Kevin O’Connell opened his Monday press conference by saying the Minnesota Vikings were disappointed after losing for the first time this season. “We really wanted to go win that football game and had a chance,” the head coach said. “…They made more plays than we did.”
The Vikings fell to 6-1 with a 19-15 loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday. They next play the Buffalo Bills, also 6-1, on Monday Night Football on November 9 at U.S. Bank Stadium. The biggest news from the session was Kyler Murray’s health, but O’Connell also talked about the offense, the penalties and where Justin Jefferson fits.
Murray’s hamstring and the other injuries
O’Connell said he had mentioned Murray’s hamstring after the game and that it was sore on Monday. “It’s sore today, so we’re going through a full eval of that,” he said. “I’ll keep you up to date on all that as we get going here.” Asked whether he had any reason to think Murray’s availability would be affected, he said: “I don’t think we’re there yet. It’s still early enough that I’ll continue to get updates and get with the medical staff a little bit later today on all these guys.”
Asked whether Murray came in sore or the soreness showed up with more time, he said, “Yeah, he came in sore.” Murray finished the game, and O’Connell said he is also checking on safety Theo Jackson, who has a quad injury, and left tackle Christian Darrisaw, who came in with shoulder soreness. Asked later when Darrisaw’s injury happened, O’Connell said he did not know the exact moment. “I just know that it was one of those,” he said. “Got back last night, came in this morning and had some soreness.” He said the extra day before Monday night should help, but that he needed an update.
A reporter asked the question directly: if Murray is healthy for Monday, is he the starter? “Yes,” O’Connell said. Carson Wentz is Minnesota’s backup.
“Continue to build that rapport”
O’Connell was asked about Murray’s play after Sunday, when Murray went 17-for-29 for 210 yards with two touchdowns and an interception and missed Jefferson on a couple of chances. He said the staff has work to do. “I think it’s just continuing to build that rapport of the plans, the comfort level, continuing to implore some input from him on things he likes and things where we can carve it and make it even cleaner and better for him,” he said. “So that we do get some of that comfort where he’ll throw things with anticipation, and we get the look for a play and we all know it’s coming.”
He said he saw some of that on the sequence late in the game. After a failed fourth-down try, the defense got a stop, Murray hit Jordan Addison on a big play and then threw the touchdown to T.J. Hockenson two plays later. “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,” he said, even though it did not lead to a lead that held.
On the throws that missed, he said some were timing and some were off schedule. “A couple that we missed, maybe a little high, one on schedule, one off schedule,” he said. He said there were some play-action chances “we maybe didn’t see or didn’t pull the trigger on,” and that the protection has to be dialed in. Asked about play-action from under center, he said it depends on the play. He said Murray is in the shotgun a lot, and that Minnesota runs enough from the gun that defenses cannot get a true tell from the formation.
Justin Jefferson: “Great”
Jefferson had five catches for 33 yards and a touchdown and did not speak to reporters after the game. Asked for his read on Jefferson’s frustration, O’Connell said he showed up Monday in good form. “Justin came in today and he was great,” he said. “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. Justin wanted to win the football game, and we wanted him to have a big impact on the football game.”
He said Detroit often put two defenders on Jefferson on passing downs. “That’s when some other guys have to make some plays,” he said. “T.J. made some plays against some of those looks.” He said the Vikings tried to get Jefferson the ball in other ways, including a few short screens that gained seven to 10 yards. “You get it in Justin’s hands a couple more times, and we know how much he impacts the game,” he said. “So it’s going to be something we’ll continue to emphasize.”
He also said the plan for Detroit’s Aidan Hutchinson worked in part. “I thought we had a good plan for Hutch… tried to minimize a really good player’s impact as much as possible,” he said, adding that other players along the line made plays against Minnesota.
The run game, the penalties and the turnover margin
Asked about the run game, O’Connell said the team stayed committed to it but that “yesterday, we only had 50 snaps.” He said the backs did not average enough per carry, which left the offense in long yardage, and that the longest run of the day was called back by a holding penalty. “If we’re a little bit more fundamentally sound and running our feet there, we at least still get that run without the need for the hold,” he said. He was encouraged that the Vikings were two for two in the red zone.
Asked whether the penalties on the offensive line had a theme, he said the team was on a silent count. He said right tackle Brian O’Neill had two, one for a flinch and one for lining up too deep. “B.O. will be the first one to tell you those things can’t happen,” he said. He said the holding penalty came on a big gain. “Instead of being first-and-10 in plus territory, you’re going backwards 10 yards,” he said. But he said the team has been disciplined overall. “We’ve been pretty good in the big scheme of things in comparison to 31 other teams,” he said. “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.”
He noted that Sunday was one of the first games Minnesota has lost when the turnover margin was even. “I think it speaks to the lack of execution at times,” he said. “So we’ll see how we respond. Coaches, players, everybody respond to a real win-loss adversity for the first time of the season.”
The defense and the short week
O’Connell said he was surprised by the missed tackles in Detroit, but not worried about the unit. “It definitely was uncharacteristic of how we’ve played. You gotta give them credit, they’ve got some dynamic players,” he said. “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.” He said that when Minnesota gets a fourth-quarter lead, “my expectation is always, and we’ll forever be, that we’re going to be able to hold that lead with how our defense has played for seven games.”
The Vikings will use the extra day to start on Buffalo. “We’re going to use the extra day a little bit more on the front end of the week,” O’Connell said. “Get started on Buffalo a little bit, meeting room and walkthrough-wise on Wednesday, and then we’ll hit the practice field for three good days of work leading into Monday night.”
The Bills visit Minnesota on Monday, November 9, at 8:15 p.m. ET, which is 3:15 a.m. Tuesday, November 10, in Cairo.
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