Kevin O’Connell on Win Over Commanders, Harrison Smith’s Impact, Run Game, J.J. McCarthy’s Play

Kevin O’Connell on Win Over Commanders, Harrison Smith’s Impact, Run Game, J.J. McCarthy’s Play

All right, guys. Good afternoon. Um, you know, really proud of our team yesterday. Three, all three phases having a contribution to win the game. Um, defense played well again. Got some turnovers, which was uh a real positive. Coincided with us getting off to a fast start and having the lead um there, but I I just like the way our team played, the effort, physicality, uh the execution. Um there’s a lot of really good things that we can hopefully build off of. Um and uh looking forward to this week. Going to be a challenge playing against a really good team. Sunday Night Football. No real injury news to uh update on. Uh came out relatively clean and uh should have a fairly routine kind of practice week for a lot of our guys. Kevin, uh after the game, Harrison Smith was talking about how your message resonated with him, sort of connecting to his uh joy of the game. Just for him personally, I know all these guys love football. they wouldn’t be here if they weren’t. But how does that sort of apply to him maybe differently, his passion for the game? Um, he’s probably not a guy that I mean, it was it was awesome to hear. You don’t I don’t get a a ton of feedback all the time on uh different messaging and over the course of the the year, you’re trying to find different ways to connect with the guys. Um but but no, for a guy like Harrison and the the football career he’s had to um have a message like that resonate with them. You know, that’s what that’s what you’re in this position to do is try to week in and week out no matter what. Find a way to reach your team and uh you know, coach them alongside your staff to give them uh there’s a lot of layers to coaching that’s not just X’s and O’s. It’s kind of the relationship building and then once you’re to the place where you uh you know have their trust and and you have the the the time built up where they they are willing to lean in when you have messaging for them. Um, that’s that’s really what uh I I strive to do in this position. And and regardless of what the previous week or weeks have been like or what the noise may be out there, I have a very important job that I take very seriously due to those players and the love that I have for those guys. So, I’m always going to try to uh figure out the best path to to helping those guys go out there and most importantly have the joy of what you should have playing for the Minnesota Vikings in front of our great fans at home. uh thought it was important for us to to to play well at home. What does the fact that the game still means so much to him mean to you? I mean, it’s that he’s I’ve made no secret of him being one of my all-time favorite people in the the league that I’ve been able to be around, not just players. I mean, his playing career speaks for itself. His impact on the game yesterday speaks for itself. But just uh any moment that I get with him, whether it’s Friday mornings, you know, in the in the one-on-one setting or throughout the week, practice field, whatever it is, I don’t take a single one for granted. Um not just where he’s at in his career, but just he makes me a better coach. He makes me um you know, have a a unique connection to this team through a guy that’s seen and done basically everything in this league you can possibly do. uh winning teams, teams that have had to endure through struggle, um you know, all different kinds of teammates and and he still finds a way to relate at this point in his career to to even the youngest guy in the locker room. So, um he he means the absolute world to me. Kevin, have you learned anything from him? I know sometimes coaches can Oh, yeah. Yeah. I just I think it’s he’s got such a unique perspective that that sometimes as you wade through the waters of a season you uh you know it might be it might be something that I’m thinking about but maybe not uh necessarily um connecting the dots the way he can from his perspective as a player and a captain and a guy that has led you know in his way. you know, he’s if we all can probably agree that he’s authentically Harry and that’s a really good thing for all of us to be around. Um and and I know selfishly for me, I’ve I’m trying to, you know, soak up every moment of that I can. Kevin, after watching the film, what stood out to you about JJ’s day overall? Um just, you know, decisive threw, you know, threw the ball pretty accurately, especially on some, you know, had a couple, you know, the touchdown throw to Josh Oliver, the timing of it, the decisiveness. we kind of got the look we were hoping to get on the play and uh then some of the third down completions that that really helped us have a 12minute drive and then kind of a sneaky long drive there at the end to be able to kneel it out. Um yeah, just you know I thought it was a really positive day for him. Yesterday was the first time that full offensive line group has been together through a full game just like live up to I guess what you guys envisioned to them. Yeah, the, you know, not only those guys, but Josh Oliver, CJ, the play style was all over the tape. Uh, we were consistently, you know, getting some knock back, uh, you know, into the, you know, the defensive front and getting runs started. I thought our backs were really decisive. Both Aaron and JP uh, ran really hard. They had great vision. and they found the space and um our receivers continue to do a phenomenal job uh you know against uh teams where you know in many ways historically if we’re seeing safeties activating in the front the way uh they they started to we we might go to a different area on the call sheet but um we kept on just being consistent with uh being efficient in the run game which was everything to us. I think, you know, you take out the kneel downs and I know there’s some um there’s some kind of hula hoops involved to get to what we kind of view as the actual average per carry and all those things, but um it was uh it was a really positive day running the football. And then I thought there was some really great examples of protection, those guys working together, even though a lot of their time on task together has come on the practice field, not necessarily in any one of our games up until this point. Um you could feel the communication. I thought Ryan Kelly was phenomenal. Brian O’Neal was phenomenal. Again, CD in there for um up until we pulled him out there at the end with some of the other guys uh was you felt him from a physicality standpoint. And then uh you know Donnie for having you know worked through a you know an injury that that might hold guys out for a couple weeks, two, three weeks maybe uh he would not be denied playing in the football game. did everything he possibly could and then played well in the game to go along with Will. So, um, starts, you know, offensive football when you can play that way on the offensive line, um, is normally going to lead to a pretty efficient day. You talked last night about living a little bit in the third down world um, in the game, making those situations work. Um, just how does it affect you as a player when you know the game might lead you to those third down? Um yeah, it’s just, you know, you you have to have um you know, you have to have a pretty unique plan from a standpoint of if you’re not going to necessarily generate a lot of explosives with with how you’re playing, but you are efficient, you’re hopefully planning to have a lot of third and five or less type of things. We had some third and shorters where we were able to get some more runs off and get first downs. um scored on one of them in the red zone there with JP on kind of the dive play. But uh then you’ve got to have an ability too when you’re trying to make a game plan friendly for the quarterback. You know, it’s NFL football. You know, there’s there’s uh a lot of layers to it that, you know, the word simplification and all that are it’s getting thrown out. And um if if it was that simple, I would probably get a lot more rest uh throughout the week. Um, but you’re trying to call it in a way where you’re continuing to maintain the principles of how we wanted to play despite maybe some of those sequences, the DNDs not being on your side. And that’s where it helps when JJ can, you know, go steal us one there when we were backed up on that 12-minute drive. That all started with um, you know, two runs and then a third down scramble that he got us that first first down and then we go 98 yards for a touchdown. So, decision- making, execution, um, no matter what you’re calling, um, you know, it’s got to be it’s got to be what it was and and now it’s just going to be a consistency factor for all of us. What did you see from on the Jay Ward hit on Zacks? Yeah, you know, that’s I hate I hate seeing those things happen. Um, got a chance to connect connect with Zack last night a little bit. um just because you know I’ve I’ve I’ve had a relationship with him but I’ve always just thought the absolute world of him as a player and just wanted to uh you know connect with him a little bit in in a very casual way. It wasn’t anything significant, but um just thinking about the rules that these defensive players have to play with. Uh I don’t I I know for a fact there was no bad intent behind um that that uh that play where you know things are happening fast out there. You got to be very aware of where a guys head and neck area are on those plays. and and uh the unique thing about that is it wasn’t like uh Zach’s, you know, knee or foot was planted on the ground where you see some of those injuries before he, you know, he left the ground to make a play and was still in, you know, in the air when that kind of collision happened. And um like I said, I unless we start shrinking uh the strike zone to go along with the top side and start talking about from the ground up and giving these guys a very very tiny uh window to to try to make a play. Um it’s easy to play it back and slow-mo it and and and you know start to you know develop hypotheses on things, but the game is happening very very fast. I always encourage people um to, you know, when you’re down on the field uh to to take in just how violent and fast the game is um because you just hate seeing stuff like that. Absolutely. You know, regardless of, you know, color jersey or sides of I I just I don’t uh it’s the worst part of our game. Um and it and it’s you know in many ways I do believe it’s unavoidable um in certain instances and our job is to coach up the guys to make sure if it is avoidable to do those things not not only for their health uh but for for the other side as well. Jonathan Allen said that Gink is a unicorn and not only his talents and his study but the fact that he can discern what’s going on so quickly and process it what’s coming at him. What do you find unique about uh Venko’s play that way? Yeah, he can. Uh, it’s not only, you know, the post snap of what he sees and reacts to. It’s the pre- snap of understanding. He knows our call. He knows his job in the call. He knows what might be the response to what we are maybe bringing even away from him, uh, where he’s aligned, uh, offensive formation, what types of plays he can get. he’s processing all that information in real time. That then allows the ball uh to to be kind of moving slower for him when he’s been able to now make a play on those types of throws uh multiple times since he’s been here. He’s been really close on a bunch of other ones. Um and that’s really really hard to do when you’re that close to the quarterback and and and you’re making a play on the football like that. But it’s not just those plays. Those are the ones we all kind of remember and think about. It’s there’s random second downs where he just makes a super instinctive tackle or ends up saving a, you know, a gain to keep it to three or four yards when he not only does his job but then finishes um, you know, helping out in another gap here and there. He just, he does so many things that uh, you really have to take the time to appreciate him when you’re watching the tape of what he’s able to do. Kevin, there’s a moment I think when JJ hits Jordan for that 21 yard on the corner route in the second quarter. Justin immediately kind of points to JJ and I think just the ball going in the right spot. Did you see that? And what did that say to you about his leadership or understanding of JJ’s progression? Yeah, I think you know he’s Justin’s the first progression on the play. He he knows he’s covered by a defender that probably should be um you know as you draw it up probably in that area and JJ in rhythm takes a second hitch and throws the ball to the void and Jordan goes and and gets the gets the ball. So it’s um look Justin has been I’ve tried to say this as many times as I possibly can. Um he has been elite from a leadership standpoint. Um character standpoint being one of our captains and guys that drives this organization. Um that’s no matter what the look on his face has been. That’s no matter what the statistical columns say. Um I can’t say enough about him. And uh that’s just another example of it. Um I I you know I I know that that’s been a kind of a very unique topic and it’s been a a unique year for him. when you consider what the previous three have been like, but um was not surprised and and I had the same reaction on the play. So, I guess that makes him a coach on the field in a lot of ways. Kevin, there was more than a few occasions yesterday when like when you guys were on defense, a player would like start to substitute and turn around and come back. Um and a lot of times it was guys that you know historically have not really been part of the rotation. What was was that? Um there there’s a level to it when teams are you notice they they weren’t uh they weren’t huddling. Washington kind of uses a uh I guess you can call it a muddle type huddle where they’re just kind of standing at the line of scrimmage and they’re subbing and there’s really no difference between getting in a huddle and and not at that point um based upon the rules. So whether flow is changing personnel groupings um with certainty or a lot of times what happens is you know uh you’re seeing offenses sub and then maybe even sub again. And every time that happens, you know, you could see me on the sidelines doing that a bunch as well just because uh I didn’t want the officials to get because they do it every play and then occasionally they’ll go fast and um simulate going fast and then sub. Uh, so over the course of 60 minutes, I think we can get bored with it and, you know, maybe our arms get tired and we we drop those things down before we’ve had the legal time to match substitutions cuz it’s one thing when teams are going, you know, 11 personnel to 12. Okay, we can, you know, but there was, you know, 13 personnel, 20, there was extra line and and it’s then they go right back to 11 and and the defense deserves and has to um have a time to match that. So using some of those guys uh that maybe would stay in, maybe wouldn’t based upon the call. I thought it was a really well uh well done plan to make sure that we had the opportunity to um match match the substitutions. And then they got, you know, on one of our turnovers, they they got us on one where we had had an injury and a guy was in the game that that uh you know, wouldn’t have been if we didn’t have that injury. So we ended up with 12 on the field. So that’s basically just to keep the offense from be able to go faster than they’re allowed to go. Well, when they sub, we can sub, you know, and that and that process. Now, you can’t, you know, I I had some communication with the officials about um walking the line towards having 12 on the field and when they would deem we had 12 on the field, but um yeah, it was just basically you go past the numbers. Yeah, there’s some unique things there, but there there’s a lot going on um there in that moment. And that’s part of it to just kind of hey, what are we in defensively? I’m still on my I’m still on my uh my kick one of these days to get the 14 players in the defensive huddle uh during TV timeouts out of the game as well because I know we were very concerned about the subbing on and off but um it’s very difficult when they can basically have dime nickel and goal line defense in for the duration of the TV timeout and then we come back from um you know a couple advertisements and then we hit that ready for play and the play clock starts and uh You know, I’ll take another swing at that, I guess, this year again. [Music]

Minnesota Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell addressed the media from TCO Performance Center after the team’s Week 14 win over the Washington Commanders.

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