Kevin O’Connell on Offense’s Disappointing Game, Adam Thielen, Defense’s Performance, Injury Updates

Kevin O’Connell on Offense’s Disappointing Game, Adam Thielen, Defense’s Performance, Injury Updates

All right. Uh overall, um absolutely a a very disappointing tough day for for our offense. The you know, the tape showed, you know, a lot of those things to to be what we felt, but it also showed some missed opportunities early on in the game that might have, you know, whether it’s a third and two um conversion to keep an early drive moving or a potential explosive here and there or just sustaining a little bit more. our run game was just not um a a positive part of our early offense. We got a lot of our yards late running the football. Um and it’s got to be a little bit more consistent. I thought our defense battled. Um they were really outstanding for a lot of the day against a a good group and and uh you know they were put in some tough situations and uh specialist showed up again from a standpoint of Ryan Wright, you know, flipping the field and doing some things uh there and and we’ve just got to try to find a way regardless of the you know the different guys stepping in at different positions. is there’s a standard that that we have not met um offensively and and it’s it’s on all of us, but it starts and uh big part of it is is me getting the best out of this group and and uh we’ve got to do that and we’ve got to make sure we’re not only for the present and to do what you know we need to do to win a football game, but um it’s part of what’s made us you know have success around here and we’re not doing that right now. We’re not having success. it is uh clear that uh you know we uh we all can be better. Um, but like I said, I’m going to personally look at myself and and and how we I can continue to find a way to coach um coach the details of the plays that are called and what type of plays we’re going to call and how many plays we’re going to take into games and and if we’ve got to limit our inventory and just demand uh you know execution, we’ll do do it even more than we than we already have, which has been a a part of the process over these last few weeks. Um, as you guys have seen, you know, we did we waved Adam Thelen. I know Quayy addressed the kind of the background on that and what was behind the move. Um, you know, so I won’t add much to that, but what I will say is just how much I appreciate Adam. Um, what he means to me, the organization, um, me personally, I think Adam Felen is a special person and a special player. um that has meant a lot to not only this organization but the career he’s had and I just wish him nothing but the best you know over these these final few weeks of the year and sounds like that you know might be the final few weeks of his career and and and we wanted to make sure that uh you know after some dialogue and and things that we we accommodated that. Uh just injury-wise, uh we do, you know, did get some good news, uh today on, you know, Ryan Kelly had a, you know, the hip flexor. Um he seems like he’s going to be dayto-day, but with a a real chance to be able to go this week. Aaron Jones reagravated kind of the shoulder he’s been dealing with. Um doesn’t seem to have uh made it any uh any worse for the for the wear, but he’ll be dayto-day. Um, and then Blake Brandell did uh report some discomfort postgame with his head. Um, and uh, he did show up to so he did go into the protocol, but I I will add he did show up today uh, symptom free. So, um, we’ll see how he progresses throughout the week. You guys know how serious we take that. And, uh, we’ll we’ll defer to the medical staff on that. And uh outside of that, you know, Christian Dar saw as of right now, the plan is for him to have his normal kind of practice routine and and uh you know, hopefully lead that lead into him playing on Sunday and then Donovan’s uh improving by the day and and he’ll be considered day-to-day this week. With Adam, had he voiced any concern or frustration to you about his calling time? No, it was more so um you know, Adam’s such a good guy. Uh he was it was more so just the dialogue of we were trying to you know knowing we had uh pretty remarkable health in that receiver room this year. Um we’re trying to find ways to to get him tagged in there on some plays here and there and just we haven’t had a lot of plays as of late. That’s been a big issue. Um you know those 10 or 11 or so on average less plays we’re running this year as opposed to kind of our previous three years has been a is has been a major a major part of it. But uh but he also Adam also acknowledged look Speedy’s playing great and Jordan and Jets are are Jordan and Jets. So he kind of uh there was zero you know Adam and I talk a lot. There was zero um you know negativity to the conversations. it was more so um the competitor and him and he wants to you know finish this thing off the right way and and uh you know just figured between him and his representation that they you know the conversations were had with Quy and and his staff and and this was the outcome that kind of came out of it. But there was no there was none of that and in fact him and I were uh texting back and forth earlier. you know, he’s a, you know, he’s one of those players that will always kind of hold a a a spot in my heart and getting to be a part of that first team and such an impactful player to our organization. You know, I care so much about all of our current players for sure, but our former players, too. That’s one of the best parts of this job. Um, but if you look back on it, like, and I think it’s important to do that sometimes with things like this. You know, when we acquired Adam, Justin had missed most of training camp with his hamstrings. Speedy was dealing with an injury where we did not know if we would have him for the first two weeks of the season and and everybody knows we were going to be without Jordan for the first three weeks. And then beyond that, it was a matter of we felt like we had four capable starters and two young guys we really like a lot in Tai and Miles who were going to be heavily heavily involved in the kicking game. Um, so the the point is we, you know, we’ve had that room and credit to those guys, whether it’s Justin and and uh Jordan with their ability to be, you know, every week contributors and and the work they put in off the field to keep themselves fresh and healthy. And then Speedy is, you know, been a a product of four years in our system and building up to be a guy that we rely on heavily and and, you know, in a big year for him personally, um, he’s doing a lot of really good things. So, it’s it’s one of those things where there’s really not a lot of negatives that although this ends with a transaction like this, it it really is something where um you know, the dialogue and the and the positivity of relationships and things kind of um winning out in the end to do what’s best for for the player at the time of the trade. What was the plan for him uh after Jordan? You knew Jordan would come back after three games. What was the plan for Adam when you made the trade knowing that that was just going to be a short? that was that was a that was a part of the dialogue at the time. Um you know that that obviously it would be a major thing the first three weeks and then you know if uh you know we haven’t we haven’t had a particular season where all three of you know or your three quote unquote starters or in this case the four guys in Adam Speedy Justin and Ja that uh they’ve been once all available they’ve been all available. So, um, that was communicated and and part of the reason why throughout the season the dialogue, uh, between my myself and Adam was what it was. And, um, it just I think it got to the point where maybe, um, and I don’t want to speak for him, but, just the reflection of this possibly being the the final, uh, the final sequence of of weeks in in possibly his career. And, and I don’t know if that’s an absolute or not, but, um, I think he he thought it was time to maybe to talk about it a little bit. Kevin, when you talk about limiting inventory, how much of that is just to get more make it easier on the quarterback that you’re putting in there? Yeah, and that’s really what we’ve done. Um, but but to me, it’s more to get the level of execution even beyond the quarterback position. It’s, you know, getting great combinations in the run game. It’s handling movement defensively in the run game so that you don’t end up with unblocked players, you know, at the point of attack or in the pass game. It’s um it’s maybe where there’s a concerted effort to uh move Justin and and the formations required for that. Um you know where where even if there’s one play in a 10play sequence where if we don’t align uh properly whether it’s you know uh you know a backside player split whether it’s on the inside edge or the outside edge or in a normal split or if it’s where we want the location of a grouping of receivers. uh we just got to do a better job being a little bit more detailed and um that I do believe that will lead to a little bit more rhythm and timing uh to our pass game. And then you know there we we’ve got to continue to work through finding ways to still throw the football where maybe we’re using two of our eligibles to to help with some of the things that have gone on up front whether it’s on the left side this week or losing Ryan in game or at different times throughout the season. um you know where we’ve had a rotation in there. We have not, you know, in a lot of our losses, you know, we have not had the the same group of of linemen either that we anticipated and or more importantly that started the game finish the game. And I don’t think we’ve handled that well. And I don’t think uh I think I’ve got to do a better job, you know, finding uh different avenues to navigate some of those challenges where um you know, maybe it’s not just about, hey, we didn’t we didn’t make the block on this play or we didn’t handle this on this play. It’s, you know, are we doing everything but still finding ways to activate a guy like TJ Hawinson who, you know, showed up yesterday, you know, when he wasn’t trying to help on the edges. Um, you know, he we were trying to get him involved in the pass game and and that obviously helped, but that doesn’t mean that we can have, you know, a day for for Justin like it was. Kevin, this kind of in the weeds, but on that fourth and one, um, is Lawrence coming unblocked like something that is expected with a play like that? No, it’s it’s one of those things. He’s a he’s a little bit of a tighter technique right there, you know. You know, he he made a good play to avoid kind of uh you know, Oliver, you know, helping secure that edge to at least give Max the the uh run pass threat. I didn’t you know, ultimately uh I didn’t like the play call. Uh that’s it’s totally on me in that moment. Um I think at that point we were right around, you know, uh you know, one car, a one yard average maybe. And uh you know in that moment you know we better have a a schematically more sound play. Um and that’s totally on me. It’s not on Josh. It’s not on Max. It’s not on anybody. That one was on me and it was a massive play in the game. The play before Kevin was Jordan supposed to run to the sticks? Uh it was right about I think it was a third and six at the nine. Um and uh you know if you look at it they’re doubling Justin in man coverage and Jordan’s got leverage on the route. chance to maybe, you know, put your back foot in the ground and throw that without the hitch there or um Speedy, you know, to the back pylon. Both those guys have leverage to win. Core concept, core staple thing we’ve done really since rookie mini camp year one. And uh it just was a, you know, a bang bang play down there. you run into those um those kind of third downs where they’re not goal to go um down there in the in the low red zone sometimes where you’re kind of sometimes right on the line whether it’s a uh you know that route you know in our playbook might say four to six yards based upon um the release and and whether you’re whether you’re in man coverage zone coverage those things but uh we’ve seen that play many many times be caught you know in stride and and get the final yard or two needed um But uh but yeah, in that case, defender made a good play on it and and probably a a quarter of a second um you know, of ball placement out in front. You you find a way to make that or you progress. Um you know, and Max, you know, the you look at that early third and two where Lawrence gets the sack and and we got beat pretty quick there, but uh you know, that play was really um there to be had and what could that be? And then the, you know, the Jordan Addison in cut on the I believe on the next drive on second and nine. Um, you know, just the did that play that was his previous pass to did that play speed him up to the point where the normal rhythm of that play maybe that ball’s caught just just outside the the near hash there and we’re you know we’re throwing that ball a little bit early maybe. Um, and it’s just it’s kind of what it’s been for us on offense. one play affects the next. And uh you look at it where you know if if you’re telling me those plays, that coverage, uh those those two plays, you’re probably talking a third down conversion on the first one and a and probably an explosive with Jordan Addison running with a lot of grass out in front of them and and both of them end up being um in one case a sack and then in the other a third nine on the next snap. So that’s a microcosm a little bit of our pass game um right now and and just the plays that aren’t made early in games that could potentially set the table and the course for the entire rest of the game. And when you talk about looking inward to like find success for the offense, what exactly does that look like for you like as you try to figure out ways to Yeah, I think you know I think there there has been an element of for for uh you know in our efforts to commit to the run game. Um when when you are efficiently running the ball it becomes easier to stack those runs. Um but where maybe historically we’ve whether it was you know 22 23 or 24 um the explosiveness to of our pass game and being a top five or six passing offense in league was kind of always the standard. Um and we just haven’t we haven’t you know been anywhere near our standard of of doing things and a lot of them are kind of little tiny examples that we just talked about with Darren. But, you know, some other ones are just, you know, me trying to understand maybe we’re not going to be a statistically uh impressive team. But we do have to find a way when you’re playing a really good football team in that kind of environment to get the game to where we need to get it to. And if you look at the last two weeks, two tough road games against teams that are playing really good football. We had first half fourth downs where, you know, I’m trying to be aggressive recognizing the need for seven points. uh specifically yesterday off of that turnover. great turnover forced by our defense and uh you know we end up with with not only no points but they end up with points off of it where the last thing you’re thinking on on no matter the my like or which I’ve told you already dislike of the play call looking back on it you’re really not thinking that’s going to end up um though the movement keeper game kind of those types of plays are normally relatively safe from a turnover risk reward proposition um and it went back the other way. So regardless, it’s a catastrophic play in the game. But I think overall, um, it’s just kind of figuring out exactly what we need to be. Um, where, you know, we’ve we’ve tried to do that and then in moments where, you know, maybe you’re trying to get Justin going or covered. The the biggest thing is what you’re seeing coverage wise um, is is just taking a it needs to take a backseat to what is the best thing for for our offense in that moment. if I’m, you know, in in full transparency of that things that I may see chances to maybe get in cuts screaming or, you know, high crosses running or vertical chances that that have kind of always gave us the lift in games where maybe the consistency wasn’t always there. We we found those plays. Um, that’s where I think it’s just a continued understanding of exactly, you know, we called a lot of screens yesterday. Didn’t have uh didn’t have the success we thought we would have on all of them. We had a few decent decent chances with uh, you know, called a lot of, you know, kind of ball out plays as well, quick game kind of plays and um, you know, and and those are great from a completion standpoint. Um, but if number one’s not open, those those those plays can become uh kind of wasted opportunities as well. Or when we don’t hit the backside in cut for whatever reason that is, those become, you know, just the another chance to huddle up and play a third and longer situation, which we had too many of yesterday. On a personal level, how difficult has it been for you to kind of acknowledge that that there’s things that might in theory be getable that maybe just can’t be executed right now? as someone who’s come from an offensive background and, you know, took a lot of pride in this, like I’m just curious how this has all hit you in the past couple weeks. You know, I I it’s it’s it’s really something, Kevin, where I don’t I don’t really think it it hits you. You know, my job as a coach is to acknowledge it and and and and understand a how to coach it better and still try to strive to see the improvement and and and try to stay true to who who or really what our offensive philosophy is and has really helped us have a lot of success. And um but at the same time, it’s you don’t really get mired down in the in the feelings of it as much as just what’s the what’s the best path moving forward. And we’ve tried to, you know, coming out of the last few games, we’ve tried to uh put together plans that uh that did that. Whether it’s making sure you’re play pass protections, have an ability to get, you know, to block the teeth of whatever pressure you might get. Um whether it’s, you know, double, you know, corner cat nickel coming or it’s a overload from one side or the other. and schematically you’re just trying to make sure you eliminate some of the negative variables if you’re going to attempt some of those plays and we’re just even when you know all those things go right we’re just not seeing the benefit of it on the back side of it right now. Um so it’s it’s becoming much more difficult than it has been at times for us to to function for the course of four quarters where the defense is going to make some plays here and there especially the level of defense we’ve played the last two weeks. Those are those are two pretty good groups and um I think it’s just a matter of adjusting to what is required to win um you know throughout the course of a season but even in the midst of where we’re at right now which is not even remotely acceptable uh still finding a way to uh to press onward. Kevin, when you’re struggling, you know, struggling this this much, are there any unexpected challenges to playing at home? Like, I mean, look at I never heard Pittsburgh booing the Steelers. I mean, they heard it yesterday. I mean, is there any challenges that you have to prepare for? like No, I don’t I don’t think you prepare for it. But look, I I trust me, we uh you know, we this this the standard we talk about of offensive football around here, you know, our fans have seen at least since I’ve been here a certain way that uh you no matter no matter what, you kind of know uh you should be seeing some things when you show up to watch the Vikings play. And so I understand uh when when the frustration sets in. I understand how passionate our fans are and how much they love uh the Minnesota Vikings and that is not lost on me in one moment. If anything, you feel uh a total uh complete obligation to you know our our team first and foremost, you know, everybody that uh puts so much hard work in at this organization, but it’s not lost on me how important our fans are to us and how much they uh mean to us from an energy standpoint and the support we do get. Um, and you want to pro you want to provide them with uh reasons to to cheer and reasons to be excited about their team and and um not always the easiest thing to do when you’re kind of having to transform um you know kind of what you are you know in your current state as an offense, but also it’s about winning football games and that’s what we need to continue to do and put everything we have into uh you know winning a game on Sunday at home and and uh we’ve got five opportunities left and I really look at it like opportunity unities to um you know take every moment we have uh sun up to sun down all day every day um to see the the fruits of the improvement show up so that we can play complimentary with a defense that’s you know health getting healthy and and and should be in a good place. We had some I didn’t want to you know end today without talking about Dallas Turner and the game he had yesterday. Eric Wilson having another great game. We saw Jay Ward get out there and play his role, you know, that that he’s found kind of as of late in our defense from a physicality standpoint, tackling all those things. Like there’s a lot of bright spots and and we’re just not doing enough that uh you know offensively to allow some of those bright spots to help us win and that’s what we’ve got to try to continue to work towards. I know this everybody’s going to be u totally all in on whatever needs to get done and uh we’re going to continue to work to do that. Come real quick. Where are you at with JJ McCarthy? He’s uh symptom free. Um and now the last phase I believe of the protocol is just he needs to just have a full practice day. Uh and that should come on Wednesday. So, like I told you guys, I think yesterday, um, expecting that, you know, barring any unforeseen changes to where he’s at today and and, uh, you know, hopefully he can have a, uh, I think just having that Wednesday will allow him to have a normal full week and and, uh, likely be able to go in as our as our starter on Sunday.

Minnesota Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell addressed the media from TCO Performance Center after the team’s Week 13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

#MinnesotaVikings #Vikings #NFL #MN #Football #Skol

Subscribe to the Minnesota Vikings YT Channel: https://goo.gl/VTGqAS
For more Vikings videos: https://goo.gl/f9Ppj3

For more Vikings action: http://www.vikings.com/
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/minnesotavikings
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Vikings
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vikings/
Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@vikings
Get the App: https://apple.co/2uPFQkP
Subscribe to our podcasts: https://apple.co/36BX1on