape or form?
MIKE KAFKA: Yeah, part of the plan was getting to the run game a little bit more, and that's part of the process we went through this week, when you have a coordinator that likes to pressure and that's a strength of theirs, you can minimize it by a couple things, whether it's screens, whether it's max protecting it or the run game which helps neutralize that.
Q. 13 passing yards, and guys had, depending on how you want to characterize it, about three or four drops as well. Why were things so out of sync with that passing attack? I don't think we've seen one that bad?
MIKE KAFKA: Yeah, I'll back and look exactly. But on the field, it just felt like we had some opportunities and we missed them. So we'll look back at the tape and see where we can get those things cleaned up whether it's protection, whether it's the scheme, whether it's ball location or just drops.
Like I think there's a couple different factors that could go into it. So I don't want to be too early on what the exact reason was without watching it again thoroughly.
Q. Theo had two today -- he's had quite a few this year, eight or nine, depending on -- why has that been an issue?
MIKE KAFKA: Theo is a guy that we really rely on and I think he's a guy that's made a lot of big plays consistently throughout the last, call it, five, seven games and he's a guy we'll continue to put the ball in his hands and give him opportunities down the field.
I know he's had drops in the past. Like that's in the past. I have a lot of confidence in Theo and his ability to make big time plays for.
Q. What do you say to Jaxson after these games?
MIKE KAFKA: It's for the whole group, the whole group, we've got to continue, go back and look at this tape and be ultra critical on what it looked like and things we can get better at, for any player, what they can do individually, what we can do as a unit.
And then holistically, as a team where are some spots that I can improve and be an asset to the group and whether that's being aggressive, being less aggressive, towing the line in terms of how we want to play the game and the game management part of it, and that's what I'll evaluate and be hypercritical on myself about.
Q. What did you see on the third and 17?
MIKE KAFKA: I didn't see that when I was bouncing -- I was talking to the offense. I saw, like, the replay, but I don't know exactly what happened on the play.
Q. Generally, the defense gave up a lot of third-and-long chunk plays today. How would you evaluate that? What did you see there?
MIKE KAFKA: Again, like during those times, sometimes I'm like getting ready, like thinking, you know if we get the ball back, talking to the offense, so I'm relying on some of the guys upstairs. So I'll go back and look at it.
Obviously we don't want to give up those big third downs. It might be something as simple as just the fundamentals, getting the guy down and tackling him. I know on a couple we had some opportunities to tackle them short of the sticks. Didn't do it. But we'll look at it. We'll focus on it and make that a point of emphasis for this week of practice.
Q. You mentioned how they mixed up their coverages. Did they throw things you weren't expecting you had to adjust to?
MIKE KAFKA: No. I actually felt great about the plan and what we were expecting there.
Obviously sometimes the down and distance, we talked about this earlier, get back on track in the early part of the down. You know, second and longs, those type of things, we wanted to stay out of those because we knew what elements could show up but I felt really clean about the plan. We've just got to look back at it and see what are the things we could have done better in that particular area.
Q. How do you think Jaxson handled the pressure? Looked like he got a couple opportunities to throw the ball away and got sacked instead.
MIKE KAFKA: I thought Jackson overall with the plan he understood the plan and at the line of scrimmage he was doing a good job of seeing it and being decisive of what he wanted to do.
I think as he learns and as he sees more of the ability to get the ball just a touch faster, use some of those sights and keep his mind clear on it, and not put himself in a bad spot. Because I thought he had some opportunities downfield. Sometimes, whether it's a pop or someone gets into that window, you've got to hold it an extra tick longer.
So that's part of the growth process with it but, I think Jaxson was seeing it clearly and certainly the conversations we have on the sideline, he felt about good the plan as well. It's not just one guy. Everyone has to see it the same way and we've got to go out there and execute better.
Q. On the opening kickoff ball out-of-bounds, was it the wind or an explanation on why the ball went out-of-bounds?
MIKE KAFKA: I think he hooked it a little bit to the right.
Q. You passed up a fairly short field goal the first series. Why did you do that?
MIKE KAFKA: I wanted to stay aggressive. I knew I wanted to stay aggressive in the early part of the game. We had an opportunity and I was talking with our analytics guys and game management guys, and it's right there. It's probably a good-for and, so I wanted to put it in our offense's hands early in the game, especially you don't know how the game is going to declare and be at the end of it.
We wanted to stay aggressive early in the game and if we had an opportunity in that down and distance, we were going to go.
Q. Did you talk to Abdul after the offside --
MIKE KAFKA: Not, I haven't had a chance to talk to him. I know he's beating himself up about it. It's tough. He's trying to get a jump on the football, a little bit too far. Really unfortunate play overall because it takes away points, takes away a huge play. But the defense, they battled back from that, and ended up getting another one.
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