Speaker 1: Hey everybody. Okay, everybody listening to the postgame report, Okay,
Speaker 1: I mean three consecutive wins for the Minnesota Vikings. That's
Speaker 1: good news. But they've all come down to the wire.
Speaker 1: And Pete Versus the analyst of the Vikings radio network,
Speaker 1: and yours truly, Paul Allen, we deeply care about your
Speaker 1: mental wherewithal because this team is working on your minds
Speaker 1: and your hearts right now. But the bottom line is,
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Vikings are four and one a day the
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers lost in London to the New York Giants.
Speaker 1: So you get some breathing room with that four and
Speaker 1: one and they win twenty nine twenty two when Cam
Speaker 1: down Unseler steals the ball from his former teammate a
Speaker 1: Mere Smith Marsett and wins the game. Peter, are you okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm fine. But and you can't make those things up right.
Speaker 1: I Mean, the other thing is is this the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. You go to London, you play a
Speaker 1: road game there, you play a Monday night game in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's been a lot of travel, a lot
Speaker 1: of back and forth. We choose not to take the
Speaker 1: buy early, decide to say, hey, we'll take a home game,
Speaker 1: We'll play one of our division rivals, and you know,
Speaker 1: you come out all guns blazing. And I think the
Speaker 1: key the takeaway from all of this, Paul, is really
Speaker 1: we stopped ourselves today. You know, you know hat tip
Speaker 1: of the Bears. You know, they they they they hung
Speaker 1: in there, came back, found a way scrappy way to
Speaker 1: get a lead. We had one turnover, they had a
Speaker 1: you know, on site's kick that didn't work. But the
Speaker 1: bottom line is is that we hung in there and
Speaker 1: found a way to win this football game, and when
Speaker 1: we needed it from our offense, we got it. Um,
Speaker 1: they really didn't stop JJ. Again, it's a matter of
Speaker 1: us just stopping ourselves. I think, Paul, the interception didn't help.
Speaker 1: So add all those things together you come out with
Speaker 1: the type, you know, type football game. And Kirk Cousins
Speaker 1: began the game as Peaches referenced a team record seventeen
Speaker 1: of seventeen and in the first half, Justin Jefferson had
Speaker 1: one hundred thirty eight receiving yards, which means he finishes
Speaker 1: with one fifty four. So when it comes to the
Speaker 1: first half and the second half, twelve catches, one fifty
Speaker 1: four at the end of the bottom line equation for JJ, who,
Speaker 1: by the way, did throw a pass to Dalvin for
Speaker 1: twenty three yards and it was sweet. But with Jefferson,
Speaker 1: you know, when we're watching these replays, he is open,
Speaker 1: you know, but sometimes there's pressure on Kirk and whatever
Speaker 1: leads to JJ not catching passes when he's open. One
Speaker 1: thirty eight in the first half, and you finish this
Speaker 1: thing with one fifty four, that's weird. It is weird, Paul,
Speaker 1: and I think the one thing to keep in mind
Speaker 1: is the fact that if you have if we go,
Speaker 1: if we're going against a team that doesn't have the
Speaker 1: athleticism at corner to roll up and jam and slow
Speaker 1: down JJ at the line of scrimmage, they're gonna have
Speaker 1: a long day. And the Bears definitely did not have
Speaker 1: that athleticism in their backfield, and we made them pay
Speaker 1: for it, especially early on in this game. I mean,
Speaker 1: this offense was a well oiled machine going all the
Speaker 1: way into jest about just before the half, you know,
Speaker 1: just before the halftime, and the only thing that slowed
Speaker 1: us down we're penalties things like that on ourselves, and
Speaker 1: so that's a it's a great thing to see the
Speaker 1: It's also great to see the running games start to
Speaker 1: emerge Dalvin Cook not just being efficient but being explosive.
Speaker 1: We're still waiting for that really big long run. I
Speaker 1: think seventeen yards is still the longest run that we've
Speaker 1: had all year. Madison doing a great job, you know,
Speaker 1: out of the backfield. He had one drop it comes
Speaker 1: back later, and a key reception for a first down.
Speaker 1: So when when we were just executing, executing the play
Speaker 1: that's called, we were up and down the field on them.
Speaker 1: So that's a good sign. It wasn't as if the
Speaker 1: Bears blew this thing, you know, when we were doing
Speaker 1: what we do. You know, our offense was unstoppable. Coming
Speaker 1: up on the postgame report following an exciting twenty nine
Speaker 1: twenty two victory at us Bank Stadium over the Chicago Bears.
Speaker 1: Where by the way, the Vikings are undefeated at home,
Speaker 1: and they're undefeated through the first half of the division swing,
Speaker 1: and that includes a victory over Green Bay, which now
Speaker 1: has two losses. You will hear Kevin O'Connell's press conference,
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins press conference also three takes with Ron Johnson.
Speaker 1: Then right at the end Kevin O'Connell's very exuberant post
Speaker 1: game locker room speech to the team. But let's begin
Speaker 1: with Ben Lieber and Gabe Henderson and Between the Lines.
Speaker 1: Welcome to a winning edition of Between the Lines, fueled
Speaker 1: by Gatorade, the Vikings victorious over the Chicago Bears twenty
Speaker 1: nine to twenty two. My name is Gabe Henderson. Alongside
Speaker 1: Ben Lieber and Ben we were just talking about how
Speaker 1: the game just ended. Cam Dansler stole the ball away
Speaker 1: from Amirisith Marsett, who was drafted by the Vikings a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago. He stripped him like he owed
Speaker 1: him money. I've never seen a walk off by a
Speaker 1: cornerback ever since I've been covering of the NFL. What
Speaker 1: were your thoughts on that last play of the game.
Speaker 1: First of all, you said you were nervous, and then
Speaker 1: Viking fans, I wasn't nervous at all. I was fully
Speaker 1: confident that our defense was going to make the stops
Speaker 1: and make the plays. But you, my friend, you had
Speaker 1: some nerves and yet I still got hair though, so
Speaker 1: I think that's that's the main thing. But when Kirk
Speaker 1: Cousins threw that interception the second to last drive of
Speaker 1: the game. I was worried that how are we going
Speaker 1: to bounce back? And we bounced back that last drive
Speaker 1: five or five on third down. What did you see
Speaker 1: on that last drive offensively that stood out to you
Speaker 1: for this Vikings offense, Well, we crushed it on third down.
Speaker 1: I don't think that we ever had a super long
Speaker 1: third down. Everything was like third and four, third and five.
Speaker 1: So I think that is meaningful where we're not having,
Speaker 1: you know, big time yards to gain in those situations.
Speaker 1: So I just thought that they were they were poised.
Speaker 1: You know, the whole offense was just poised. There wasn't
Speaker 1: a lot of scrambling going on. At least the feeling
Speaker 1: for me on the side adeline as I'm watching the game,
Speaker 1: it was surgical, it was methodical, very much like the
Speaker 1: game opened up with the first three drives by putting
Speaker 1: twenty one points on the board. There was there was
Speaker 1: no hesitation, no panic from this team. I think that
Speaker 1: that really matters. And head coach Kevin O'Connell talks about
Speaker 1: their Gritton resilience. I think five games in we definitely
Speaker 1: saw that throughout this game, and we saw that on
Speaker 1: the last drive. But I feel like, I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna be honest here, I feel like that Groten
Speaker 1: resilience some somewhat warranted because we were up twenty one
Speaker 1: to three, right, so you would say, okay, let's let's
Speaker 1: put it, put our throat in their throats and let's
Speaker 1: continue to score, score on touchdowns or kick a field goal.
Speaker 1: The momentum shift right before the half. How did you assess,
Speaker 1: you know, just how the first half ended for the Vikings,
Speaker 1: I mean, coming off the first two drives where they
Speaker 1: scored on scored twelfth lay touchdown drives. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: going back to the to the previous games, we were
Speaker 1: really good offensively at the end of the first half,
Speaker 1: which we talked about, which was a departure from the
Speaker 1: last season. So now all of a sudden we get
Speaker 1: into this game. We scored twenty one and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you know, we can't put the ball
Speaker 1: in the end zone. We are faultering, faultering at the
Speaker 1: end of the first half. They pick up all the
Speaker 1: momentum at the end of the first half and then
Speaker 1: they continue that into the second half. So that's the
Speaker 1: adversity part that we're talking about. Not only is adversity
Speaker 1: sometimes how you handle success, which we didn't handle success
Speaker 1: after those first three drives, and then it's about how
Speaker 1: you bounce back, and I thought they bounced back in
Speaker 1: a way that shows you know championship caliber that again,
Speaker 1: there was never a panic. Obviously, they made some adjustments
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bears. They went to a different safety look,
Speaker 1: a lot of single high safety. Early in the game,
Speaker 1: they brought another safety down in the runbox because they
Speaker 1: thought we were going to run the ball so much
Speaker 1: we were able to kind of pick them apart. Then
Speaker 1: in the second half they went a little bit more
Speaker 1: too high safety look. So that means that we just
Speaker 1: have to dink and dunk our way down the field.
Speaker 1: We can't take some bigger shots. So good adjustment by them,
Speaker 1: but ultimately better adjustments by us, Better adjustment by Kirk Cousins.
Speaker 1: Also in this game, if you three wind back to
Speaker 1: last week, getting on the plane after land to win,
Speaker 1: Christian derrisaw put his chain on Kirk Cousins, and I
Speaker 1: feel like we saw a different Kirk Cousins to start
Speaker 1: their first half. Seventeen straight completions to start the game today,
Speaker 1: that's a Vikings franchise record. And then fast forward to
Speaker 1: the second and last drive he extends a play or
Speaker 1: gets a first down conversion on a third and five.
Speaker 1: What were your thoughts on just his play today. I
Speaker 1: thought he'd just looked crisp. You know, you look at
Speaker 1: those seventeen for seventeen on the passing completions. Every time
Speaker 1: he got to the top of his drop, he was
Speaker 1: He had that little bounce to him, a little bounce,
Speaker 1: a little swagger to d and everything was as quick.
Speaker 1: His eyes was like first read, second read, get the
Speaker 1: ball out. I don't think that he held the ball
Speaker 1: for more than three seconds on any one of those completions.
Speaker 1: He was decisive, he was accurate. He knew that all
Speaker 1: he had do was just throw the ball to an
Speaker 1: open receiver and let those guys do all of the work,
Speaker 1: don't try to do too much. And you couple that
Speaker 1: with you know, some running, some running with from Dalvin
Speaker 1: and Madison, and you've got a perfect balance to this offense.
Speaker 1: They had rhythm. They used tempo as well. Second play
Speaker 1: of the game, they go up, no hot, they use tempo,
Speaker 1: get to the line, assess the defense, bark out an audible.
Speaker 1: Put your offense in the best situation. I thought, for
Speaker 1: at least those three drives did a good job of
Speaker 1: getting the calls into him so he could get lined
Speaker 1: up and make the calls on the field man. That's
Speaker 1: a really good point Before we talk the running game.
Speaker 1: I gotta give Justin Jefferson a shot out twelve receptions
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty four yards today. Somehow best they
Speaker 1: care about guarding him on the first half. I feel
Speaker 1: like they did they watch film of him before. I
Speaker 1: don't know, but to your point, they made adjustments in
Speaker 1: the second half and they, I guess limitsed Justin Jefferson
Speaker 1: so let less than fifty yards in the second half.
Speaker 1: But Dalvin Cook got going in the second half. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, this was probably Dalvin Cook's best performance today.
Speaker 1: How would you assess the way he was able to
Speaker 1: get on the edges and run the ball today, Well,
Speaker 1: not only on the edges, but he was able to
Speaker 1: kind of carve some some runs on the inside part
Speaker 1: of the defense as well. He was just doing things
Speaker 1: that you know only Dalvin can do. And we talk
Speaker 1: about his vision, the way he's able to skate and
Speaker 1: sort of float through the defensive line. Um, I thought
Speaker 1: he played phenomenal. I was I was still waiting for
Speaker 1: that one, that one big pop, you know, the one
Speaker 1: big home run hit. But like I said, in the
Speaker 1: second half, they changed their defensive philosophy. They went to
Speaker 1: more of a two safety look, which is really hard.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's hard in the passing game to to
Speaker 1: really take the top off. And also, um, it doesn't
Speaker 1: allow for a lot of home run hits on the
Speaker 1: ground because there's two outlets or two safeties in the
Speaker 1: in the in the back end of the the defense that's
Speaker 1: going to stop those things. So, m we made the
Speaker 1: right adjustments and Dalvin, uh, you know, he was doing
Speaker 1: Dalvin things. Yeah, Dalvin is going to do Dalvin things.
Speaker 1: Moving to the defensive side of the ball. We went
Speaker 1: up to twenty one to thrown offense. Then the Bear
Speaker 1: score nineteen un answered points. How would you assess this?
Speaker 1: I guess bend but don't break defensives game for this
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings defense today, I mean it worked for you know,
Speaker 1: most of the first half, and I think you know
Speaker 1: that we walked away with like forty five total yards
Speaker 1: given up in the first half. And then obviously they
Speaker 1: made some adjustments. We talk about it time and time. Again,
Speaker 1: I just don't think that we're blitzing the right way.
Speaker 1: I don't think that we're calling the pressure years the
Speaker 1: right way and really executing some of the things and
Speaker 1: getting some of these guys free. We might be blitzing,
Speaker 1: we might be bringing a fifth guy, or we might
Speaker 1: be bringing a fifth guy and dropping a guy and
Speaker 1: still bring a four man rush. It's just not really
Speaker 1: working to the way we hope it to work. You
Speaker 1: want a free rush when you when you sacrifice your
Speaker 1: defenders like that late in the game. I thought we
Speaker 1: did do a good job of that. They had a
Speaker 1: drive towards the end of the game where we called
Speaker 1: three run blitzes and stuffed them at the line of scrimmage,
Speaker 1: not necessarily tackle for loss, but some short yardage gains.
Speaker 1: So we start we start to dial up a little
Speaker 1: bit more pressure. I just like to see that a
Speaker 1: little bit more so we're not bending all the time.
Speaker 1: And I feel like a lot of that was due
Speaker 1: to Justin Field. It's just athletics as them also. I
Speaker 1: mean sometimes when we blitzed them where we were able
Speaker 1: to get to the quarterback justin p Field, it's just
Speaker 1: made Justin Phield type plays. Spinning out of the pocket
Speaker 1: using his four four speed to get a first down.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I do agree with you
Speaker 1: with trying to get more bends, which so you don't
Speaker 1: have to bend as much later in the game. But defensively,
Speaker 1: my last question for you for the defensive side of
Speaker 1: the ball is where do we go from here? Right,
Speaker 1: we're at a point now where the Vikings are starting
Speaker 1: to get these close wins. The last few games have
Speaker 1: been close. In my opinion, I'm not sure why because
Speaker 1: we should just blow these things out. But how would
Speaker 1: you assess the way this defense is starting to progress?
Speaker 1: And I guess hold when it really matters, well, I
Speaker 1: guess to your point about about justin scrambling. Okay, what's
Speaker 1: concerning is, and this is where I think it's going
Speaker 1: to help our defense is our rush lanes aren't the
Speaker 1: most disciplined. You know, some of those times we had
Speaker 1: four man rushes with a little bit of a twist
Speaker 1: game going on, and we're just kind of stuck on
Speaker 1: the blocks. We're late with our eyes to get to
Speaker 1: get off of the blocks and make a play on
Speaker 1: the quarterback as he's kind of skating around inside that
Speaker 1: the pocket we have Kyler Murray coming up soon. You know,
Speaker 1: we have Josh Allen coming up soon, you know, after
Speaker 1: the bye week, you know, a week possibly too possibly
Speaker 1: too one next week, and a little bit of Teddy
Speaker 1: Bridgewater if he's in there as well. We're going to
Speaker 1: face a lot of mobile quarterbacks in this league. So
Speaker 1: I think that not only do we have to pressure
Speaker 1: a little bit more, get a little bit more strateiug
Speaker 1: about what types of pressures we're gonna bring, but we
Speaker 1: have to do a better job when it comes to
Speaker 1: the rush lanes. If you're just gonna rush four guys,
Speaker 1: those four guys have to count because seven guys in coverage,
Speaker 1: the odds are you're you're gonna cover up those guys.
Speaker 1: You're gonna cover up those receivers. So you're gonna have
Speaker 1: quarterbacks that are going to run. So those four guys
Speaker 1: up front gotta do a better job. Got to do
Speaker 1: a better job. But more importantly, this Vikings team is
Speaker 1: four and one heading into the Miami Dolphins game next week.
Speaker 1: Hopefully we get another win. But more importantly, Ben, I'm
Speaker 1: just going to enjoy this win, yeah, with the hair
Speaker 1: that I have in my head. So I'm not stressed
Speaker 1: as much anymore. It's not going great either. I think
Speaker 1: it's looking pretty good. The hairline is pushing back a
Speaker 1: little bit. But we're gonna push forward to the Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins next week for Ben Lieber. My name is Gabe Henderson.
Speaker 1: Thank you again for tuning into another edition of Between
Speaker 1: the Lines fueled by Gatorade Skull Sku. Thank you, Gabe.
Speaker 1: You know, the team's four and one. Clearly, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of things that need to get better, including
Speaker 1: finding JJ like every single time he's wide open for
Speaker 1: a touchdown. But how long can can people or us
Speaker 1: or anybody continue to say, Yeah, but you're not going
Speaker 1: to continue to win if these four things continue to happen.
Speaker 1: They just keep finding a way to close on these victories. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they really do. And you know, on a day and
Speaker 1: you well, you come off a game in London where
Speaker 1: special teams really carried the day. Um, you know, I
Speaker 1: think outside of that recovered on site's kicked, they struggled
Speaker 1: a little bit, right, A block field goals, a long
Speaker 1: missed field goal, I mean, any you know, scoring on
Speaker 1: either one of those drives would have changed the complex
Speaker 1: complexion of this game toward the end so some opportunities
Speaker 1: there that were missed. It's just a matter of like
Speaker 1: putting it all together. Paul and I think if this
Speaker 1: team comes out and keeps, you know, hanging in there
Speaker 1: and battling and put put an entire game together and
Speaker 1: all three phases, um pretty solid football team. And by
Speaker 1: the way, the next time we play both the Packers
Speaker 1: and the Bears, it's gonna be January and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be outside, so it's gonna be a different type of
Speaker 1: ball game. That's why it's so important to go three
Speaker 1: and o the division early. You have a game up,
Speaker 1: you know you're five into this. It's it's exactly where
Speaker 1: you'd hope to be, and that's exactly where we are.
Speaker 1: We ran into a bus on Philly, let's face it.
Speaker 1: Outside of that, this team has found a way to
Speaker 1: win every football game. And hat tip to Kevin O'Connell's
Speaker 1: staff and the players. Hey, Pete and I are not
Speaker 1: going to be mad at you if you're saying, hey,
Speaker 1: if you keep throwing interceptions to Kendall Vildoor his first
Speaker 1: interception of his career and through thirty eight games, you're
Speaker 1: not going to continue winning. Your kicker is one of
Speaker 1: five from fifty plus. Keep doing that, you ain't going
Speaker 1: to continue to win. Justin fields two hundred eight passing yards,
Speaker 1: keep doing that, and you ain't going to continue to win.
Speaker 1: Say anything you want. All they do is continue to win.
Speaker 1: Let's hear from Kevin O'Connell. Here's this postgame press conference.
Speaker 1: Very hard thought, tough football game. I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: across the board, our team continues to shoot show you know,
Speaker 1: levels of grit and resiliency that should bode well for us.
Speaker 1: Don't necessarily think we found that fourth quarter of consistent
Speaker 1: ball that we're looking for. But you know, as we've learned,
Speaker 1: it's not easy to do in the NFL against teams
Speaker 1: with different scheme variations and the competitiveness. You know, that's okay,
Speaker 1: but we're still going to continue to work tiressly to
Speaker 1: have that. Excuse me, but once again, very very proud
Speaker 1: of the way Kirk battle to the end, leading us
Speaker 1: back once again to get the lead back in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter of a game, as well as our defense
Speaker 1: not only getting the strip sacked there, but also then
Speaker 1: you know, able to take the football away to allow
Speaker 1: us to take a knee for a victory in front
Speaker 1: of our great fans. I thought they were phenomenal again today.
Speaker 1: Three divisional home games down in front of them, being
Speaker 1: a huge part of willing us to these victories late.
Speaker 1: You feel the belief out of them. I just want
Speaker 1: to give you guys a quick update on a couple injuries.
Speaker 1: Ty Chandler suffered a broken thumb and he'll be out.
Speaker 1: We'll let you guys know timeline wise, but we'll get
Speaker 1: that fixed up. And then a Caleb Evans is in
Speaker 1: the concussion protocol, so we'll absolutely follow everything from a
Speaker 1: protocol standpoint what absolutely is in the best interest of
Speaker 1: the player and get him back when when he is
Speaker 1: medically cleared. And then just to give one more update
Speaker 1: on Lewis. He did arrive back to the Twin Cities
Speaker 1: last night. He's doing well. He's in great spirits. He
Speaker 1: told me he's gonna be watching the ball game. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give him a call as soon as we get
Speaker 1: out of here, and then hopefully we get him back
Speaker 1: into our facility at some point soon to get him
Speaker 1: around our guys. But with that, I'll open it up
Speaker 1: to you guys. In first place in the division at
Speaker 1: this point after five years, it doesn't mean anything right now. No,
Speaker 1: it really doesn't. UM. I just think it just means that,
Speaker 1: you know, we're four and one after five games, and
Speaker 1: we've learned a lot about our team through five games.
Speaker 1: But I think what we've learned should really help us
Speaker 1: do two things in my mind, have confidence moving forward
Speaker 1: that we can win football games that are hard fought
Speaker 1: and competitive in this league, but ultimately that we can
Speaker 1: can still continue to chase UM consistency across the board,
Speaker 1: playing you know, our philosophical way that we think we
Speaker 1: can win a lot of football games with UM. I
Speaker 1: can obviously do better for our team, you know, making
Speaker 1: sure that you know I can help with some of
Speaker 1: those rolls throughout the game. But but inevitably they are
Speaker 1: going to happen in this league. That's part of NFL football,
Speaker 1: and we'll continue to chase that and push our players.
Speaker 1: But the best part about it is they're the ones
Speaker 1: talking about it, not so much us needing to, you know,
Speaker 1: be banging them over the heads where it They are
Speaker 1: telling me, our leadership is telling me what we're striving for,
Speaker 1: So I feel good about it. At some point, it's
Speaker 1: out there for us to win. The coin tents you
Speaker 1: take the ball for the first time and we wait
Speaker 1: into that. Yeah, I just thought, you know, we knew
Speaker 1: we wanted to play you know, a lot of the
Speaker 1: things we talked about, uh, you know on Wednesday and
Speaker 1: Friday with you guys. I mean, I just wanted to
Speaker 1: be aggressive. But there's no rule that says that you
Speaker 1: can and try to set the tone to play complimentary
Speaker 1: football with your offense. We've got so much confidence in
Speaker 1: our quarterback, our group, our coaching staff on offense to
Speaker 1: help put together a great plan that you know, the
Speaker 1: easy parts really call them the plays, and watching our
Speaker 1: guys have the plan come to life. Um, I thought
Speaker 1: we were really good on third down. Kirk was dialed
Speaker 1: in from the jump, had a great rhythm to him. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, they kind of morphed throughout the day how
Speaker 1: they were defending us a little bit, and he adjusted
Speaker 1: seamlessly for you know, a team record seventeen straight completions
Speaker 1: early on and then and then I could have done
Speaker 1: a better job helping our offense out a couple of
Speaker 1: times there when we were unable to get points. And
Speaker 1: then I think Kirk would love to have that you know,
Speaker 1: keeper throwback that was intercepted. But for the most part,
Speaker 1: it was a it was an aggressive decision. I know,
Speaker 1: the analytics folks, um might you know, get angry with
Speaker 1: me at times for stuff like that. But when it
Speaker 1: works out in our favorite's obviously a good thing, and
Speaker 1: we'll obviously circle back and make the decision we think
Speaker 1: is best for our team. Each and every week there's
Speaker 1: acision at third five at the end or take we're
Speaker 1: on a huge play. Yeah, I thought it was just
Speaker 1: a huge play twelve or fifteen on third down for
Speaker 1: the day, and our quarterback deserves a ton of credit
Speaker 1: for that, as well as feel linement up up front
Speaker 1: giving them time, and then our guys consistently winning on
Speaker 1: the perimeter. Kind of a mix of man and zone,
Speaker 1: some disguised man that you got to react post snap,
Speaker 1: post snap two really playing quarterback today as far as
Speaker 1: playing the game post snap, throwing completions, being accurate, and
Speaker 1: then the details of our guys, whether it's IRV or
Speaker 1: kJ or obviously Justin and Adam, Um, you know, getting vertical,
Speaker 1: you know, yards after catch. I just thought there was
Speaker 1: a bunch of hidden yardage in this game that you'll
Speaker 1: go back and see that. Really, it's a great test
Speaker 1: to a testament to our players and their ability to
Speaker 1: understand how we're being defended and then as it adjusts
Speaker 1: throughout the game. Um, they're they're they're a really smart group.
Speaker 1: The exotic plays that you called, I'm wondering if that
Speaker 1: if we can read anything into that that that you
Speaker 1: feel a step better about your offense and how it's executing.
Speaker 1: You get the fleet flicker at the past, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: you know, I wish we could have got a little
Speaker 1: bit more out of that flee flicker screen. But no,
Speaker 1: it's just it's all situational for me. Um. Sometimes those
Speaker 1: players are going to come up and on early downs,
Speaker 1: early downs, no huddle, then they're going to be you know,
Speaker 1: chunks that we need to get back. We're in kind
Speaker 1: of a long yardage situation right there after a penalty
Speaker 1: we went back to you know whatever, it was, second
Speaker 1: and ten M. I think I think our team can
Speaker 1: handle a lot, and because our quarterback can handle a lot,
Speaker 1: we're trying to find that right balance between giving them
Speaker 1: the tools for success and then ultimately allowing them to
Speaker 1: play within the offense. We want to be with great
Speaker 1: comfort and confidence in what we're doing, and it's it's
Speaker 1: really about all eleven and how they're executing that allows
Speaker 1: us to continue to build on where we're at. We
Speaker 1: got a long way to go five games in UM,
Speaker 1: but we're really seeing some of our philosophy come to life.
Speaker 1: You look at a game like this when you're up
Speaker 1: with that big in the first half and say, this
Speaker 1: is what we should kind of turn into a role
Speaker 1: actually win or is it just kind of a nature
Speaker 1: of the league where a lot of these are going
Speaker 1: to come down and the last a couple of plays.
Speaker 1: I think it's both. I think there's some things that
Speaker 1: I go back to and can point to that, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe could have helped contributed a couple those early down
Speaker 1: kind of negative runs that kicked us behind the chains
Speaker 1: and then ultimately led us to kind of need to
Speaker 1: be a little bit more you know, conservative with some
Speaker 1: of those third down calls. But like I said, twelve
Speaker 1: or fifteen, you know, we were able to battle back
Speaker 1: from some of those long, longer yardage situations and at
Speaker 1: least give ourselves a chance a couple chances at field
Speaker 1: goals there that didn't work out, But ultimately, you know,
Speaker 1: I just got to continue to do a better job
Speaker 1: being Razor sharp for our guys for four quarters. And
Speaker 1: that's where I really do when I tell you it
Speaker 1: starts with me. You know, I want to set the
Speaker 1: tone for our group because I've got so much confidence
Speaker 1: and our guys, we're putting out their offensively, defensively and
Speaker 1: special teams to go perform. Mentioned the seventeen for seventeen
Speaker 1: with Kirk, but they were also like I mean, I
Speaker 1: think almost every one of those was too a pretty
Speaker 1: open receiver. Yeah, wondering like are you seeing and evolving
Speaker 1: nature across the board of understanding of scheme or execution
Speaker 1: of scheme or was that just a good matchup for
Speaker 1: you guys or why was there so many openers? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it has to do with I think Justin,
Speaker 1: you know, really kind of as the game went on there,
Speaker 1: Justin was able to attack someone on one coverage early on,
Speaker 1: and then they kind of settled into a little bit
Speaker 1: different philosophy defensively. And that's what I meant by Kirk
Speaker 1: making that seamless change to understand what the picture was
Speaker 1: looking like pre snap, possibly post snap change into a
Speaker 1: different defense. And then ultimately the respect that people have
Speaker 1: for our skill players they're playing so fast or running
Speaker 1: off the ball and then Kirk being decisive like that.
Speaker 1: It leads to great chances and examples of yards after catch,
Speaker 1: and you don't have to throw it over people's heads
Speaker 1: all the time to generate explosives. Some people just won't
Speaker 1: allow that, and that's when we kind of have to
Speaker 1: lock into a mode of all five eligibles coming to life,
Speaker 1: attacking coverage within depth, and our guys just have done
Speaker 1: a tremendous job. And we've learned from some early times
Speaker 1: during the season where maybe me especially have learned to
Speaker 1: kind of adjust in the real time and just let
Speaker 1: our guys play football. Are you aware that that was
Speaker 1: a team record seventeen in a row, and are you
Speaker 1: aware when it's going on that, hey, he hasn't had
Speaker 1: an incompletion. Yeah, somebody told me at halftime. I had
Speaker 1: no idea. It just felt like he was playing really
Speaker 1: well and the ball was coming out and very decisive
Speaker 1: and really taking advantage of the plan that we kind
Speaker 1: of put together. He's going to continue to have comfort
Speaker 1: and also continue to have a say in what we
Speaker 1: do offensively. I want him comfortable with not only the
Speaker 1: plays I do call, but him and I spend a
Speaker 1: lot of time together, and if there's plenty of them
Speaker 1: that I can take a red pen too and gone
Speaker 1: to the old play graveyard. That's okay too. But I
Speaker 1: want whatever comes out of my mouth on game day
Speaker 1: to him have ultimate clarity because where he's at and
Speaker 1: where he's headed in this offense. I feel very, very
Speaker 1: good about Kirk Cousins defense played today. It seems like
Speaker 1: they kind of continue to a then but then come
Speaker 1: up with big plays and the big moments, Like yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought I thought it was you know, it was
Speaker 1: kind of a back and forth there, a little bit
Speaker 1: a couple of loose plays that kind of helped extend
Speaker 1: some drives for them, But I thought they were physical upfront.
Speaker 1: I thought ed did a great job kind of mixing
Speaker 1: personnel to try to take away what we thought was
Speaker 1: coming with different personnel grouping. Saw some different guys in
Speaker 1: there at times, both on the front and you know
Speaker 1: at the you know, in the secondary linebackers, just to
Speaker 1: try to fit with how we want to play and
Speaker 1: turn guys loose in those situations. Thought that contributed to
Speaker 1: the strips act there towards the end of the game,
Speaker 1: and then ultimately Cam going to get the ball but
Speaker 1: just like offensively, there's a lot of things we can
Speaker 1: do better. Special teams is the same. You know, I
Speaker 1: thought we could be cleaner there, you know, But I
Speaker 1: think for the most part, complimentary football means a lot
Speaker 1: of things, and sometimes it means picking each other up
Speaker 1: or playing off of the momentum of those other sides,
Speaker 1: and just continue to want to see more consistency out
Speaker 1: of our group. But it's great to be able to
Speaker 1: say that after another win here at YO Spank Adam
Speaker 1: was saying that you spent a lot of the offseason
Speaker 1: really emphasizing execution in the late games. Yea, what do
Speaker 1: you see in this group coming together that has allowed
Speaker 1: them to just keep keep their heads about them and
Speaker 1: even whether things are going good or bad, if to
Speaker 1: finish like you have with some of these games here, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, especially for our offense we've played
Speaker 1: that we've got We've got some guys that have played
Speaker 1: a lot of football together and learned a lot along
Speaker 1: the way about each other. And the scheme is one thing.
Speaker 1: But you know what allows a lot of that to
Speaker 1: come to life is my comfort not only in Kirk
Speaker 1: as our quarterback, but those guys up front to give
Speaker 1: him enough time and then our guy's execution, I mean,
Speaker 1: very very similar to play to what we had a
Speaker 1: little bit different variation, but it's very similar play even
Speaker 1: at the end of the half that kJ catches there,
Speaker 1: you know, gets the yardage we need and we you know,
Speaker 1: we show that as long as the defender doesn't knock
Speaker 1: the ball out of our hands, we're gonna, you know,
Speaker 1: at least have a chance to kick a field goal
Speaker 1: at that point. Those are little plays that although it
Speaker 1: didn't work out, I care about the process at which
Speaker 1: we've continued to show great understanding of how to close
Speaker 1: out halfs, how to be aggressive at the end of half,
Speaker 1: but also go win a game when you have to
Speaker 1: however you have to do it, and I think that
Speaker 1: bodes well for our team in the future. How do
Speaker 1: you feel about how do you feel about being three
Speaker 1: and oh in the division? And how weird is that
Speaker 1: all your home division games are now over and then
Speaker 1: all the other the road ones are late in the air. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We talked a lot to our team in training camp
Speaker 1: about we're gonna get three opportunities to play at the
Speaker 1: you know, in the greatest home environment in the NFL
Speaker 1: against divisional teams to start the season. Let's make sure
Speaker 1: we use that. So I'm proud of our guys for
Speaker 1: doing that. I'm proud of our fans and what they've
Speaker 1: been been like for us here at home, like I said,
Speaker 1: willing us to some of these victories, and and just
Speaker 1: being just a tough, tough environment to come in and
Speaker 1: play out for a road team. Now, we've got to
Speaker 1: you know, we'll take our home games whenever we can
Speaker 1: get them, but we gotta be able to like we
Speaker 1: did last week, traveling and taking our outfit on the road.
Speaker 1: We got to go try to win a lot of
Speaker 1: football games on the road against some really tough teams.
Speaker 1: Little relays you mentioned, you know, with the dancer play
Speaker 1: at the end, he also he starts running but then
Speaker 1: he goes down. Yeah, And so I know that's small
Speaker 1: and the overall scheme of things, but not small to me.
Speaker 1: To what extent do you kind of coach that and
Speaker 1: talk about that? And we've seen games around the league
Speaker 1: go right after that point sometimes? Yeah? Had he not
Speaker 1: done that? Yeah, Ryan Cordell, Mike Petton, they do a
Speaker 1: great situational Masters meeting every single week for our team,
Speaker 1: you know, and It's very, very important. No matter how
Speaker 1: little or a little time we have in a stress
Speaker 1: busy week coming off of a long trip, we've got
Speaker 1: to have that meeting because they show we have a saying.
Speaker 1: The tape makes itself because you can every Sunday in
Speaker 1: this league you can watch teams win and lose games
Speaker 1: with little decisions that they make either when they have
Speaker 1: the ball in their hands when they don't, how to
Speaker 1: go get it back, how to manipulate the clock, how
Speaker 1: to be great at the end of the two minute
Speaker 1: and at the end of the first half. But I
Speaker 1: think those guys do a great job teaching, and our
Speaker 1: players are you know, Friday morning early those you look
Speaker 1: up there and you got guys on the edge of
Speaker 1: their seat just wanting to learn football. And I think
Speaker 1: it's a huge part of what we do here. And
Speaker 1: like I said, Ryan Cordell has been phenomenal with me
Speaker 1: on game day as well as you know with our
Speaker 1: team with Mike Petton right there with them. Question Cam's
Speaker 1: answer is coming up with plays last couple leaves. Is
Speaker 1: this something that you saw coming? I mean that you're
Speaker 1: expecting from multiple plays. I just think Kim's a talented player,
Speaker 1: and I just continue to tell him, be confident in
Speaker 1: your abilities. You can get around the football when we
Speaker 1: when we're competitive and trying to be tight in our
Speaker 1: coverage and trying to fit into the scheme and our disguise,
Speaker 1: but ultimately go play football and be physical. He's been
Speaker 1: great in the run fit. He's been great tackling pet
Speaker 1: Pee as well. Those guys are a huge part of
Speaker 1: us being able to hold our shelves but still play
Speaker 1: a lot of single high coverages because we're asking them
Speaker 1: to do a lot of different jobs. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, making tackles and getting the ball
Speaker 1: out and being physical. Pet p blocking a punt, you
Speaker 1: know earlier, blocking a field goal early this year. I
Speaker 1: almost had another one today. I just I like where
Speaker 1: those guys are at, and we'll continue to mix our
Speaker 1: scheme up build as the season goes on. And I'm
Speaker 1: proud of the way Cam play. That's why I gave
Speaker 1: him a game ball today. That's koc. Kirk Cousins finished
Speaker 1: the day two ninety eight, passing a touchdown and an interception.
Speaker 1: The touchdown went to jail and Rager on a shovel.
Speaker 1: That is Jailn's first touchdown. Wearing ow Our colors and
Speaker 1: a noted sneaker Tom Brady like fashion, Kirk Cousins sneaked
Speaker 1: for what turned out to be the game winning touchdown.
Speaker 1: He did it from a yard out, the eighteenth rushing
Speaker 1: touchdown of his career, and Kirk Cousins after the game
Speaker 1: had this to say, great to get a win, Great
Speaker 1: to get to four and one, be a divisional opponent,
Speaker 1: went a home game. Um, you know, that's really what
Speaker 1: we're here to do. What, um, what it's all about.
Speaker 1: So winning was huge, and um, I thought for much
Speaker 1: of the game, you know, our offense played at a
Speaker 1: very high level. Um. You know, it's never gonna be perfect,
Speaker 1: and today, uh, you know, there were some times where
Speaker 1: we started bartow, but Mum, for much of the game
Speaker 1: played at very high level. And I also felt that
Speaker 1: a lot of the success in the first half was
Speaker 1: just a really good planned by our coaches, putting us
Speaker 1: in some pretty good positions to uh to be effective
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, kind of putting the win at
Speaker 1: our back for us. So I thought that was a
Speaker 1: great job by them, with the game plan coming out
Speaker 1: fast and the way they attacked and uh, um, you know,
Speaker 1: we obviously, uh, and we need to play better for quarters,
Speaker 1: so we need to play better through the stretch of
Speaker 1: the game, so that um, um, you know, we can
Speaker 1: pull away and uh and not live in these games,
Speaker 1: you know, in the last two minutes. So UM, that'll
Speaker 1: be the challenge moving forward is how can we you know,
Speaker 1: if we were to get out ahead of somebody, how
Speaker 1: can we just pull away and and uh and not
Speaker 1: not linger. But UM, I can take any questions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what was it about the game plan they colis? Oh,
Speaker 1: I just think the way that uh that our staff
Speaker 1: prepared for it and the way they planned to attack. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, the mix of running pass, the play action
Speaker 1: screen game, the uh no huddle, the um you know,
Speaker 1: the red zone plan. Uh, the run game was effective.
Speaker 1: So uh you know, it's any time you're effective usually
Speaker 1: because you're being pretty multiple and and uh and not
Speaker 1: leaning any one thing too much. But I just thought that, um,
Speaker 1: you know, after the first couple drives the start we had,
Speaker 1: I look back at the plays and you're like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I felt like I'm being put in a
Speaker 1: position to be successful, you know, and that's uh, that's
Speaker 1: a great feeling, you know when you realize your coaches
Speaker 1: are kind of putting the wind at your back. Talk
Speaker 1: about your hot start, and were you aware that you
Speaker 1: broke Tommy Kramer's record most consecutive team record, most consecutive completions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I saw the graphic when it came up because I'm
Speaker 1: just sitting there watching the game, like seventy thousand other
Speaker 1: people in the stadium when I'm on the sideline. But
Speaker 1: it felt like we'd only thrown about eight passes to
Speaker 1: me when you know they had said that, so um,
Speaker 1: you know, you just kind of play, you're not really
Speaker 1: thinking about it, and so it was. It was a
Speaker 1: productive day. Great to see the production on third down.
Speaker 1: I think that's been a place that we want to
Speaker 1: be better and need to be better to win, and
Speaker 1: the last two weeks have been better, and so that's
Speaker 1: been encouraging to see you run of completions like high school, college,
Speaker 1: any other time. I have no idea. I have no idea. Certainly,
Speaker 1: you want to pride yourself. I'm being a high completion
Speaker 1: percentage guy, you know, within reason. I think sometimes it's
Speaker 1: a it can be a stat that, um, you know,
Speaker 1: you can misuse, but I think completion percentage tends to reflect,
Speaker 1: you know, making good decisions, getting through your progressions, being efficient,
Speaker 1: staying ahead of the chains. And so I think it's
Speaker 1: it's a good sign that your offense is operating efficiently
Speaker 1: if your quarterbacks completion percentage is higher court for the
Speaker 1: third and five at the end the decision don't rhyme, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, tucking and running. Yeah, I think it was
Speaker 1: two man. So that already gives you a chance as
Speaker 1: a quarterback to run because there's nobody man on you. Um.
Speaker 1: I felt Adam get bear hugged. He was really my
Speaker 1: number one guy on the route, and he got bear hugged,
Speaker 1: and I said, he's not getting open. And then Earth
Speaker 1: kind of got mugged as well getting off the line.
Speaker 1: So uh, and then the rush, you know, I just
Speaker 1: felt somebody across my face and rather than progress to
Speaker 1: the backside to Adam and or Justin and kJ, I
Speaker 1: knew it was two man, kho. I had a chance
Speaker 1: to run and felt the rush kind of across my
Speaker 1: face and I'm just gonna take off here and try
Speaker 1: to get it. And um, you know, usually you have
Speaker 1: us a slide, but when it's you know, third down
Speaker 1: and you're down there, you gotta gotta find a way
Speaker 1: to get across the line speak third and one. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to recall how much you can You don't do
Speaker 1: that a whole lot to you. Um, I mean, we
Speaker 1: do what we have to. You know, we snuck last
Speaker 1: week against the Saints for first down and then we
Speaker 1: snuck here. But again, you know, quarterback on a sneak.
Speaker 1: I mean it's not it's not really me as much
Speaker 1: as that's that's Garrett, that's Ezra, that's Ad, that's CD Brian.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think CD provided a great late push
Speaker 1: with the way he kind of came down and um,
Speaker 1: and so that was that was obviously an enormous play
Speaker 1: that the call all the way or did you haven't
Speaker 1: it looked like you were kind of in shotgun for ZEC. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: direction or what. Yeah, it's gonna just based on what
Speaker 1: you're seeing there. Yeah, in that case, there were a
Speaker 1: few options there. There were a few options, yep. So
Speaker 1: we were able to get that one in. Kirko coach
Speaker 1: was just saying how much faith he has in you
Speaker 1: to make decisions pre snap, to to kind of go
Speaker 1: through a post snap like the synergy that you two
Speaker 1: are developed, feel like just that you know, no, you're
Speaker 1: in you the way that he does. Yeah, he's really
Speaker 1: been that way from day one. I will say that
Speaker 1: you said it. You know, we're developing. I think we're
Speaker 1: getting there. I would tell you that after being in
Speaker 1: a system for three us years, three different play callers,
Speaker 1: but a similar system. You know, I'm not where I
Speaker 1: was at the end last season in that old system.
Speaker 1: So but we're developing it. We're getting there, and I'm
Speaker 1: excited about that continued growth. And we have to keep
Speaker 1: showing that. You know, we got to get to the
Speaker 1: buy and look back and feel like we are every
Speaker 1: week taking another step towards that synergy. And he certainly
Speaker 1: is in my corner, and I think that makes it
Speaker 1: makes for a great help as a quarterback at seventeen
Speaker 1: through seventeen at the stage there is that like a
Speaker 1: confidence or something, you just feel that you can put
Speaker 1: the ball pin quite. I mean, you feel that all
Speaker 1: of a sudden you're hot. I really didn't. I think
Speaker 1: it goes back to again, the coaching, the plan when
Speaker 1: you're just dropping back and going where your reads take you.
Speaker 1: But they're giving you number one open and players are
Speaker 1: separating and the run game is giving you favorable opportunities
Speaker 1: to throw the ball. It just kind of all converged
Speaker 1: on putting me in a position to be successful. But no,
Speaker 1: I don't think I was ripping it into brutally tight
Speaker 1: windows or having to throw, you know, and kind of
Speaker 1: be at this hero. I think when you do that,
Speaker 1: it's because everything around you is giving you this opportunity
Speaker 1: then to be successful. But if you go back and
Speaker 1: watch those seventeen throws, I would think you'd see they're
Speaker 1: very automatic, which I think My point is it says
Speaker 1: a lot about the plan the coaches and my teammates
Speaker 1: kind of putting me in that position. We're kind of
Speaker 1: going off of that. What did you see them do
Speaker 1: differently with Justin in the second half after Yeah, they
Speaker 1: were open partment first sent Yeah, I think probably a
Speaker 1: little less single high, a little more split safety, maybe
Speaker 1: a few more pressures here and there. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: the rush got home a couple of times in the
Speaker 1: second half. But I will say that we just didn't
Speaker 1: run off plays in the third quarter. You know, they
Speaker 1: start with it and then we get the ball. We
Speaker 1: got a good field position, converted a first down, and
Speaker 1: then on a third down trying to get the ball
Speaker 1: out to Earth, they hit my arm and you know,
Speaker 1: whether it's a fumble or incompletion, you know, had to
Speaker 1: settle for kicking a field goal there. And then we
Speaker 1: didn't get the ball back really to the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: so you know, you only have like, you know, six
Speaker 1: plays or whatever it was run in that third quarter,
Speaker 1: which I think just doesn't give us the opportunities that
Speaker 1: those twelve plus play drives in the first half gave us.
Speaker 1: We see on that exception. Yeah, I M that was
Speaker 1: an example of allowing previous plays to influence your decision
Speaker 1: instead of just running the play in a vacuum. I
Speaker 1: had taken that that flat route so many times, and
Speaker 1: a couple of times last week a time earlier in
Speaker 1: this game with Earth, the guy was open elsewhere, and
Speaker 1: I kind of was allowing those previous plays it starts
Speaker 1: to try to hunt something up that really I should
Speaker 1: have just said, you know, let's just play this in
Speaker 1: a vacuum in its own entity and take the guy
Speaker 1: that's opening the flat and settle for a shorter game
Speaker 1: if it's a shorter game, instead of trying to use
Speaker 1: previous reps to hunt something up that really wasn't there.
Speaker 1: Part of that developing in a new offense. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think what's tough is like me, I'd love to say, oh,
Speaker 1: it's a you know, I threw a pick because it's
Speaker 1: a new offense, But when you look at it's like,
Speaker 1: I mean, I've run bootlegs my whole career. I mean
Speaker 1: that that was just another bootleg that I've run a
Speaker 1: thousand times. And so all I can say there is,
Speaker 1: don't allow a previous clip where you think you might
Speaker 1: have had something and you settled for the checkdown. Don't
Speaker 1: allow that to then make you on the next place,
Speaker 1: start to look for that when it isn't there, start
Speaker 1: to feel like, oh maybe I'll get it. You know.
Speaker 1: Just treat each play as its own entity. Quarterbacks and
Speaker 1: teams are measured up and in how you perform with
Speaker 1: those last minute drives. Are the factors there that you're
Speaker 1: seeing developed which this team and with you that you've
Speaker 1: almost embraced those times now that you look forward to
Speaker 1: having an opportunity with the confidence level of this team, well,
Speaker 1: I think you always embrace them. Um, you know, you
Speaker 1: always until the clock says zero, you're really feeling like
Speaker 1: you've got a fighting chance and been a part of
Speaker 1: too many games where you know you have the odds
Speaker 1: against you, but with timeouts and some clock, you find
Speaker 1: a way to get down there and get points, whether
Speaker 1: kicking it or scoring a touchdown. So you kind of
Speaker 1: always keep hope alive. And with the players we have
Speaker 1: as well, you keep hope alive because you expect guys
Speaker 1: to make plays and give you a chance until the
Speaker 1: clock says zero. And we kind of learned it the
Speaker 1: other way too. When you have a lead. You know,
Speaker 1: the teams in the NFL, I'll tend to find their
Speaker 1: way back and so you have to keep playing and
Speaker 1: every play matters so much. Being three and oz in
Speaker 1: the division and how odd is the schedule this year
Speaker 1: with all the home games early and all the division
Speaker 1: road games, right, Yeah, it's a it's a it's a
Speaker 1: great start. It's a great start, and uh that's all
Speaker 1: it is, though, And we're gonna be talking each week
Speaker 1: here and all the way through to January, and you
Speaker 1: know that's where really when it matters is we got
Speaker 1: to finish strong. But um, it's a great start and
Speaker 1: we got to build on it. When you're running that
Speaker 1: no hudden, when you're running that no huddle, I think
Speaker 1: sometimes people have a misnomer that it's a hurry up
Speaker 1: and in your case, yeah always yeah, curious, like what
Speaker 1: are you guys doing in that sort of period when
Speaker 1: you get on the line and then you sometimes you
Speaker 1: back away, like what's that? I think it's just an
Speaker 1: opportunity to kind of um, keep going, keep keep the
Speaker 1: momentum going in our favor. Uh, kind of going back
Speaker 1: to that wind at your back field where you're playing
Speaker 1: downhill in a good way where you kind of got
Speaker 1: momentum and you just kind of keep that tempo going
Speaker 1: and apply pressure. That's really what you want to do there.
Speaker 1: And so it's been I think it's been effective for us.
Speaker 1: I think it's important each week, how we do it,
Speaker 1: when we do it, why we do it, what we're
Speaker 1: looking to do with it. Those are the questions each
Speaker 1: week and a game plan that are important. And that's
Speaker 1: where I say the way the game plan fit this
Speaker 1: week and the way it got designed by our coaches,
Speaker 1: it just would appear it was really strong, you know,
Speaker 1: the first two drives of the game of the way
Speaker 1: they designed it and then the way it was executed
Speaker 1: by the guys. Any part of it. Keep the defense
Speaker 1: from substituting. Yeah, if we sub, then they get to sub.
Speaker 1: They can substitute for like if they're tired, correct, well said,
Speaker 1: I mean they can take an injury, but which seems
Speaker 1: do But yeah, it does allow you to hopefully play fast.
Speaker 1: The fatigue goes both ways. But if we can be
Speaker 1: conditioned at a high level, we can use that to
Speaker 1: apply pressure to a defense. But they know that, and
Speaker 1: so if we sub, they sub. And so that's all
Speaker 1: those conversations of hey, I know you're tired, but you
Speaker 1: guys stay out there so we can keep going, keep
Speaker 1: our foot on the guests. You convert it five third
Speaker 1: downs on the seven team play, go ahead drive. Just
Speaker 1: how does each one of those conversions kind of change
Speaker 1: what you think you'll be able to do? Yeah, third
Speaker 1: down conversions are such a big, big part of why
Speaker 1: you win or why you lose, you know, and they
Speaker 1: get a big emphasis every week in your preparation. You
Speaker 1: spend basically a whole day on Thursday trying to lock
Speaker 1: that in. And again it goes back to so many
Speaker 1: pieces at the work. Design needs to be good, it's
Speaker 1: got to be well protected. Guys got to get open
Speaker 1: and separate versusor coverage and we've got to find it
Speaker 1: and throw it. And then you know, you gotta have
Speaker 1: a mix of running past. You gotta stay in third manageable.
Speaker 1: I think we had ten third downs five or less.
Speaker 1: You know, we're in third and eleven all game. That's
Speaker 1: different conversion than third and one. So staying in third
Speaker 1: and manageable, being productive on first and second down to
Speaker 1: give you that fighting chance on third down really helps
Speaker 1: a couple of times. To Davis Derris, I just burry, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, how have you seen him develop here?
Speaker 1: And what kind of confidence do you have in him
Speaker 1: holding down that edge for you? Yeah, I'm excited about him. Um.
Speaker 1: You know I made a comment earlier this week about
Speaker 1: how you don't even know he's there. And at one
Speaker 1: point in today's game I felt him he uh, he
Speaker 1: was upset about something, whether it was a snap count
Speaker 1: or a call or he got fired up. And I
Speaker 1: remember thinking, like, I like this, Like I like I
Speaker 1: like feeling his edge a little bit. And you realize
Speaker 1: you start to get that, I think because he's starting
Speaker 1: to realize, you know, what it takes, what it looks like,
Speaker 1: what to expect as a player in this league, and
Speaker 1: and seeing that from him, you know, you start to
Speaker 1: feel like this guy's a vet, you know, more than
Speaker 1: a young player, and he's only going to get better,
Speaker 1: and so really grateful we have him and the way
Speaker 1: he's he's improving, the way he's working every week. Thank
Speaker 1: you cousins. Thirty two or forty one. He had a
Speaker 1: big run at the end of the game, by the way,
Speaker 1: to get a first down. It was only five yards,
Speaker 1: but they needed it badly. What did you think of
Speaker 1: Kirk's game? Well, you know, I think Kirk obviously the
Speaker 1: way he started it out, and you gotta give some
Speaker 1: credit to the Bears. He started playing a little bit
Speaker 1: of two man uh in the back end, and that's
Speaker 1: where some of the routes and some of the wide
Speaker 1: open receivers kind of dried up a little bit. And
Speaker 1: we talked about it during the broadcast. There's gonna be
Speaker 1: a point in time when you see two man what
Speaker 1: kills two man? When a quarterback pulls the ball down
Speaker 1: and scrambles. And it wasn't, like you said, a twenty
Speaker 1: yard run like we saw out of fields, im fields
Speaker 1: an unbelievable athlete. It was the timing of it right
Speaker 1: and the Bears felt like it was long enough on
Speaker 1: third down they could get away with the two man
Speaker 1: offensive line doing a pretty solid job, I think throughout
Speaker 1: the entire day, especially early on, and that's what you
Speaker 1: see out of this offense when it has a rhythm, right,
Speaker 1: when it has that rhythm going, it is it's second
Speaker 1: to none because you have so many weapons. So I
Speaker 1: think we saw a glimpse of that today, right, we
Speaker 1: saw a glimpse of that today. It's just a matter
Speaker 1: of keeping that foot on the gas pedal, right, keeping
Speaker 1: keep pressuring this Bears team, keep making them do some
Speaker 1: things that they don't want to do. Because they could
Speaker 1: not stop the run and the pass at the same time.
Speaker 1: They had a sacrifice one for the other. And we're
Speaker 1: gonna run against run, up against more defenses out of
Speaker 1: that way. Ron Johnson with Fox nine as part of
Speaker 1: the postgame report, RJ has three takes. Thanks. This is
Speaker 1: Ron Johnson coming to you from the KFA in studios,
Speaker 1: and this is my three takeaways from today's Vikings Verse
Speaker 1: Bears game. Well, let's just jump out with the first
Speaker 1: one that to me was really glaring. Why on third
Speaker 1: down in the first four games, the Vikings offense was
Speaker 1: thirty one point five percent on converting third downs. Today's
Speaker 1: offense for the Vikings versus the Bears was lights out
Speaker 1: twelve or fifteen eighty percent. The play calling look glorious.
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins looked confident. He started the day off awesome,
Speaker 1: and it paid off. When you're talking about third downs,
Speaker 1: what does that mean? Vikings offense stays on the field,
Speaker 1: Vikings defense gets to rest. The Bears don't have a
Speaker 1: chance to get Justin fields going. And it showed when
Speaker 1: the Vikings went up twenty one to three, they were
Speaker 1: on top of it. That is what this team's gonna
Speaker 1: need going down the stretch to be a lot more
Speaker 1: consistent on third downs. Yes, they were converting first downs
Speaker 1: because they were getting a lot of first downs on
Speaker 1: first second down, but you know, when you get to
Speaker 1: that money down, third down, the defense wants to get
Speaker 1: off the field. The Vikings offense did not let that happen.
Speaker 1: My second takeaway, I would love to talk about Justin
Speaker 1: Jefferson twelve catches, one hundred and fifty four yards, no touchdown,
Speaker 1: got a two point conversion, didn't gritty because why gritty
Speaker 1: on a two point We know when the Griddy's coming
Speaker 1: to a touchdown, But no, that's not my take number two.
Speaker 1: Take number two is Cam Danceler never gave up. Cam
Speaker 1: Danceler is a microcosm of this season so far, which
Speaker 1: is a never give up attitude. This team never feels
Speaker 1: like it's over. Cam Danceler missed the tackle by on
Speaker 1: a Mere Smith Marsett, his former teammate, his friend, and
Speaker 1: then Amir Smith Marsett. Instead of trying to get out
Speaker 1: of bounds in a two minute situation, he tried to
Speaker 1: get a little bit more and Cam Dancer came right
Speaker 1: back up behind him. I don't know if he didn't
Speaker 1: fill him coming behind him and ripped the ball. He
Speaker 1: ripped the ball in the hearts out of not just
Speaker 1: a Mere Smith Marsett, but the Bears fans and Cam
Speaker 1: Danceler because in the past you've seen Cam Dancer make
Speaker 1: some mistakes and big moments at the end of games.
Speaker 1: When you think about the Seattle game and DK Metcalf,
Speaker 1: when you think about the Lions game and backing up
Speaker 1: into the end zone and giving up a touchdown, Cam Danceler,
Speaker 1: because we've all heard Paul Allen with the what are
Speaker 1: you doing? Cam Danzler, Well, today, Cam Danceler, you are
Speaker 1: the hero. You won the game. And he is building
Speaker 1: on a great season so far, playing within the scheme. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's been some been but don't break moments. But he's
Speaker 1: getting better and better and he's growing more and more confident.
Speaker 1: dB is all about swagger. At the cornerback position, you
Speaker 1: gotta have swagger, and Cam Danceler is dripping in swag
Speaker 1: and he showed it today with the never give up
Speaker 1: attitude on that last play of the game. And then
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins, He's in the record books people. That's take
Speaker 1: number three. Kirk Cousins seventeen for seventeen to start the
Speaker 1: game off seventeen consecutive passes. That's Kirk cousins best start
Speaker 1: of his career ever, which means Kevin O'Connell is doing
Speaker 1: something right. But that's also a Vikings record seventeen executive passes.
Speaker 1: Previous record holder was Tommy Kramer, and Kirk Cousins has
Speaker 1: broken that record. So everybody raise your glass, celebrate, congratulate
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins on Twitter, Instagram, whatever you do, if you book,
Speaker 1: face it or Facebook it, either way, congratulate Kirk cousins
Speaker 1: because he has now put his name in the Vikings
Speaker 1: history books with the seventeen for seventeen And that is
Speaker 1: my three takeaways from the Vikings Verse Bears game. Back
Speaker 1: to you at us Bank Stadium on the field, PA,
Speaker 1: and we purposely saved the best for last. You can't
Speaker 1: make it up. I mean, if you listen to KFA
Speaker 1: and you're home for Vikings football, you'll hear most of
Speaker 1: not all of us say that a lot. You can't
Speaker 1: make it up. Seriously, you can't make this up. Former
Speaker 1: Viking a Mere Smith Marsett cut into the first game
Speaker 1: picked up by the Bears. His first reception goes for
Speaker 1: a big fifteen yards and the Bears are in business
Speaker 1: until Cam Danceler, a close friend of the Mere Smith Marsetts,
Speaker 1: rips the ball from said receiver and wins the game
Speaker 1: biggest play of Cam's career. A week after Cam made
Speaker 1: the previous biggest players of his career, singled up against
Speaker 1: Chris o'lave and knocked the ball away late, very late
Speaker 1: in the game. Are you kidding me with that play? No?
Speaker 1: And for Cameron Dancler, we you know we've talked about
Speaker 1: it before. Where for him to get to that next level.
Speaker 1: He has to stay on the field. He has to
Speaker 1: keep making plays. He has to see what offenses do.
Speaker 1: And sneakily on that play, he was doing the right thing,
Speaker 1: meaning cut off a Mere Smith Marsett from the sideline
Speaker 1: to keep that clock moving. A Mere Smith Marsette made
Speaker 1: a cut back to the inside and Dancler actually went
Speaker 1: down to a knee, went down to the ground, but
Speaker 1: he didn't give up. He got back up and chased
Speaker 1: and Is Harrison Smith. That slowed down a Mere Smith
Speaker 1: Marsett enough for Dancer to get back in there and
Speaker 1: rip that ball loose. And he, like you said, Paul,
Speaker 1: he just basically stole it and turn it and ran
Speaker 1: the other way. And what a fabulous heads up play,
Speaker 1: an effort play for Cameron Dancer. That's exactly what he
Speaker 1: needed right now. And hopefully he'll continue to improve, continue
Speaker 1: with the consistency, get better and better and better, you know,
Speaker 1: and then by getting Andrew Booth back and by the
Speaker 1: end of this year you might have some depth at
Speaker 1: the cornerback position. That's pete versas analyst for the Vikings
Speaker 1: Radio Network. Work on the radio as usual likewise for
Speaker 1: Ben Leeber with between the lines and the kfa N
Speaker 1: Vikings radio network. You will hear us on kfa N
Speaker 1: next week from South Florida as the Vikings take on
Speaker 1: the Miami Dolphins. It is a noon central kick and
Speaker 1: the Dolphins were annihilated today by the New York Jets.
Speaker 1: So the Vikings, on a three game winning streak, had
Speaker 1: to play the AFC's Miami Dolphins in hopes of heading
Speaker 1: into the by on a four game winning streak. So
Speaker 1: many things about which to be positive and bring excitement.
Speaker 1: I'm Paul Allen, speaking of excitement. Here's your head coach,
Speaker 1: Kevin O'Connell the locker room following the spine jingler first
Speaker 1: and foremost. He did it again, but this time he said,
Speaker 1: a franchise record for receptions in his first three years
Speaker 1: with the ball club. I have a female and be
Speaker 1: giving me a lot of these balls. Many seventeen straight
Speaker 1: completions start today. All we talked about doing was doing
Speaker 1: your job all day long. This guy let us like
Speaker 1: he has who are fourth victory Kirk cousin? This one
Speaker 1: I might really enjoy right here. Okay. Eight tackles. Eight tackles,
Speaker 1: including when we say don't get the ball, that's exactly
Speaker 1: what it looks like one