The Minnesota Vikings pulled out a stressful win 19-13 over the Chicago Bears. It wasn’t an easy win, but they got the job done with three forced turnovers.
After the game, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell and spoke to the media about the team’s second win of the season.
Opening statement
Being 1-0 in the division, a lot of things we can improve on as a football team, but number one thing I wanted to see today was just our response, and
I thought our defense was a great example of regardless of what was going on in the football game, our inability to move it in the second half.
Offensively they just never flinched. They made a bunch of big, big-time plays, Jordan Hicks was tremendous, Byron Murphy, Josh Metellus, Danielle Hunter are just a few of the names that come to mind. They got off to a great start. They forced a bunch of negatives. We finally did win the turnover battle, and then ultimately able to get a big turnover there late by Byron to kind of seal that drive up and allow us to get a 1st down, run that clock all the way out essentially on that sequence.
Offensively we’ve got to be better. Didn’t run it all that well today. Didn’t handle the movement. Didn’t handle a lot of the things we anticipated that we did see, and then in general, just a couple plays here and there in the pass game. I thought Kirk played really clean, really efficient football, gave some guys some opportunities. Jordan down the sideline in the first half, a couple 3rd downs there where we’re just slightly off. We’ll detail stuff up and continue to try to push forward.
Proud of our group all together to get a win in the NFC North. Just got to start finding ways now.
Our response off of a victory is to take a strong look at the tape in really all three phases and figure out how we improve and continue to just chase our best performance which is still out there for us.
At first glance what did you think of the way the Bears played you without Justin?
Yeah, we got more single high than probably what we’re accustomed to against those guys, but clearly a willingness to send some pressures, DB pressures, different linebacker pressures. Thought we practiced against a lot of those looks, and when you’re calling some play passes and you’re trying to get the ball down the field maybe to activate some match-ups or attack some voided zones, you’ve got to give the quarterback time.
It was kind of a revolving door of missed assignment here from some of our more reliable players, and our guys are excited to get the win, but our offense will be hungry to go back to work and make sure we rectify some of those things because honestly the way Kirk was throwing it today, feel like it could have been a much, much bigger day, but you’ve got to give Coach Flus and his staff over there a lot of credit for doing some of those things that slowed us down. Just couldn’t make that one 3rd down play in the second half to really get a drive going. Thought we had a chance on a screen maybe to come to life. Cam was able to muster up seven yards on the play but into a pressure, chance to get one block done there, and it took a pretty heroic play for Cam to get even seven when I’m looking at that like it’s got a chance to be a big one.
But that was the theme of the day, especially in the second half. I was really happy the way we handled two-minute to use the time efficient, use our time-outs smartly, and then Kirk, decisive as all get out got a really clean look at the play. Jordan ran a great route, and it was big touchdown there, although we got the extra point blocked.
How important has Jordan Hicks been to the team overall?
Yeah, basically unanimous captain voted by his teammates, and he’s somebody that I really lean on in addition to Harrison Smith and Phillips and Danielle and Byron and Matellus. There’s a lot going on within our defense depending on the game plan, but what Jordan did today kind of rifled what Harry did against the Panthers. It just felt like he was not going to be denied a chance to be the guy to go out there and respond, and how he was on the sideline, how he was all week in prep, really, really happy with Jordan and proud of him as one of our core leaders showing up the way he did today.
How much of Tyson Bagent had you seen or how much were you prepared for?
I watched him in the preseason. He moves the team. He can be activated — what they’ve done a really good job of is their offense can stay very similar when their backup goes in there because he’s a great athlete, throws it well. I felt — I was watching him, he had great poise out there, seemed to really run the show. It was with basically Justin going down there. We didn’t expect their offense to change all that much, and it didn’t, and we had to make some plays defensively to get off the field, which I was proud of our guys for.
What did you see just with the run game today and given what it looked like the last few weeks?
Yeah, it was very similar looks, quite honestly, to what we had anticipated, whether it’s a defensive end, we call it a spike when they kind of take an inside gap or just some movement that we didn’t handle well, trying to get to the second level. I think we showed our guys a lot of those looks. Thought we got some good looks out of our scout team in practice, but that did not translate to our ability to be effective against those things today, and you give them credit. I thought they were physical and thought they did a nice job tackling for the most part on the day. Even though Alex ran really hard,
Cam got in there and did some good things. Just didn’t see the space in there that we’ve kind of been able to generate over the last couple weeks.
Marcus Davenport's ankle
Nope, opposite ankle. I don’t have a lot of detail on that right now. We’ll get him as much treatment as we can. We’ll try to use the extra day to see if
we can turn him over, but I’ll keep you guys posted on where he’s at. Had a couple other guys kind of come in and out there a little bit. Yeah, Cleveland, I think it’s a foot, mid-foot kind of thing, whether it’s a sprain or a bruise, it’ll
have to be evaluated, as well. Those would probably be the two that I’ll keep you guys posted on throughout the week.
When it comes to the 3rd downs, is there something you can identify there where they weren't being converted?
Yeah, I mean, the way they tried to play us, a lot of one-on-ones, trying to generate — play some man coverage. They got healthy today in their secondary and were confident to play some man.
We had early on in the game, we hit KJ kind of on that route, we end up 4th and a half a yard. We convert there.
Then there was just some — felt like there were some ops, Jordan in one-on-one kind of on an iso route, we pick up a pressure, and just off a little bit on our timing, and thought we had a chance to T.J. on a couple there. It was good to see T.J. get going a little bit in that two-minute drive. But yeah, we’re going to continue to press forward. Got a lot of confidence in our pass game. We’ll detail it up. I’ll give those guys some better calls, and hopefully we’ll improve rapidly because that’s my expectation with that group, especially when Kirk played the way he did today. Should have been a lot more out there.
On the intentional grounding, was that supposed to be a screen?
Yeah, that was kind of anticipated something like that, kind of talked through it, just didn’t get the blocking done with pressure kind of right at those two backs right there. I think it just wasn’t great execution there, and then Kirk was just trying to not to take a sack in the moment and CJ had — his assignment had ended up being the pressure guy, and at that point you would love to make himself available to catch the ball.
I would argue that that’s a debatable conclusion that they came to, but that is not my job to publicly argue that conclusion.
What did you think about the plan on defense?
Yeah, I thought it was a really good plan. I thought they adjusted. There was a little bit more. They were having some hits and some success there in
some of the wide zone game. I thought Flo and his staff adjusted really well, Rumph and Pat Hill and Siravo those guys getting together and figuring out ways to limit that impact of that play moving forward, which was good. Then
really it was just about trying to get them — force some early 3rd and longs, 2nd and longs, and then it was kind of — I think you guys probably felt it was on our terms a little bit at that point. They did a good job staying efficient in the second half, eating clock and kind of first, second, third, first, second, third, but for the most part we wanted to try to eliminate the true explosive to DJ, and I know they got Mooney on a high cross, they got DJ down the seam there on that one, but for the most part we were able to limit some of those explosives that this offense has gotten going lately with Justin and that skill group.
For Byron to get his first pick of the season, what was that like for you to see?
Yeah, you guys know he’s been huge. Really somebody that I’m so, so happy that we’ve got him here and he’s really assumed a heck of a role for us, not only defensively with what we do. We ask him to play outside, we ask him to go inside and sub, but the leadership kind of reminiscent of a Jordan Hicks as far as a guy that just continuously does his job. He’s tough, dependable, and great moment right there for him, and it was great to give him a game ball after the game.
