Kevin O’Connell Talks J.J. McCarthy’s Play vs. Texans, Standouts From Saturday’s Victory

Kevin O’Connell Talks J.J. McCarthy’s Play vs. Texans, Standouts From Saturday’s Victory

All right. Um, as I told our team, anytime uh, you guys as a team can collectively come to US Bank Stadium, it matters to us to to try to win a football game. I thought there were a lot of positives, a lot of, you know, I call it a checkpoint for our team last night. Uh, that was significant. I mean, obviously some of the biggest work we’ll have all training camp is coming up on Wednesday and Thursday when we welcome New England to town. Um, but anytime you put the uniform on and go play, uh, I was happy with a lot of aspects of our team. You know, it starts with we had the one turnover late. That’s that’s unacceptable. We did fumble two snaps, so we’ve got to get that rectified, but that can happen sometimes when you got different guys working with uh different uh players maybe than they’re used to, but still no excuse. I did like the fact we only had four penalties as a team. Um, offensively I thought in the first half would have loved to get seven on all three of those drives, but to have drives of I think it was uh 12 u 13 and 14 um time of possession, all the things that we’re looking for when you’re really not game planning a whole lot. It’s just about execution. Um thought all the quarterbacks did some good things. I thought all the runners did some good things. Felt the O line throughout, you know, our depth and and uh same with the receivers making some plays. uh even some of those guys that are down the line getting their first exposure. So, as a team, uh obviously with Leaf with the two interceptions, uh Ambry had one, three turnovers, back, our defense back to their ways uh in one half there. Uh after that opening drive, which you know, they had some success, we really kind of shut the door for the rest of the day, gave ourselves a chance, you know, to to win the game. You know, mentioned Leaf and Ambry, I thought Gabe Murphy showed up uh as he has most of training camp. Um, and uh, you know, starting off that that group we had there on offense. There was some really good execution. Um, some good things that we can learn from, but at the same time, uh, thought JJ commanded the huddle, got some great feedback from guys out there. Uh, communication was really good, and, uh, it’s definitely something we can build on here as we go into joint practice. I did want to update you guys unfortunately on two injuries. It looks like Rondale Moore does have a pretty significant left knee. Um, won’t know until we MRI that tomorrow. And then late there you saw Zeke Carell did we’ve already x-rayed that that uh that is a right ankle fracture. So bummed we lost those two guys but outside of that um our team came out relatively healthy but uh anytime you lose guys to some significant injuries. Absolutely hate hate hate seeing it. But with that I’ll open it up to you guys. Did you think uh on Rondale that was a hip drop? you know, um that’s that if you saw me having some dialogue out there, that’s what I was asking about. I do think we’ve got to get, you know, you know, I I I have to watch the playback, Kev, before I truly can give an opinion on it. Um but, um it was very very unfortunate kind of seemed like it had a lot of of the characteristics of that. But, uh you know, I know it is a three-part kind of process to actually call that on the field. We’ll see when we watch the tape. I don’t think there was any, you know, m you know, bad intent there. I think guys are just out there playing hard and competing and especially in the kicking game phases which I do want to highlight. I did think our you know special teams. Um there were some really uh bright performances including really any of you know between Will, Ryan and and uh and uh Oscar. Oscar thank you. I call him something that I would rather not share. U but uh but yeah it was I thought it was a good good thing across the board. I know you need to get the MRI tomorrow, but is the initial concern there. Is there initial concern for his ACL? Um, I just know, Ben, it’s a significant, you know, there’s pretty there’s pretty significant concern for a serious knee injury. Um, don’t want to speculate without getting clarity, you know, for Rondell and and uh, you know, we’ll keep you guys posted as we go. Once we find out, we’ll try to keep you guys posted. Just with all that he’s navigated and his story, just how brutal heartbreaking. I mean, you could feel I think the whole anybody in the in the at the ballpark tonight or today could feel the emotion. Um, you know, it’s one of the most painful things for me as a head coach when I feel the emotion. And, you know, I make a I make a life out of trying to, you know, leave others better than I found them. And in that situation, there’s really nothing to do or nothing I can do, which is the worst feeling as a head coach. Um, so you just, you know, console him and make sure uh that he knows he’s not going to be alone. And then you saw all of his teammates come out, which um I, you know, at the time Rondell’s not going to probably recognize all that, but he’s, you know, tremendously loved and supported by those guys and all of us. So, but yeah, it’s it’s hard to even put into words. JJ’s play passed the test for for what what you were. Yeah, I think, you know, I I I I love the fact that we were able to, you know, execute, you know, hit an explosive in the play pass game. I love the fact that we converted some third downs. I love the fact that on the fourth down he used his legs for that steel one in a game. And I think there’s just a a level of, you know, composure and poise to how he ran the show that uh, you know, was exactly what I was looking for. And now we go back to work. you know, it was it’s obviously a checkpoint for our whole team, but clearly JJ, you know, uh you know, as as as we got a chance to kind of have our first chance since last year, headset communication in real time, play clock, you know, all of us coaches on the sideline, him running the show, and I I thought he did a really really nice job of that. and you know would have loved to play him all day long but uh you know wanted to have him in there with some of the guys he’s going to be in there with and did not want to play that full group uh very long with such significant work coming up on Wednesday and Thursday. You mentioned his command in the huddle. I mean just for him to be back for the first time in game action and how do you feel like he handled all the things that go with that? Yeah, I mean you know he I thought for us really you know we don’t do a lot of game planning for these games. Um, you know, we also want to give our guys a chance to go out there and have success. So, there’s going to be some plays where guys got to, you know, rise up and and and make some plays maybe above this scheme. And he did that a couple times, once with his legs. And, um, I thought there was maybe one uh throw over the middle. It was high to Lucky that was he was a little sped up on, you know, kind of resetting back through a progression. Um, but, you know, didn’t really feel like uh he put the ball, you know, at harm’s risk very much in in in that sequence of plays. led the offense on, I think, a 12play drive for some points. And, you know, with the way I believe our defense is going to play and the way I believe our kicking game is going to play, you know, anytime we can put together a drive like that and get points, we always want to try to get seven. Um, we’re going to be aggressive. You know, it wasn’t just a preseason go for it. I wanted to see our group get that first down and and be aggressive from that standpoint. But, like I said, there’s, you know, we’ll look at the tape. There’s going to be a bunch of little things we’ve got to correct across our whole team. But the principles of what I was looking to see out of the football team today, establishing our identity through our football philosophy, I think there’s check marks uh that we’ll be able to look at and as well as a lot of things to improve on, which is exactly where you want your team to be this early on in the process. How do you assess Sam How’s body work today? Yeah, I thought, you know, I I Sam’s one of those guys uh that throughout the early stages of practice, you kept asking yourself, you know, I think we’re going to see need to see him in game action. Um just to get a great feel for for kind of what Sam can do. And I thought, you know, there was great examples of that. A guy that has played, a guy that moved the team. Um and and I was I was happy with Sam. And then I thought, you know, Rip had some things break down around him, which is normally the case uh throughout the preseason, you know, and and then, you know, I thought Max did a pretty darn good job coming in there and and putting the ball in the end zone there. So, um, a lot of things those guys will probably be the first one to tell you, you know, you know, getting the rest off from a game standpoint, but, uh, I was proud of the way just our team, uh, it felt clean from for the most part. It’s never going to be perfect, but it felt um like we were a football team in the right going in the right direction. What did you think of Xavier Scott? Yeah, Ren, you know, I thought uh he’s another guy you’ve been, you know, a lot of you guys been out every day at camp seeing a lot of these tag off periods where, you know, we don’t talk a lot about the run game in in practice and and some of these plays that look like it’s a tag off for three or four yards. They was getting five or six, ran hard. U you know, he’s got the skill set, as you’ve seen in the past game, to to help as I thought Ty Chandler had some some good moments as well. It’s preseason’s tough. It’s it’s one of those where you know I respect that you guys are here um you know observing with your eyes instead of just the stat sheet because it can be tough at times you know with the way these games go to really get a feel for exactly what happened if you weren’t here um observing it. So compliments to you guys for spending the day with us. Murphy is a guy I think you guys have been excited about. What did you think of him today with his his pressure specifically? Yeah, I think I mean I think he had five hits or whatever whatever it was and and Gab’s been a guy that uh has shown up daily in camp, highlighted it in front of the team. I mean Gab’s he’s it feels like a man on a mission right now in a lot of ways and and I’m just proud of him, proud of where he’s at in camp right now and and now he’s just got to set his sights on, you know, continuing to compete. I’ I’ve mentioned it to you guys how just competitive that outside linebacker room is and it’s you know it’s because we’re so good at the top with really three starters and and JG and Dallas and then we feel really really good about Bo Gabe and and obviously the two young guys. Kevin, what did you see in Elijah Williams that made you guys want to sign him after a try out and what he’s done since then? Yeah, it’s kind of one of those things where you guys know you you know how we handle rookie mini camp. There’s not a lot of team reps where you can project, but you know, I remember vividly Marcus Dixon coming to me um after day one of that try out and I always like to check in with all the coaches. Anybody catch your eye for me to look at tomorrow and and uh you know, I’ll be the first one to tell you watching Dline individual for an hour and a half is not what I choose to do with my free time a lot. Um but I did spend some time, you know, just observing him. the effort had a little pop to them um throughout the drills and and that’s really what’s shown up throughout training camp. Uh you know, guys like that that are hungry and also, you know, for for whatever reason, how you end up being a try out guy, you know, I I tell the guys all the time, regardless of how you got here, this opportunity is right before your footsteps or right before your feet. So, go out there and attack it every day. And you just feel a guy. He sits in the first row of my team meetings every single day. And for those of you guys that have been in there, that’s like sitting in the front row of a movie theater. I tell him every day, I’m like, “How do you see what I’m showing on the screen, he’s like, “Coach, don’t worry about me. I sit in the front row.” And that’s what I do. And that’s defensive meetings, position meetings. Uh there’s a lot to like about him. And it was good to see him make some plays tonight, too. What did you see out of Khalif that prompted the the switch to safety or the look at safety? Well, I think we’re always trying to find um you know, those versatile skill sets and sometimes it goes the other way, right? Sometimes it’s how you use uh Harry and and Josh Matelis and sometimes it’s how you use those guys up front, you know, edge guys that can kick inside or kick off the ball or drop in coverage. Uh it really just jumped out to us with, you know, really as we’ve had some whether it’s Josh is working through what he’s working through with his foot or uh whatever it was. It just seemed like some snaps were there. Um, and he’s got corner coverage skills and a physicality and kind of some ball skills uh that seem to fit with with how we play football here. Uh, not surprised that he was around the football and made some plays. We talk a lot about tips and overthrows with what our defense can do and that showed up tonight. Was really proud of him. First game you guys probably done now as far as the preseason games go. Yeah, we’ll assess it. Uh, it’s going to be a guy thing. Um but more than likely my expectation is if if all goes well with you know having two complete full days uh Wednesday and Thursday um that will kind of take care of itself and then we’ll assess it. But I think I you know between how we handle this week and then how we handle kind of a short week if you will going into that last preseason game. We’ve got a very tight calendar to make sure repetition wise the football team is in the kind of game shape that I’m looking for. Um and then we’re going to start preparing uh for our first division opponent. But a bunch of guys sat. Um, but I believe Jayvon now practice-wise like missed three of the past four and then didn’t play today. Yeah. Is there a concern there about Yeah, he would have sat regardless, but there there is not. You know, he’s uh, you know, he’s just working through the normal training camp um things and and uh, you know, hopefully we’ll start being able to work him back in. We’ve had kind of the eye on those joints knowing he wasn’t going to play um, today. You know, both him and Ja, we’ve had our eye on those joints. uh joint practices. I should finish that off. Um but uh but yeah, that’s where we’re at. What did you see from Ty Felton just from a special teams perspective? Yeah, I mean the the gunner router rep to, you know, get down there and be near that ball that Oscar hit kind of had some English on it and comes out right there. We’re going to get one of those one of these days. Um and then I just I felt his speed. Um, you know, obviously that first I think we’re all kind of learning on the fly, you know, with that dynamic kickoff and, um, there’s going to be some crazy bounces. There’s going to be some plays that you block perfectly and maybe you got a chance for a big one. Um, I thought Will’s there towards the end was was an unbelievable kick. So, there’s that I think that phase is going to be one where as we go through the preseason, we’re we’re kind of learning like you guys as we go of of what exactly that’s going to look like. But you saw, you know, I think they were a yard or two away from that ball landing in the landing zone and it’s the 40 yardd line. So, I mean, it’s it’s a it’s a significant play in our league this year for sure. What was your reaction to uh Mike Brael jumping into a scrum at practice last week? Yeah, I actually I texted him um because I wanted the visual evidence of just how bad the uh the injury was. He uh he uh received, but he sent me a picture back uh immediately and so I was able to confirm that he was okay. Um he called it next to nothing, but it was a very up close and personal photo of of Braves’s face. I hadn’t seen him like that in a long time. So, um, I think the big thing for us and why we why Mike’s always one of my first calls, uh, for joint practices is, you know, we can we spend a lot of time talking about how we’re going to set it up and then I, you know, I tend to, you know, be on that offensive field quite a bit. He tends to be on his first uh, you know, his first offense and he can kind of move around because he’s not a play calling uh, coordinator necessarily. Um, so he’s a guy I trust. I know his team is going to practice really hard and I expect it to be a joint practice intensity. That’s why we put so much value on it. But I believe both of our teams will know how to practice and I think both of our teams will know the standard and what happens if we, you know, we we fall fall short of that standard of how we want to get work in those two days. Thanks

Minnesota Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell addressed the media following the 20-10 victory over the Houston Texans at U.S. Bank Stadium on Saturday, August 9.

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