Kevin O'Connell: Vikings sticking with Kyler Murray at QB

All right, guys, good afternoon. You know, obviously, with our team in today and spending quite a bit of time on the tape, you know, there's a feeling when you've Won all of your games up until, you know, losing your first game. It can feel like, you know, it's kind of felt today, which is we're disappointed. We really wanted to go win that football game and had a chance. Felt like to win it and, you know, didn't play our best. They made more plays than we did. And obviously there's some things that jumped out watching the tape that we'll, you know, need to go to work. Correcting, fixing, finding more consistency. And I think we've shown, you know, there's also some flashes in there of some winning football and winning football in a competitive environment against a really good team. And we've got to find a way to tap into more of that and more complimentary, you know, in all three phases of our team, of each other. It's one of the first games we've lost in a while when we did break even in the turnover margin. And I think it speaks to You know, the lack of execution at times that could have helped us. You know, have a better chance to ultimately win that football game. So we'll see how we respond. Coaches, players, everybody respond to a real win-loss adversity for the first time of the season. And, you know, heck of an opponent coming in. Fortunate to be back at home. Monday night football, an extra day to prepare. Thank You know, as we work through our preparation, we'll be critical how we go about that, how we handle that. But, you know, looking forward to attacking it all together. And we're already on our path to doing so. You know, just from an injury update, just really three guys. We're currently with meetings and everything going on. you. I met with the team a little bit ago, still in the process of evaluating. It's really Kyler. Christian Dersaw did come in with some shoulder soreness. And Theo Jackson with his quad. I know I mentioned Kyler's hamstring last night, and it's sore today. So we're going through a full eval of that as we work through the day today, and I'll be able to update you guys. On that, as we get into the work week this week, you know, as well as CD and Theo, you know, really it's, you know, some soreness there and kind of figuring out exactly what's going on and then what their practice weeks kind of look like. And I'll keep you guys posted on all that as we as we get going here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, even on some attempts to him, a couple, you know, a couple that we missed, maybe a little high, you know, one on schedule, one off schedule. You know, I thought there were some play pass, you know, chances that, you know, we, you know, maybe didn't see it or didn't pull the trigger on. And then there were some other opportunities in game if we can get, you know, the protection dialed in and these one offs here and there of, you know, guys relatively playing pretty well. But then a loss here or a loss there. I thought we had a good plan for. For Hutch, you know, tried to, you know, minimize a really good player's impact as much as possible. And, you know, we saw some guys, other guys along that front make some plays against us. And just, you know, chances to maybe make a few more plays, maybe get it in Justin's hands a couple more times. And we know how much he impacts the game. So it's going to be something we'll continue to emphasize and continue to try to do. Both in rhythm on the scheduled timing of the play and then some of the off-schedule opportunities as well. I don't think we're there yet. You know, it's still early enough that I'll kind of continue to get updates and then also get with the medical staff a little bit later today on all these guys. Yeah, he came in sore. And then he got some initial treatment and then got into meetings and kind of will complete that today. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's a good question. Just, you know, it's as much in-game as I think more so throughout the week leading into, you know, it's one thing to, you know, be. I'm totally comfortable with the game plan, but there's some nuances to it that you kind of learn sometimes on game day, the comfort level that you're trying to do things. He's in the gun a lot. We're marrying that up as creatively and as effectively as we can. I didn't think we ran the ball great yesterday. I thought we had some opportunities to play called back. You know, maybe on our longest run of the day called back on a holding call that I think if we're, you know, a little bit more, you know, fundamentally sound and running our feet there, we probably still get that run without the need for the hold. And we did hold on the play, you know, and then it's just, you know, how effectively I did think, you know, Kyler did use his legs on some design things to move the football. He also had a nice scramble there, you know, kind of setting us up right there at midfield. And then we turned it over. You know, late in the half, which led to them getting three points. So I think it's just, you know, continuing to build that rapport of the plans, the comfort level, you know, continuing to implore, you know, some input from him on things he likes and things he, you know, hey, how can we carve it and make it even more cleaner and better for him so that we do get, you know, some of, you know, some of that comfort where he'll. Throw things with anticipation and we get to look for a play and we all know it's coming and we see the pitch and catch there, much like we did with Jordan there late in the game. I did like that response. We went forward on that fourth down, didn't get it. Defense gets the three and out. And then we get a huge play there and then hit TJ two plays later. That kind of response that we felt in the game, now it didn't ultimately lead to us keeping that lead. But that kind of response is what we need our whole team to have here this week coming off of our first loss of the season. I think it depends on the play action, some of those deeper play actions where I thought the pockets on some of those with some of the plans that we kind of had in place by game plan for not only Hutch, but McNeil and some of the other guys, I thought there were some clean pockets in the deeper play actions where he was able to get the ball down the field, even the shot early on in the game where Jordan had to come back to that ball in the end zone a little bit. Super competitive play, you know, depending on who you talk to, you know, it seems like one side probably thinks it's. You know, a penalty one side probably doesn't, and that's the NFL. And, you know, so we're going to try to. It's, you know, sometimes, you know, teams will have predicated defenses, but based upon whether you're in the gun or you're under, you know, we're running the football enough in the gun that it's hard to have a true, you know, kind of tell. You know, kind of statistics that say we should be in these defenses when they're in the gun or these defenses when they're underneath the center. And I think that's part of activating Kyler in some of his athleticism in those moments, which, you know, obviously, you know, leads into, you know, how do we continue to be aggressive? And we were a little more aggressive yesterday and benefited from one penalty call, maybe could have got a few more. And then obviously had the ball over the top to Jordan as well as some other ops down the field. And continuing to, you know, kind of shape this and get it to a comfort level that also can be married and also can allow, you know, Justin and Jordan and TJ and some of our other players to have an impact on the game. Yes. Yeah, I mean, you know, Justin. You know, came in today and, you know, he was great. Listen, Justin is the ultra competitor. And I think it's been well documented, just the leadership of Justin and how he's really grown and really sets the standard. And, look, Justin wanted to win the football game, and we wanted him to have a big impact on the football game. And some of those, you know, you go back and see just the amount of attention, especially on some of those known passing downs where there's an immediate two Defenders responsible to play man-to-man, you know, double-team coverage on him. That's when some other guys have to make some plays. TJ made some plays against some of those looks. Thought we had a chance to score on one of them, and we ended up going to the ground on that. But we've got to make people pay when they play some of those coverages with some of the other guys and then, you know, some of the opportunities that Justin had. And, you know, we tried to find little ways of getting him the football and had a couple. You know, shorter screens and shorter plays where, you know, he 7, 8, 9, 10 yards here and there, but it's his impact and when he does touch it and his run after catch, you know, when we can get him a runner's ball on a play and get him going and then as well as some of those times where Kyler, you know, is able to get outside the pocket. You know, we saw it against New Orleans, a pretty big chunk there off schedule, like those guys continuing to work together and play together and feeling those things out. In addition to the end on schedule plays, I think we'll show up off schedule as well. Well, I think, you know, getting yesterday was a thing that, you know, we. When we handed it to the backs, I don't think the yards per carry average was great, especially when you lose that one chunk that you have to a penalty and it comes back. Now you're not just first and 10, you're first and 20, and you're working your way back off schedule. And, you know, I think we've run it efficiently. I think we've dedicated quite a few carries to the run game and staying committed to that. Yesterday, we only had 50 snaps. You take into account some of those get back on track downs, some of the run pass options where we were taking the pass opportunity when they presented itself. I thought there were some more opportunities to do so in the game, and we'll continue to build things where we can do that effectively. But we still want to run the football, and we still want to have the ability for our run game to not only set up the pass and the play action and the movement game like it did on the first play of the game. But we also want to have the run game have an impact on that front. So as you get into the meat of the game, some of those snaps where you can hopefully keep. We had way too many third and seven pluses yesterday, many of which were self-inflicted either by penalty or just some functioning things that we can correct. But it also is November 2nd now, Alex, so we want to. You know, make sure we find that balance and find that ability to have both the run and pass be effective for us and ultimately stay out of those third and longs when we can stay multiple with how we play those weighty downs. I was encouraged by being two for two in the red zone. We wanted to be good situationally in the game. I thought we had a couple opportunities there to convert some third downs and maybe get to that four or five out of ten, six out of ten mark and maybe even have some big plays versus some of those kind of pressure looks that they brought, just not there to the standard we need it right now. I mean, for the most part, we've been, you know, we were on the silent cadence. I think BO had. Two, where one, he was, you know, he flinched a little bit and that's, you know, he can't have it. And then another time, it was just a pure alignment thing where he lined up too deep and those things. And B.O. will be the first one to tell you those things can't happen. As far as the holding call, you know, that it just so happens right now. It's coinciding with, you know, a big hit that, you know, instead of being first and 10 and plus territory, Torrey, you're going backwards 10 yards, and we have been relatively... Good from a penalty standpoint, not necessarily from a negative standpoint, but. From a penalty standpoint, we've been pretty good in the big scheme of things in comparison to 31 other teams, and we've got to play clean. We've got to not turn the football over, and we've got to have production on offense to complement the way our defense has played. And ultimately, hopefully, when we do get a fourth-quarter lead, my expectation is always and will forever be that we're going to be able to hold that lead with how our defense has played for seven games. It definitely was uncharacteristic of how we've played. You've got to give them credit. They've got some dynamic players, but at the same time, I will continue to believe wholeheartedly that our defense can be one of the better tackling teams in the league because we have been. And Like I said yesterday, that was an example of them making a few more plays than we did. I don't. I don't. And I just know that. You know, it was one of those, you know, got back last night, came in this morning and, you know, had some soreness. So we'll see the extra day hopefully will help with with what, you know, with where that's at. But like I said, got to get an update and use the rest of today. And we're going to use the, you know, the extra day a little bit more on the front end of the week. You know, get started on get started on Buffalo a little bit. Meeting room and walk through wise on Wednesday and then we'll hit the practice field for three good days of work leading into Monday night. Thanks, guys.