Vikings - 12, Jaguars - 7
KEVIN O'CONNELL: Only real injury update, Aaron Jones was just evaluated for some ribs, but did return. He was able to tough it out and come back.
Really resilient team win. Cannot say enough about our defense, the way they battled after time and time again answering the call, getting the ball back in the second half.
Clearly tons of time of possession, tons of yards. We moved it. But not good enough offensively if we're not scoring points. Even then to turn it over the way we did, we've got to find a way to execute and find a way to end the ball with the possession in our hands and the snap with the possession in our hands. I know we will rectify that problem and go back to putting points on the board when we get down there.
Just looking at this, I don't know if I've been a part of one of these stat line-wise, that time of possession, 82 plays getting that many run attempts off. I was proud of the way the guys kept playing. Defense picked them up.
Then Park shows up on Tuesday with McQuaid, and Ron Wright had a couple of nice holds in there as well, it looked like, from the blind eye.
So execution of the team around, when you don't have the performance that you want in any other aspect of your team, that's a team win. These guys can have a lot of confidence moving forward from that getting that win here today.
Q. How do you walk off the field thinking about Sam's performance?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: The first interception, ball gets tipped off. We're trying to throw Justin a slant. Defender does a nice job not letting him in there. I just think there's times his confidence in guys is maximum to take some chances on some of those close plays.
Listen, we're able to -- Sam made a lot of plays too, ran the offense, got us in and out of some plays, into the right runs. Execution was really going to come down to those three plays when you look at the whole day.
Really I thought the second -- the last two interceptions are more so him just trying to make a play, and he's a competitive guy. But when you're in the scoring zone, I think one of them was on a second down. Then we had one on a third down and a little bit further out.
As space shrinks, you have to anticipate and put the ball in a place where you want to, or you got to protect the football and progress in rhythm, and he knows that. We'll go back to just emphasizing those things throughout, but I did think you can't have 400 yards of offense without your quarterback moving the ball and making some throws and plays and running the show.
So we can improve as an offense. It starts with me. I'll find a way to make sure we're able to execute some plays without turning the football over and activate our playmakers and rely on our team to continue to find whatever ways we need to win a game.
Proud of our guys. 7-2 with a day kind of feeling like that. Those are the types of games that good teams find a way to win regardless of what it looks like all day, and I'm proud of that. But absolutely a lot of things we need to correct and fix.
Q. It looked like, I think after the interception where he's on the return, he came off the field kind of squeezing his hand or clenching it? Did he have any issues with his hand?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: I think it was on the return of the interception. Had a little soreness in there for a second. Tyler checked him out. He returned and didn't miss a snap.
Q. Did you feel his confidence wane at all today as he rode that roller coaster?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: No, I didn't. I think we -- it was one of those days. 90-plus shell coverage, it's just not going to give you a chance to really -- if you're taking chances down the field over and over and over again, bad things are going to happen because they're just putting a roof on it. That's why we were able to get that many rush attempts off.
Tight ends leading us in receptions because there's a lot of space in the middle of the field, but when you throw the ball in the middle of the field -- we had J.A., I thought on one on the two-minute drive where I'd like to see that hit for a drive, start a chunk. Had some other opportunities down the middle, and we were just a little off, or good little read routes underneath or whatever it is.
But they weren't going to allow us to have a lot of success just throwing the ball to Jordan and Justin and trying to find ways to activate some things to get them going. I thought Jordan made an unbelievable catch there early in the second half, trying to get him some touches to get him going a little bit.
Then I thought there were some other guys that made some really nice catches, some good run after catch with some space out there. Just picking each other up all day long.
Sam Darnold has played a lot of football at a really high level this year. Huge reason why we're 7-2. Looking back on it, this could be a critical moment that we all kind of absorb and understand we're still 100 percent confident in Sam. It would be craziness not to be.
But at the same time, a great opportunity to figure out exactly, as we after action, exactly what happened. As coaches and players, put it together in a way where we'll be able to use this as a very healthy win to also improve.
Q. When you go through that after action stuff with him, how do you coach him through that when he's making the split second decisions of being aggressive but also putting it in the right spot?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: Yeah, that's why this position is so hard because you're asking a guy to be aggressive, feet and eyes. First and foremost, you've got to unpack all of the fundamentals and techniques. Where were your eyes? Where were your feet? Protection, what did that look and feel like to you? Did you get sped up by something?
I thought there were good examples of him checking the ball down, finding Aaron on one, finding the underneath coverage, seeing that underneath coverage, get some depth, and really try to put that lid over us.
I thought we did have a chance to Jordan down the field. Got to go back and look at that throw there. Felt like we had a little bit more grass there inside out in front. But that was really the best way we could to try to get over the top of them, and ended up being a play where I think they called the hands to the face on Justin for that.
Keep finding ways to get the ball down the field. Find areas where the defense is allowing us to attack, and get the rushing attempts off if it's going to be close to 100 percent split safety game.
Q. It would be craziness to not have confidence. I assume means there was never a moment when you thought about --
KEVIN O'CONNELL: Not one all day long. In fact, I was looking at it as a great opportunity to see growth and continue to move the team. We're going to check back in on this moment and use it the right way, and Sam's going to be better off for it. I truly do believe that.
Q. Defensively it kind of felt like after the first couple of Jacksonville drives, you guys started turning up the heat a little bit. How much -- were you part of those conversations? What went into you feeling like you guys need to bring more pressure?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: I think Flo and his staff did a great job really kind of tightening up the game plan after that drive. Yeah, my only -- I have to be -- especially in a game where we're getting 100 percent shell on the other side, half the time the reaction is just send them, Flo, send them all, and I've got to be careful about that because just let him call his game and do his thing.
Because it does get like that sometimes. My confidence in those guys when we do send them, as you can tell, is pretty sky high.
Yeah, I just thought in general the way he used it, the way he used the looks and causing some confusion there, still getting our DBs in space. I thought there were some unbelievable defensive performances.
Murph with a pick in the third game in a row, Cam tracking that last one, kind of off of a pressure look and being visual to be able to go get that ball. H.P. getting the fumble recovery there.
Then there were sacks by Gink. I felt J.G. I felt Cash and I.P. back in there again. It was really good, and we needed it. We needed it to win a game like that with that kind of imbalance in yardage and time of possession, doubling the amount of plays that they had. So we needed that.
Q. Do you see Cashman returning impact on the defense?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: I thought it was big. Blake's -- there's a reason I went and got him. He's been having a great year. Getting back to I.P. and Blake and those safeties in front, felt really good to have that group back together. Give a lot of credit to him too for working his way back too.
Q. Kevin, you've been consistent for a long time about wanting to be aggressive in the passing game. How much is that tied to the importance of explosive plays in terms of moving the football? I guess, it seems like you're so consistent with that, I wonder why you're that confident.
KEVIN O'CONNELL: I think scoring becomes easier on any drive when you can generate an explosive. We've got a lot of ways to do it, a lot of players capable of doing it. I think we had -- I'm not quite sure the number, the amount of drives we had, over ten plays. It felt like we were driving the football pretty consistently all day and just would get down to the scoring zone and either have one of those turnovers happen or just not finish it out the way we needed to.
I thought as the game went on, any time you're calling the plays and kind of trying to play through the quarterback but also knowing you've got a defense playing the way we are, special teams with Park putting points on the board, you know this is going to be a game that you're going to have a chance to get the lead.
It might not be the prettiest of leads. It might not be one we'll hang up in the offensive unit room, but it will definitely be one that as a team I think we can -- we're learning we can win a lot of different ways, especially when one phase picks up the other or two phases pick up the third in regards to how we need to win.
Q. You mentioned your tight ends. Just having T.J., how much of a luxury is that on third down?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: Some of those third downs, there's a reason he's catching it underneath the coverage. There's a lot of attention going to 18 and 3 and T.J. having him back. I thought there was an explosive there too among the end cut there when he got one-on-one coverage in man, split safety defense all dedicated to Justin and we were able to bring Justin to his side and activate, that's really -- you guys have heard me talk about that, probably on and off the record, of T.J. with Justin away from the passing strength and what that means in a critical moment like that.
Because that's one of the ways where maybe you didn't even have the play up, which was not necessarily a huddle call type play, but you're just trying to find ways of accessing the points of the field that you want to while also mitigating risk, knowing that you've turned it over a few times.
Q. What was the thought process on the third and one there late where Aaron is running and you decide to go with the pass there?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: They were starting to -- in their four-minute defense, they were starting to really load up there. The chances of, we just didn't get great execution on the play, had that guy go inside of the tight end. We really should have kind of a full turn kind of where we can cut that guy's legs down and simulate guys firing off and try to get an easy one.
Just thinking that you could feel a little bit of the desperation starting to show up from a standpoint of committing defenders to the line of scrimmage. So didn't want to take a sack or things like that. In fact, I believe it was our first one all day. I think the line protected pretty well for the most part considering those edge rushers and things.
But, yeah, I wanted to -- if we're going to get single high or potentially no safety back there, see if we can pop one there for even a walk-off, but they were able to get immediate pressure and kind of executed a little bit better.
Q. Around Aaron, do you anticipate any kind of further evaluation?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: Yeah, I'm sure he'll get checked out. Tough player, but he was able to kind of get his wind back. It was one of those things. Once he was able to go, he was itching to get back in there.
Q. The kicker got here on Tuesday, I think. What about the job he did to make four for you guys to win?
KEVIN O'CONNELL: He was huge. We had Park -- we had Parker Romo with our team before we drafted Will Reichard. Had a lot of confidence through the early part of that off-season program was about two weeks old at that point when we pulled Will's card in the Draft. We had confidence. We were going to let them compete, and they did.
Will's just been fantastic since he got here, and we can't carry two. When I let Park go, I said, you should be kicking in the NFL this year with your talent and the confidence I have with you.
We were just lucky he was available in that moment to go get him.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports