September 8, 2024 • 32 mins
Welcome to the week 1 edition of the Vikings Postgame Report. The Minnesota Vikings won their 2024 regular season opener with a 28-6 victory over the NY Giants at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Offseason acquisitions were flashing all over the field, including quarterback Sam Darnold who had a great start and was incredibly efficient. Darnold finished the game 19 of 24 for 208 passing yards, 2 touchdowns, an INT, and a 113.2 quarterback rating. New running back Aaron Jones also stood out in his debut, finishing with 94 rushing yards and a touchdown on 14 carries. Wide receiver Justin Jefferson got on the board with a 3-yard touchdown pass from Darnold and finished the game with 59 receiving yards, while Jalen Nailor also hauled in a 21-yard touchdown reception in the 3rd quarter. Defensively, the squad was opportunistic. They tallied 2 INT's, 6 pass deflections, and 5 sacks on Daniel Jones in the game. Patrick Jones II led the team with 2 sacks and Andrew Van Ginkel had a sack and a pick 6 to seal the victory in the 3rd Quarter. Kicker Will Reichard was a perfect 4-for-4 in extra points on the day. Paul Allen and Pete Bercich breakdown the importance of Aaron Jones in this offense, Van Ginkel and Smith with key INT's, Sam Darnold's debut performance, and the upcoming challenge posed by the 49ers in week 2. Plus, Kevin O'Connell and Sam Darnold's press conferences are included in this edition of the Vikings Postgame Report.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:16):
Your postgame report after the first regular season game for
the Minnesota Vikings provides good news. The Vikings beat the
New York Giants twenty eight to six. It's Paul Allen
with a Vikings radio network analyst and a former Vikings linebacker,
Pete Ursig. I mean, I want to say, where do
you start? You know, it's almost like you should start
from the end and go backwards. With Andrew van Ginkel
(00:40):
and a pick six second of his career, fourth touchdown
of his career. But let's begin with Aaron Jones with
what did you see with Aaron Jones today and the
way they ran the ball?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Aaron Jones brought to this team today exactly what we
needed and what we've had been missing in the running game,
meaning you have a running play on the deepen the
red zone on the five yard line. He hand the
ball with Aaron Jones. You know, Nick McCleod, there were
a couple of DB's that had angles, but Aaron Jones
was able to get He's fast enough to get outside
(01:13):
and score the touchdown. How long did it take us
to get a rushing touchdown a year ago? Right? It
was almost it was kind of a joke. Where we're like,
we just got to you know, we can't run the
ball and get it in and then fast forward a
key third and one on a key series, he gets
hit right at the line of scrimmage and is able
to fall forward and get that first down. Those two plays,
(01:33):
the deep red zone run, the short yardage run. You
go back to Cincinnati last year, you go back to
a number of games last year, those situations cost us.
So you know, he had a decent numbers day, right
a couple of good runs at the end of the game,
but those runs right there, and what he brought to
this offense is huge. It's exactly what you needed out
(01:53):
of your running back at those time.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Six point seven yards per run for Aaron Jones. He
finished with ninety four and a touchdown. Let's go offense
defense for a little bit. Then we'll hear from Kevin
O'Connell defensively, Andrew van Ginkel sack pick six.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Just he was and he had a couple of really
nice drops in both he and and Blake Cashman. You know,
when we're doing so much of our messing around with
the line of scrimmage and then you know the routes
that you're getting the turn ins and the flat routes
and you're just holding off that flat as long as possible.
They did a great They all did a great job today.
(02:28):
What a multifaceted group, right right, I mean with Grenard
and Cashman, with Cashman Van Ginkle, you know, Pat Jones
getting in there, jahad Ward getting in there, Dallas Turner
getting in there, and we were able to play and
played a lot more. I have to go back and
look at the film, but more Mann demand on the
back end right than I think I've seen in it.
(02:48):
But we've been you know, maybe not a ton of it,
but enough to mix it in so the quarterback can't
just expect to get zone. So that was another, you know,
another great part of today. But defensively, you have to
be super happy with with how that group played, what
they were able to execute. You know, we've you know,
(03:08):
the first the first sack by Patrick Jones. He was
unblocked and in the NFL, guys just don't go unblocked
that often. So you've got their number, right. An offensive
line in the Giants that only had twenty one snaps
together in the preseason, and they looked at they look confused.
The protections weren't great, you know, so great job by
(03:29):
Flores and his crew identifying who they need, bringing him
in these multifaceted type players, and then and those guys
coming in making big plays.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
This just seemed to be defensively a brainiact kind of game.
I mean, Flora is incredibly smart, mixes up things a lot,
you know, which can be complicated and requires scholars of
the game to follow it. Van Ginkel clearly knew that
Jones was throwing the ball there like he did Sam
Howe last year when how It played for Washington. You
(03:58):
pointed that out adroitly on the And then you get
Harrison Smith, I mean, one of the smartest football players
you're ever gonna meet. He he didn't have an interception
all year last year, first time in nine years hit
Man went without an interception. But his interception today carry
us throw.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
It well, it was a thing of beauty. And it's
just a veteran move. I mean, he had two receivers
to his side, and he was head up to outside
of that slot receiver and was just baiting him to
go to the post, and he was just waiting for him,
and sure enough, both those receivers went vertically and as
soon as Harry saw that, he just waited. He just
tennis bounced and he's like, I'm gonna wait, I'm gonna wait,
(04:36):
I'm gonna wait. And as soon as the receiver broke
off to go to the post, he just went right
to the spot where Jones was gonna throw the football,
not to the spot where the receiver was, but went
to where the ball was going to go. And that's
how he was able to just he didn't even touch
the receiver. He stepped right in front of him and
intercepted that football. So, you know, just a vet vet
(04:58):
move by by Harrison Smith. And what a great I mean,
what a great play. The turnovers, man, we you know,
we start this game off. You look at last year
you're saying, oh, here we go again, you know, with
eleven turnovers in four games, you know, and CJ. Ham
was usually sure handed as anyone we've ever seen. Yeah,
(05:18):
but then to respond to that and come up with
the big plays and get us back in the plus
category was huge by the defense.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
It was CJ.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Ham's second fumble in one hundred and fourteen games. So
that's the aberration that is. Sam Donald is your new
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam the Man on the Fan went
nineteen of twenty four two hundred eight yards, had a
touchdown to Justin Jefferson, won to Jalen Naylor. He had
an interception on a pass that was tipped or his
arm was hit, and we're gonna hear from Sam Donald shortly.
(05:47):
Likewise for Kevin O'Connell. But I thought, Sam, you know,
I wouldn't say he started out fidgety. It just he
needed the game to come to him. But once he
completed a couple man he looked really good.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
He did, and I think a lot of that has
to do with Dexter Lawrence. In the beginning of the game,
the Giants did a great job with Brian Burns and
Caveon Thibodeaux of just trying to collapse the edges and
then letting Dexter Lawrence and rakeem Nunez Rochez up the
middle to just mash that pocket. And they, you know,
they had some success with that early. But once the
(06:19):
Giants went back, they went to a four man rush
and our offensive line got into a rhythm. They protected
Donald very well. He had plenty of time to survey
the field and he was able to make a lot
of throws Paul that were question marks coming in here
deep down the middle of the field. I think we're,
you know, two hundred and some yards. I think Kevin
O'Connell's gonna want three hundred plus each week out of
(06:40):
his quarterback. So he was close. But you know, just
a nice job by the offensive line in the middle
of this game, keeping Donald, keeping them clean, keeping them
off the ground, letting him survey the field. And you
know minus' arm getting hit by Lawrence with that interception.
You know, he didn't make really any misstakes back there.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
And here's Kevin O'Connell not only talking about Sam Darnold,
but Jordan Addison who left the game shortly after halftime
and did not return KOC following a twenty two point
Vikings win.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
All right, I'll get to some injuries here in a sec,
but I just want to highlight our football team. You
think back to how you know, this goes back a
long way when you're preparing for your first opportunity and
you go out to a football game and really see
a lot of through the out the fourth quarters of
the football game, you see a lot of what these
(07:35):
players have put in really long before training camp started.
But as you know, over the last month and a
half or so, just building up to this moment, I'm
really proud of our team. There was some early inversity.
There was a lot of self inflicted some football we've
got to clean up from a penalty standpoint.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Hated see Hm putting the ball on the ground early
with how much we emphasize it. But of all I
can promise you Vikings fans, c J. Hammons, you know
there's nobody I trust more on this football team than him,
and didn't even think twice about that moving forward. I
knew we would respond defensively. There's just I don't know
(08:14):
what you can say other than it was just an
unbelievable performance out of that group, flow, his staff, all
of our players. There's a ton of guys to highlight.
Obviously Andrew van Ginkel. I think he saw a little
bit of everything with Gink, from the sack to the
instincts to make the interception on the screen and then
to go along with his four tackles, Harrison Smith seven
(08:34):
tackles and an interception, and it was great to see
Dallas Turner get his first career Sack. Just thought, offensively,
Sam Darnold, for a guy in a new system to
start twelve for twelve and be incredibly poised throughout the day,
huge performance for us to be able to build off
with Sam. And then really felt the impact of Aaron Jones.
(08:55):
Tried to get him over one hundred there late, but
wanted to be smart about him as well. On the
last you know, gave him. I told him he would
get one more shot at it, but huge impact. Over
six thousand yards for his careers is a pretty special number.
Very proud of our team. It's one game, one to er.
We've got to go right back to work and get
ready to open up US Bank Stadium against one of
the best teams in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Was there one throw in particular that pressed Chief at
Garnhill Garnld.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
I thought there was a couple, you know, I thought,
even the seamball to Josh Oliver from under center, trying
to take advantage of a look, trying to see if
I could manufacture, you know, an easy throw, but an
explosive throw with that play, and he just absolutely drilled it.
And then I thought, you know, on the ninety nine
yard drive, which I know it's been a while since
we did that. I just thought that throw to Justin
(09:44):
was remarkable. You know, to be able to lean on
you know, lean on the quarterback in that moment, to
activate your best player and for his trust and and
just a lot of time on task with those two
building up. I mean, that's a that's a really big
time play in that moment to really set the stage
for us to go down the field and come away
(10:04):
with seven when a team gets you backed up ninety
nine yards like that. So I just thought there was
examples of that throughout the game. You know, there's a
ton of things offensively we can clean up. There's a
ton of things even with our communication first first time
out the gates, though, for him to play the way
he did poised and then for us to be able
to lean on the run game a little bit with
(10:24):
a lead and turn out some first downs, I thought
was really impactful for us. So it really means absolutely
nothing moving forward other than we want to know and
we accomplished the only thing we've really talked about, which
is starting the season. Want to know, Kevin, how much
was that Nayler touchdown?
Speaker 5 (10:40):
Like the exact tent of what you guys wanted to
happen with.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
That player pretty much the exact intent of what I
wanted to have happened on the play. Yeah, I you know,
I just you know, I felt like there was you know,
between kind of what you know, there's always a little
bit of early trying to figure out kind of coverage
intentions with Justin and and and Jordan got some double
teams today as well. There were some times on some
(11:05):
of those third downs where both those guys were double
and we needed to try to make a play elsewhere.
But yeah, that was great setup of the play. You know, really,
you know, you worry sometimes about sending different motions and
things and the noise and silent cadence and getting it snapped.
But I think it goes right along with kind of
just the performance Sam had that will be really something
we can build off of. But I'm really proud of him.
(11:26):
I'm really talking about speedy first career touchdown or at
least first career he's scored before, but first touchdown this year,
and the way his practice week was, like Alec, he
didn't get a whole lot of work, so to be
able to be relied upon in that moment was really cool,
and there's just a lot of things we'll build off of.
There's a lot of things we'll clean up. It's good
(11:47):
to clean up your first game when you're able to
find a way to win.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
Kevin, what is the update with Jordan Addison?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, thank you for the reminder. He did get an ankle.
It was his other ankle than the one he's kind
of had. You know, we're going to have him fully evaluated.
Don't know the severity of it yet, but you know,
Jordan made some big plays for us early on there
and then to lose him kind of affected a little
bit of the flow there in the second half, but hopefully,
(12:13):
you know, it'll be a shorter term thing. I do
not have any real update other than he did not return.
Bradbury missed a few you know, possibly could have missed
a few snaps, but you know we were able to
get him transitioned and turned over with a knee. And
then Van Ginkle, you know, we just kind of held
him out there late, just kind of precautionary thing, but
but he should be fine. Injury.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
Yeah, from the off season, ye within Andrew van Ginkle
just I mean it seemed like he.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Was everywhere dans. Yeah, you know, I know sometimes they
you know, I try to give you guys as much
clarity on a player's role as possible. That's a really
hard one to do. You know, you guys can see
it with It's not only just the impactful plays that
touched the stat sheet. It's really, you know, just the feel,
the presidence, the confidence. He's a major part of the communication,
(13:00):
and we can overload him so that we can let
other people play fast around him, and and then just
the instincts. I mean, he just does not get enough
credit for just the problem he is diagnosing plays. It's almost,
you know, Mike Linebacker ask how he can diagnose things,
but he's playing on the ball most of the time
and having to do that with a heck of a
lot less time and space to make those plays. And
(13:23):
just thought that was you know, I kind of had
a joke with him when we first signed him that
I expected him to find the end zone this year.
I did not know it was going to be the
first game, which was pretty spectacular for the season. Well,
I think it sets the tone and puts a period
on the sentence of let's prepare the right way for
training camp. Let's have a mindset and a discipline and
(13:46):
a confidence every single day to build towards a collective
effort to win a football game. And because that's what
this season is, you know, it's about playing good football
as consistently as you can. And there's, like A said,
there's some things to clean up, there's a lot of
positives on that will show up on the tape. But
there's no doubt your momentum is a real thing in
(14:07):
this league. And confidence. There's nothing like going out, you know,
on a Sunday at an NFL stadium and win in
a game, you know, by by by a significant margin.
And I just think our guys, uh, you know, there's
nobody in that locker room surprise shocked that we went
out there and executed. I think it's just a confirmation
of a lot of work that's been put in now.
(14:28):
You know, I've been talking to these guys a lot
about the discipline. Discipline is not wave your finger and
tell somebody they did something wrong. It's how do you
show up every single day and be the same guy
for the guy next to you. Coaches and players included
that that leads to consistency because we've got a tough
early part of the season with our schedule, We're gonna
we're gonna, you know, attack every single week. Excited to
(14:49):
get back to us Bank Stadium. Felt uh, you know,
felt like US Bank a little there late in the
game with the skull chance. And one of my favorite
things about this job is our fans always show up.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
A a game that jet fans that hope to see
from Sam.
Speaker 7 (15:03):
Can you speak to what the experience of maturity now
comes forward that you can see for what he's been
through and how he's progressed.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Yeah. You know, some of the folks I get to
speak to quite often, they know I've talked a lot
about the quarterback journey, and quarterbacks in our league don't
get to control a lot of that journey, and they're
expected to perform in some cases immediately. I've just always really,
I really like the way Sam carries himself. He's a
talented player. He can make big time throws. Every throw
(15:33):
we're gonna ask him to make, he's more than capable
of doing that. And then he's a great example of
what this last month and a half has really been like,
preparing in a way that will show up on a
Sunday there's you know a lot of things that Sam
you know, will probably come in here and say he
can do better, but I can tell you starting twelve
for twelve and having the presence you know, to help
(15:54):
overcome that early adversity comes directly from the quarterback position.
And that's probably why it's teammates viewed him as a
captain and almost unanimously voted him one. I. I just
I can't say enough about what he was able to
do and how excited I am to build on his
performance today, you know, moving forward.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Like how much does this sort of set him up
for future success? And he's been saying he feels very
supportive by you guys, Yeah, locker room, but at some
point you actually have to you know, demonstrate exactly.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
And I'm just curious, like how you feel like that
kind of sets things up moving forward. Yeah. I think
it's just I think it's just one of those things
Kevin that like, like our football team as a whole,
I don't think our guys are surprised that that we're
able to come here and get a win in a
tough road environment. But I also would pair that with
I don't think anybody's surprised that Sam Darnold played the
(16:43):
way he did today. I know I'm certainly not, you
know I you know, I've tried to foreshadow as much
as I could throughout training camp. So I'm just proud
of him. And you know, Sam will be the first
one to tell you it's time to go back to
work and get ready for a really really good Niners
team next week at home. A deep ball of Justin like, yep,
what makes that such an impressive throw to you? Well,
(17:05):
not to uh, you know, get too far into the
details here, a week one of a of a play
that you know was a big time playing that moment.
It's just the feel, It's just the understanding of Justin
is unique. How he can do things at full speed
and and and and change direction and kind of have
total body control but the quarterback. A lot of times
(17:27):
it can also it can also throw the quarterback off
as far as hey, where's he taking this? What kind
of angle is he coming out of? And we are
kind of in the near the shadow of our own
the end zone in that moment, got great protection and
throw an absolute, an absolute strike, and you know it's
it's something that I kind of saw Justin's face after
(17:49):
that drive when we finished it, and I think he
felt pretty darn good about who's throwing them the football.
Speaker 7 (17:54):
You guys talked a lot about Aaron Jones this offseason.
Your excitement at him to the offense now like at
seeing it. What does that do for you as a
play call to have a guy who can make people
missing open's face and really just get what's blocked consisting.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Yeah, I mean what you're going to see out of
Aaron no matter what the concept we call, He's going
to make things come to life. I mean, he's got
an ability in his body and the experience of you know,
like I said, over six thousand yards in his career.
This guy can make things happen for you in the
run game and when you can get people covered up
and you know, figure out kind of front structures and
(18:27):
how we can try to give him a head start
to hopefully get through the initial surge and initial line
of scrimmage. He's not going to get tackled by the
first defender very often. And we'll continue to explore ways
of We had some things you know that we didn't
get to today with Aaron, but he's going to be
a major, major part of our offense and somebody I
can really rely on. And that's not even talking about
(18:49):
you know, how excited is his teammates and his Minnesota
Vikings family was for me to give him a game
ball covering.
Speaker 6 (18:55):
In the restaurant, specifically with Aaron Jones. He's obviously had
a lot of success there over his career. Things for
you as a play caller, annoying and his ability to finish.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Yeah, you know, I think you saw an example of
that with him bouncing you know, his first touchdown there.
I think it's just a you know, things happen fast
down there, and you rely on vision, You rely on
guys understanding the feel of the blocking combinations in front
of them, and as people kind of attached to block,
sometimes it declares and it's I mean milliseconds that you've
(19:23):
got to make a decision to then have a chance
to gain leverage on the outermost defender, and that in
that play, particularly when he bounced it and then it's
a race to the goal line. So you're talking about vision,
feel and then acceleration and burst to go finish. The
play was a great example of what he's going to
bring to our team.
Speaker 6 (19:40):
You mentioned earlier versity bubble, just how big it was wreathed.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Was that to hold in the field goal that march
down the next two Yeah, I've I've told our team,
you know, many many times, just because we do all
the things right to prepare, just because we talk about
ball security every single day, we wrap things every single day,
that means absolutely nothing. We have to be able to
come out and demonstrate those things in an NFL game,
(20:05):
And you know, it was unfortunate. You kind of felt,
you know, a less mentally tough team might have said,
here we go again. But the next time, you know,
the next time we touched it, we went down the
field score. So I would like to see the elimination
of some of those early penalties setting us back behind
the chains. But that's when your quarterback can bailly out
by going twelve for twelve to start the day. Kind
(20:27):
of alleviates the stress of that. But we've got to
be more consistent and cleaner in our execution for sure
to avoid getting penalties.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
That's Kevin O'Connell and the final margin, the Vikings winning
by twenty two points in all the games Kevin has
coached here, which would be two full seasons a playoff game,
and of this victory over the Giants, the twenty two
point margin of victory is the largest margin of victory
during the O'Connell run. In his very first game as
(20:56):
a head coach regular season, they beat the Green Bay
Packers twenty three. That was a plus sixteen. They win
by twenty two points. Today, I mean versus and I
we're chatting in the fourth quarter kind of like this
is weird. I mean, normally everything comes down to the wire. Ranted,
we win more than we lose with O'Connell the last
couple of seasons overall. But wow, this was a blowout.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Victory uncharted territory, no question about it. And it's amazing
when you have the ability to get up early on
a team or at some point, you know, in the
third quarter ish area, things just change. The ability to
extend drives on offense becomes huge. Defensively, keep the ball
in front of you, don't give up any huge plays.
It's it's amazing when you play with that kind of
(21:40):
elite how it changes really everything around you. And once
again defensively, it really it paid off. The these guys
are gonna have a ton of sacks this year. If
we can continue to do this, make teams one dimensional. Yeah,
that way we can play to our strength, get after
the quarterback. Run these three and four man line games.
These guys are executing up front that are gonna give
(22:02):
offensive lineman headaches.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
So just.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
A game really couldn't have gone much better than it did.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
The Vikings finished with five sacks. Patrick Jones the second
D two. Rookie Dallas Turner had one, Ben Ginkole had one,
Harrison Phillips had one. So they're coming from all over
the place. And before we hear from Sam Darnold, I
think you hit on a really interesting point and we
brought it up during the broadcast on KFA N where
one third and six you would see Mattellis and Grenard
(22:32):
as the edges and inside like Cashman and Pace or
Jones and Pace. Then the next time you would see
Grenard and Dallas Turner then like Van Ginkol and somebody
else in the middle. I mean, Flores Is just moving
them all over the place.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
It's the versatility, right, and it might be be the
same defense, the same look, but just with different guys
in different spots. And that hurts an offense how because
they can't find that your number. They can't play where's
wal though, They can't say all right, so you know
Van Ginkle's over here, so we're gonna turn. If Grenard's
over here, we're gonna turn the protection. That way, it
(23:08):
really creates a little bit of hesitation in the offense,
and that's all you need. If you can get those
offensive linemen to not be one hundred percent sure of
who they have before the snap, that's a huge advantage
to the defense, and we saw that today.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Sam Donald's debut for the Minnesota Vikings was absolutely fantastic.
I mean, was it a perfect passer rating?
Speaker 4 (23:29):
No?
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Did he throw an interception?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (23:32):
However, you leave with the victory in a stadium where
you had massive problems when you played for the New
York Jets, So it was weird coming back here. It's
your debut with Justin Jefferson, Aaron Jones, Kevin O'Connell, who's
an aggressive play calling head coach, you know. So there
was a lot on Donald's play today and my man
came through with flying colors. He moved around and avoided sacks.
(23:55):
Let's hear from Sam Donald.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
You know, a good team win. I thought our defense
special teams played really well. Uh I think, you know,
as an offense, uh, you know, we got going early,
but you know, I think there's a lot to clean
up there. You know, it's good to get in the
en zone a couple of times though, and uh yeah,
but like I said, just a really really good team win.
Proud of the guys in the locker room.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Sammy complete your first twelve. How important was to kind
of getting that earlier than like that?
Speaker 4 (24:21):
Yeah, it's huge. You know, just to play a fishing
football play on time. You know, that's that's always going
to be a recipe for success.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I'm sure something specific from this game that stands out.
Speaker 6 (24:33):
There you're brought up.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I mean.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
There's a lot, I think just the way that we
played as a team, just the complimentary football on offense,
you know, the the ninety nine yard drive sticks out
and then our defense being able to you know stop them,
you know obviously in an early turnover and our defense
being able to hold into three there.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
That was huge.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
So just like I said, a great all around team win.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
One win particularly special and could it be something moving forward?
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Yeah, I mean it's it's always great to get a win.
I think that's that's the biggest thing. Whether it's week one,
you know or week twelve, it's always great to get
a win, and we're just we're happy with it, but
we're not satisfied. Say what was it like to come
back in the building and can you take us through
the first deep pass to Justin down up seven? So yeah,
(25:26):
obviously it's great to be back. It's been a while
since I played here. I played here my first year
in Carolina coming back, that was the last time I
played here. But yeah, it's always good to get back
in met life. And then yeah, just that last that
passed on the sideline to Jets. He ran a great route,
you know, just just like we talked about in practice
(25:46):
and we executed it.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
He was you talked about that in the locker room.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
And he said, like the big thing was that he
just needs quarterbacks to have the confidence to throw that
ball because there.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Is double I guess it's a dub team.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
Yeah, and not every guy's gonna get that ball, but
they could just and and obviously you felt confident to.
Speaker 7 (26:02):
Throw it to him.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
I think that's the biggest thing is just confidence, you know,
obviously thrown to him, but thrown to everyone, you know,
and and being able to stay in the pocket if
I need to and and check the ball down and
just stay you know, stay efficient. I think that was
you know, kind of our mindset coming in and you
know that's that's always our mindset or my mindset personally
passing the ball. And I feel like if I can,
(26:26):
if I can stay efficient and do all those things
I need to do to to do that, we'll be
all right.
Speaker 6 (26:32):
The conversation like before the fourth down, is there any
doubt about going for that there when you.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Guys do a touchdown to justin.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
No conversation that I heard, but I'm sure the coaches
were talking about it. But yeah, I mean that that's
I think that's more of a KO question. But uh,
for us just to be able to go out there
and and execute and you know, jets one on one,
you know, it's a it's a good matchup. Uh, anytime
you can get that on the touchdown with Taylor, How
(27:01):
important is it you is you selling the flat routes.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
That you Everson?
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's always it's always good
to you know, tie the defense down whenever you can.
If you're gonna take a shot like that, you know,
I think just down there in the red zone, especially
in the fringe area where we scored, it's always important
for me to just continue to make quick, decisive decisions
in the red zone. I feel like I you know,
I did that for the most part. But again, there's
(27:30):
there's a lot of a lot of room for me
to get better. Sam.
Speaker 6 (27:33):
I think you talked in training camp about just not
getting too high, not getting too low. How do you
move forward to promote departments like today?
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Yeah, you just you know, keep your head down. It's
only week one.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
Obviously it's a it's a good team win, but yeah
it's one win, and you know, starting tomorrow we're gonna
we're gonna get ready for San Francisco.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
These guys have and you've mentioned, have been very supportive,
whether it's players or coaches, of you and of your
journey through the summer and s curious that the part
of you that wanted to come to this game and
just kind of pay it or like justify it or
whatever the word is, to to show them that it's
that what they were saying and feeling was.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Was really Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
I think for me, it was just coming out here
and like I said, like I keep saying, I think
just playing my game, you know, playing one one play
at a time. But again, just playing with confidence. I
think that's the biggest thing. And you know, because we
got a great offense, we've got a great system. If
I just play on time and to do all the
things I need to do to execute, we'll be all right.
Speaker 7 (28:33):
You're going against them in camp. Was it nice to
see that that defense making life differ for somebody else?
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Yeah, yeah, it's always nice whenever your defense can play
like that, you know, seeing seeing all those looks that
you know, the Giants were getting today, you know, it
was refreshing to to be on the same side as that,
or to be on the same team. I guess, uh
so that that was refreshing. And like I said, man
that our defense played so well today. Gink getting pick
(29:00):
six there, it was awesome just uh, you know, the
entire game, but our defense played really well today.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Same.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
I don't know if you're gonna ask about the Naylor
play already, but if so, just like how much was
that exactly the execution against Branches? Yeah? I think you know,
like I said before, I think it's just you know,
quick and decisive in the red zone and in the fringe.
So you know that's I got to continue to play
like that in the red zone and you know, just
(29:30):
listen to my feet, you know, be confident in what
I see and let it rip.
Speaker 6 (29:34):
Now that you've played a game with Justin, whether it's
throwing the deep ball to him or just seeing how
defense is playing and what that opens up, how much
does he change things for you as a quarterback to
betting to field with him?
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Yeah, I mean it's it's awesome, you know, whenever you
whenever you got a guy like Jets. Obviously Jets is great,
but also the other guys, you know, if they if
they want to double Jets, we got a ton of
other options as well to be able to go to
and that's very comforting as a quarterback.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
On the interception, did you what are your teammates?
Speaker 4 (30:03):
I think it was one of their guys just reaching
in and getting my arm before I could let it go.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
All right, Sam, The challenge next game markedly more formidable.
Those of you listening to this after the Vikings game
on Sunday or before Monday night football, we hooked the
San Francisco forty nine ers. Yeah, the NFC team and
representative in the Super Bowl last year. It's at US
Bank Stadium, so the home openers against a very good team,
(30:31):
a team the Vikings beat on Monday Night football last year.
But we will savor this twenty two point victory for
today and on the flight back from a New Jersey
to the Twin Cities. But just quick twitch on the Niners,
it's yeah, I mean, it's gonna be a thousand times
tougher than today.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yeah, it will be. But that's, you know, so much
of today's league. It's it's when it's how you know,
the how healthy will the forty nine ers come out
of this next game? But the bottom line is, I
believe five of our next six football games minus the one,
and you know, the one team being the exception will
be the Jets in England have all made the playoffs.
So we got to run a gauntlet here a playoff
(31:09):
teams from last year. So none of these next you know,
four or five games are going to be I wouldn't
call them easy because none of them are easy, but
to be as one sided as this one, so you know,
get get the people healthy that we need to get healthy.
But it's going to be a different. This is the
team we're playing next week is going to be completely
different than forty nine ers. They love to run the football.
(31:30):
They're a very physical group. We'll see how we respond
to that. How does our defense match up against their
you know, their style of offense, and you know get that.
We need to get that home field advantage back. I
think that's another part of last year what we lost
a little bit. So getting back at us Bank Stadium
home crowd, I think that's going to make a difference
(31:50):
as well.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Great job as usual.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
That's Pete Bursa channelists for the Vikings radio networking. I'm
Paul Allen. This is a Curly Hearers production and the
Minnesota Vikings begin the twenty twenty four season. Want to
know after throttling the New York Giants twenty eight six,
thanks for listening to the postgame reports. Have a wonderful day.
Your postgame report after the first regular season game for
the Minnesota Vikings provides good news. The Vikings beat the
New York Giants twenty eight to six. It's Paul Allen
with a Vikings radio network analyst and a former Vikings linebacker,
Pete Ursig. I mean, I want to say, where do
you start? You know, it's almost like you should start
from the end and go backwards. With Andrew van Ginkel
(00:40):
and a pick six second of his career, fourth touchdown
of his career. But let's begin with Aaron Jones with
what did you see with Aaron Jones today and the
way they ran the ball?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Aaron Jones brought to this team today exactly what we
needed and what we've had been missing in the running game,
meaning you have a running play on the deepen the
red zone on the five yard line. He hand the
ball with Aaron Jones. You know, Nick McCleod, there were
a couple of DB's that had angles, but Aaron Jones
was able to get He's fast enough to get outside
(01:13):
and score the touchdown. How long did it take us
to get a rushing touchdown a year ago? Right? It
was almost it was kind of a joke. Where we're like,
we just got to you know, we can't run the
ball and get it in and then fast forward a
key third and one on a key series, he gets
hit right at the line of scrimmage and is able
to fall forward and get that first down. Those two plays,
(01:33):
the deep red zone run, the short yardage run. You
go back to Cincinnati last year, you go back to
a number of games last year, those situations cost us.
So you know, he had a decent numbers day, right
a couple of good runs at the end of the game,
but those runs right there, and what he brought to
this offense is huge. It's exactly what you needed out
(01:53):
of your running back at those time.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Six point seven yards per run for Aaron Jones. He
finished with ninety four and a touchdown. Let's go offense
defense for a little bit. Then we'll hear from Kevin
O'Connell defensively, Andrew van Ginkel sack pick six.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Just he was and he had a couple of really
nice drops in both he and and Blake Cashman. You know,
when we're doing so much of our messing around with
the line of scrimmage and then you know the routes
that you're getting the turn ins and the flat routes
and you're just holding off that flat as long as possible.
They did a great They all did a great job today.
(02:28):
What a multifaceted group, right right, I mean with Grenard
and Cashman, with Cashman Van Ginkle, you know, Pat Jones
getting in there, jahad Ward getting in there, Dallas Turner
getting in there, and we were able to play and
played a lot more. I have to go back and
look at the film, but more Mann demand on the
back end right than I think I've seen in it.
(02:48):
But we've been you know, maybe not a ton of it,
but enough to mix it in so the quarterback can't
just expect to get zone. So that was another, you know,
another great part of today. But defensively, you have to
be super happy with with how that group played, what
they were able to execute. You know, we've you know,
(03:08):
the first the first sack by Patrick Jones. He was
unblocked and in the NFL, guys just don't go unblocked
that often. So you've got their number, right. An offensive
line in the Giants that only had twenty one snaps
together in the preseason, and they looked at they look confused.
The protections weren't great, you know, so great job by
(03:29):
Flores and his crew identifying who they need, bringing him
in these multifaceted type players, and then and those guys
coming in making big plays.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
This just seemed to be defensively a brainiact kind of game.
I mean, Flora is incredibly smart, mixes up things a lot,
you know, which can be complicated and requires scholars of
the game to follow it. Van Ginkel clearly knew that
Jones was throwing the ball there like he did Sam
Howe last year when how It played for Washington. You
(03:58):
pointed that out adroitly on the And then you get
Harrison Smith, I mean, one of the smartest football players
you're ever gonna meet. He he didn't have an interception
all year last year, first time in nine years hit
Man went without an interception. But his interception today carry
us throw.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
It well, it was a thing of beauty. And it's
just a veteran move. I mean, he had two receivers
to his side, and he was head up to outside
of that slot receiver and was just baiting him to
go to the post, and he was just waiting for him,
and sure enough, both those receivers went vertically and as
soon as Harry saw that, he just waited. He just
tennis bounced and he's like, I'm gonna wait, I'm gonna wait,
(04:36):
I'm gonna wait. And as soon as the receiver broke
off to go to the post, he just went right
to the spot where Jones was gonna throw the football,
not to the spot where the receiver was, but went
to where the ball was going to go. And that's
how he was able to just he didn't even touch
the receiver. He stepped right in front of him and
intercepted that football. So, you know, just a vet vet
(04:58):
move by by Harrison Smith. And what a great I mean,
what a great play. The turnovers, man, we you know,
we start this game off. You look at last year
you're saying, oh, here we go again, you know, with
eleven turnovers in four games, you know, and CJ. Ham
was usually sure handed as anyone we've ever seen. Yeah,
(05:18):
but then to respond to that and come up with
the big plays and get us back in the plus
category was huge by the defense.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
It was CJ.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Ham's second fumble in one hundred and fourteen games. So
that's the aberration that is. Sam Donald is your new
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam the Man on the Fan went
nineteen of twenty four two hundred eight yards, had a
touchdown to Justin Jefferson, won to Jalen Naylor. He had
an interception on a pass that was tipped or his
arm was hit, and we're gonna hear from Sam Donald shortly.
(05:47):
Likewise for Kevin O'Connell. But I thought, Sam, you know,
I wouldn't say he started out fidgety. It just he
needed the game to come to him. But once he
completed a couple man he looked really good.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
He did, and I think a lot of that has
to do with Dexter Lawrence. In the beginning of the game,
the Giants did a great job with Brian Burns and
Caveon Thibodeaux of just trying to collapse the edges and
then letting Dexter Lawrence and rakeem Nunez Rochez up the
middle to just mash that pocket. And they, you know,
they had some success with that early. But once the
(06:19):
Giants went back, they went to a four man rush
and our offensive line got into a rhythm. They protected
Donald very well. He had plenty of time to survey
the field and he was able to make a lot
of throws Paul that were question marks coming in here
deep down the middle of the field. I think we're,
you know, two hundred and some yards. I think Kevin
O'Connell's gonna want three hundred plus each week out of
(06:40):
his quarterback. So he was close. But you know, just
a nice job by the offensive line in the middle
of this game, keeping Donald, keeping them clean, keeping them
off the ground, letting him survey the field. And you
know minus' arm getting hit by Lawrence with that interception.
You know, he didn't make really any misstakes back there.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
And here's Kevin O'Connell not only talking about Sam Darnold,
but Jordan Addison who left the game shortly after halftime
and did not return KOC following a twenty two point
Vikings win.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
All right, I'll get to some injuries here in a sec,
but I just want to highlight our football team. You
think back to how you know, this goes back a
long way when you're preparing for your first opportunity and
you go out to a football game and really see
a lot of through the out the fourth quarters of
the football game, you see a lot of what these
(07:35):
players have put in really long before training camp started.
But as you know, over the last month and a
half or so, just building up to this moment, I'm
really proud of our team. There was some early inversity.
There was a lot of self inflicted some football we've
got to clean up from a penalty standpoint.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Hated see Hm putting the ball on the ground early
with how much we emphasize it. But of all I
can promise you Vikings fans, c J. Hammons, you know
there's nobody I trust more on this football team than him,
and didn't even think twice about that moving forward. I
knew we would respond defensively. There's just I don't know
(08:14):
what you can say other than it was just an
unbelievable performance out of that group, flow, his staff, all
of our players. There's a ton of guys to highlight.
Obviously Andrew van Ginkel. I think he saw a little
bit of everything with Gink, from the sack to the
instincts to make the interception on the screen and then
to go along with his four tackles, Harrison Smith seven
(08:34):
tackles and an interception, and it was great to see
Dallas Turner get his first career Sack. Just thought, offensively,
Sam Darnold, for a guy in a new system to
start twelve for twelve and be incredibly poised throughout the day,
huge performance for us to be able to build off
with Sam. And then really felt the impact of Aaron Jones.
(08:55):
Tried to get him over one hundred there late, but
wanted to be smart about him as well. On the
last you know, gave him. I told him he would
get one more shot at it, but huge impact. Over
six thousand yards for his careers is a pretty special number.
Very proud of our team. It's one game, one to er.
We've got to go right back to work and get
ready to open up US Bank Stadium against one of
the best teams in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Was there one throw in particular that pressed Chief at
Garnhill Garnld.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
I thought there was a couple, you know, I thought,
even the seamball to Josh Oliver from under center, trying
to take advantage of a look, trying to see if
I could manufacture, you know, an easy throw, but an
explosive throw with that play, and he just absolutely drilled it.
And then I thought, you know, on the ninety nine
yard drive, which I know it's been a while since
we did that. I just thought that throw to Justin
(09:44):
was remarkable. You know, to be able to lean on
you know, lean on the quarterback in that moment, to
activate your best player and for his trust and and
just a lot of time on task with those two
building up. I mean, that's a that's a really big
time play in that moment to really set the stage
for us to go down the field and come away
(10:04):
with seven when a team gets you backed up ninety
nine yards like that. So I just thought there was
examples of that throughout the game. You know, there's a
ton of things offensively we can clean up. There's a
ton of things even with our communication first first time
out the gates, though, for him to play the way
he did poised and then for us to be able
to lean on the run game a little bit with
(10:24):
a lead and turn out some first downs, I thought
was really impactful for us. So it really means absolutely
nothing moving forward other than we want to know and
we accomplished the only thing we've really talked about, which
is starting the season. Want to know, Kevin, how much
was that Nayler touchdown?
Speaker 5 (10:40):
Like the exact tent of what you guys wanted to
happen with.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
That player pretty much the exact intent of what I
wanted to have happened on the play. Yeah, I you know,
I just you know, I felt like there was you know,
between kind of what you know, there's always a little
bit of early trying to figure out kind of coverage
intentions with Justin and and and Jordan got some double
teams today as well. There were some times on some
(11:05):
of those third downs where both those guys were double
and we needed to try to make a play elsewhere.
But yeah, that was great setup of the play. You know, really,
you know, you worry sometimes about sending different motions and
things and the noise and silent cadence and getting it snapped.
But I think it goes right along with kind of
just the performance Sam had that will be really something
we can build off of. But I'm really proud of him.
(11:26):
I'm really talking about speedy first career touchdown or at
least first career he's scored before, but first touchdown this year,
and the way his practice week was, like Alec, he
didn't get a whole lot of work, so to be
able to be relied upon in that moment was really cool,
and there's just a lot of things we'll build off of.
There's a lot of things we'll clean up. It's good
(11:47):
to clean up your first game when you're able to
find a way to win.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
Kevin, what is the update with Jordan Addison?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, thank you for the reminder. He did get an ankle.
It was his other ankle than the one he's kind
of had. You know, we're going to have him fully evaluated.
Don't know the severity of it yet, but you know,
Jordan made some big plays for us early on there
and then to lose him kind of affected a little
bit of the flow there in the second half, but hopefully,
(12:13):
you know, it'll be a shorter term thing. I do
not have any real update other than he did not return.
Bradbury missed a few you know, possibly could have missed
a few snaps, but you know we were able to
get him transitioned and turned over with a knee. And
then Van Ginkle, you know, we just kind of held
him out there late, just kind of precautionary thing, but
but he should be fine. Injury.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
Yeah, from the off season, ye within Andrew van Ginkle
just I mean it seemed like he.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Was everywhere dans. Yeah, you know, I know sometimes they
you know, I try to give you guys as much
clarity on a player's role as possible. That's a really
hard one to do. You know, you guys can see
it with It's not only just the impactful plays that
touched the stat sheet. It's really, you know, just the feel,
the presidence, the confidence. He's a major part of the communication,
(13:00):
and we can overload him so that we can let
other people play fast around him, and and then just
the instincts. I mean, he just does not get enough
credit for just the problem he is diagnosing plays. It's almost,
you know, Mike Linebacker ask how he can diagnose things,
but he's playing on the ball most of the time
and having to do that with a heck of a
lot less time and space to make those plays. And
(13:23):
just thought that was you know, I kind of had
a joke with him when we first signed him that
I expected him to find the end zone this year.
I did not know it was going to be the
first game, which was pretty spectacular for the season. Well,
I think it sets the tone and puts a period
on the sentence of let's prepare the right way for
training camp. Let's have a mindset and a discipline and
(13:46):
a confidence every single day to build towards a collective
effort to win a football game. And because that's what
this season is, you know, it's about playing good football
as consistently as you can. And there's, like A said,
there's some things to clean up, there's a lot of
positives on that will show up on the tape. But
there's no doubt your momentum is a real thing in
(14:07):
this league. And confidence. There's nothing like going out, you know,
on a Sunday at an NFL stadium and win in
a game, you know, by by by a significant margin.
And I just think our guys, uh, you know, there's
nobody in that locker room surprise shocked that we went
out there and executed. I think it's just a confirmation
of a lot of work that's been put in now.
(14:28):
You know, I've been talking to these guys a lot
about the discipline. Discipline is not wave your finger and
tell somebody they did something wrong. It's how do you
show up every single day and be the same guy
for the guy next to you. Coaches and players included
that that leads to consistency because we've got a tough
early part of the season with our schedule, We're gonna
we're gonna, you know, attack every single week. Excited to
(14:49):
get back to us Bank Stadium. Felt uh, you know,
felt like US Bank a little there late in the
game with the skull chance. And one of my favorite
things about this job is our fans always show up.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
A a game that jet fans that hope to see
from Sam.
Speaker 7 (15:03):
Can you speak to what the experience of maturity now
comes forward that you can see for what he's been
through and how he's progressed.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Yeah. You know, some of the folks I get to
speak to quite often, they know I've talked a lot
about the quarterback journey, and quarterbacks in our league don't
get to control a lot of that journey, and they're
expected to perform in some cases immediately. I've just always really,
I really like the way Sam carries himself. He's a
talented player. He can make big time throws. Every throw
(15:33):
we're gonna ask him to make, he's more than capable
of doing that. And then he's a great example of
what this last month and a half has really been like,
preparing in a way that will show up on a
Sunday there's you know a lot of things that Sam
you know, will probably come in here and say he
can do better, but I can tell you starting twelve
for twelve and having the presence you know, to help
(15:54):
overcome that early adversity comes directly from the quarterback position.
And that's probably why it's teammates viewed him as a
captain and almost unanimously voted him one. I. I just
I can't say enough about what he was able to
do and how excited I am to build on his
performance today, you know, moving forward.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Like how much does this sort of set him up
for future success? And he's been saying he feels very
supportive by you guys, Yeah, locker room, but at some
point you actually have to you know, demonstrate exactly.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
And I'm just curious, like how you feel like that
kind of sets things up moving forward. Yeah. I think
it's just I think it's just one of those things
Kevin that like, like our football team as a whole,
I don't think our guys are surprised that that we're
able to come here and get a win in a
tough road environment. But I also would pair that with
I don't think anybody's surprised that Sam Darnold played the
(16:43):
way he did today. I know I'm certainly not, you
know I you know, I've tried to foreshadow as much
as I could throughout training camp. So I'm just proud
of him. And you know, Sam will be the first
one to tell you it's time to go back to
work and get ready for a really really good Niners
team next week at home. A deep ball of Justin like, yep,
what makes that such an impressive throw to you? Well,
(17:05):
not to uh, you know, get too far into the
details here, a week one of a of a play
that you know was a big time playing that moment.
It's just the feel, It's just the understanding of Justin
is unique. How he can do things at full speed
and and and and change direction and kind of have
total body control but the quarterback. A lot of times
(17:27):
it can also it can also throw the quarterback off
as far as hey, where's he taking this? What kind
of angle is he coming out of? And we are
kind of in the near the shadow of our own
the end zone in that moment, got great protection and
throw an absolute, an absolute strike, and you know it's
it's something that I kind of saw Justin's face after
(17:49):
that drive when we finished it, and I think he
felt pretty darn good about who's throwing them the football.
Speaker 7 (17:54):
You guys talked a lot about Aaron Jones this offseason.
Your excitement at him to the offense now like at
seeing it. What does that do for you as a
play call to have a guy who can make people
missing open's face and really just get what's blocked consisting.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Yeah, I mean what you're going to see out of
Aaron no matter what the concept we call, He's going
to make things come to life. I mean, he's got
an ability in his body and the experience of you know,
like I said, over six thousand yards in his career.
This guy can make things happen for you in the
run game and when you can get people covered up
and you know, figure out kind of front structures and
(18:27):
how we can try to give him a head start
to hopefully get through the initial surge and initial line
of scrimmage. He's not going to get tackled by the
first defender very often. And we'll continue to explore ways
of We had some things you know that we didn't
get to today with Aaron, but he's going to be
a major, major part of our offense and somebody I
can really rely on. And that's not even talking about
(18:49):
you know, how excited is his teammates and his Minnesota
Vikings family was for me to give him a game
ball covering.
Speaker 6 (18:55):
In the restaurant, specifically with Aaron Jones. He's obviously had
a lot of success there over his career. Things for
you as a play caller, annoying and his ability to finish.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Yeah, you know, I think you saw an example of
that with him bouncing you know, his first touchdown there.
I think it's just a you know, things happen fast
down there, and you rely on vision, You rely on
guys understanding the feel of the blocking combinations in front
of them, and as people kind of attached to block,
sometimes it declares and it's I mean milliseconds that you've
(19:23):
got to make a decision to then have a chance
to gain leverage on the outermost defender, and that in
that play, particularly when he bounced it and then it's
a race to the goal line. So you're talking about vision,
feel and then acceleration and burst to go finish. The
play was a great example of what he's going to
bring to our team.
Speaker 6 (19:40):
You mentioned earlier versity bubble, just how big it was wreathed.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Was that to hold in the field goal that march
down the next two Yeah, I've I've told our team,
you know, many many times, just because we do all
the things right to prepare, just because we talk about
ball security every single day, we wrap things every single day,
that means absolutely nothing. We have to be able to
come out and demonstrate those things in an NFL game,
(20:05):
And you know, it was unfortunate. You kind of felt,
you know, a less mentally tough team might have said,
here we go again. But the next time, you know,
the next time we touched it, we went down the
field score. So I would like to see the elimination
of some of those early penalties setting us back behind
the chains. But that's when your quarterback can bailly out
by going twelve for twelve to start the day. Kind
(20:27):
of alleviates the stress of that. But we've got to
be more consistent and cleaner in our execution for sure
to avoid getting penalties.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
That's Kevin O'Connell and the final margin, the Vikings winning
by twenty two points in all the games Kevin has
coached here, which would be two full seasons a playoff game,
and of this victory over the Giants, the twenty two
point margin of victory is the largest margin of victory
during the O'Connell run. In his very first game as
(20:56):
a head coach regular season, they beat the Green Bay
Packers twenty three. That was a plus sixteen. They win
by twenty two points. Today, I mean versus and I
we're chatting in the fourth quarter kind of like this
is weird. I mean, normally everything comes down to the wire. Ranted,
we win more than we lose with O'Connell the last
couple of seasons overall. But wow, this was a blowout.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Victory uncharted territory, no question about it. And it's amazing
when you have the ability to get up early on
a team or at some point, you know, in the
third quarter ish area, things just change. The ability to
extend drives on offense becomes huge. Defensively, keep the ball
in front of you, don't give up any huge plays.
It's it's amazing when you play with that kind of
(21:40):
elite how it changes really everything around you. And once
again defensively, it really it paid off. The these guys
are gonna have a ton of sacks this year. If
we can continue to do this, make teams one dimensional. Yeah,
that way we can play to our strength, get after
the quarterback. Run these three and four man line games.
These guys are executing up front that are gonna give
(22:02):
offensive lineman headaches.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
So just.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
A game really couldn't have gone much better than it did.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
The Vikings finished with five sacks. Patrick Jones the second
D two. Rookie Dallas Turner had one, Ben Ginkole had one,
Harrison Phillips had one. So they're coming from all over
the place. And before we hear from Sam Darnold, I
think you hit on a really interesting point and we
brought it up during the broadcast on KFA N where
one third and six you would see Mattellis and Grenard
(22:32):
as the edges and inside like Cashman and Pace or
Jones and Pace. Then the next time you would see
Grenard and Dallas Turner then like Van Ginkol and somebody
else in the middle. I mean, Flores Is just moving
them all over the place.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
It's the versatility, right, and it might be be the
same defense, the same look, but just with different guys
in different spots. And that hurts an offense how because
they can't find that your number. They can't play where's
wal though, They can't say all right, so you know
Van Ginkle's over here, so we're gonna turn. If Grenard's
over here, we're gonna turn the protection. That way, it
(23:08):
really creates a little bit of hesitation in the offense,
and that's all you need. If you can get those
offensive linemen to not be one hundred percent sure of
who they have before the snap, that's a huge advantage
to the defense, and we saw that today.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Sam Donald's debut for the Minnesota Vikings was absolutely fantastic.
I mean, was it a perfect passer rating?
Speaker 4 (23:29):
No?
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Did he throw an interception?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (23:32):
However, you leave with the victory in a stadium where
you had massive problems when you played for the New
York Jets, So it was weird coming back here. It's
your debut with Justin Jefferson, Aaron Jones, Kevin O'Connell, who's
an aggressive play calling head coach, you know. So there
was a lot on Donald's play today and my man
came through with flying colors. He moved around and avoided sacks.
(23:55):
Let's hear from Sam Donald.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
You know, a good team win. I thought our defense
special teams played really well. Uh I think, you know,
as an offense, uh, you know, we got going early,
but you know, I think there's a lot to clean
up there. You know, it's good to get in the
en zone a couple of times though, and uh yeah,
but like I said, just a really really good team win.
Proud of the guys in the locker room.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Sammy complete your first twelve. How important was to kind
of getting that earlier than like that?
Speaker 4 (24:21):
Yeah, it's huge. You know, just to play a fishing
football play on time. You know, that's that's always going
to be a recipe for success.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I'm sure something specific from this game that stands out.
Speaker 6 (24:33):
There you're brought up.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I mean.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
There's a lot, I think just the way that we
played as a team, just the complimentary football on offense,
you know, the the ninety nine yard drive sticks out
and then our defense being able to you know stop them,
you know obviously in an early turnover and our defense
being able to hold into three there.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
That was huge.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
So just like I said, a great all around team win.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
One win particularly special and could it be something moving forward?
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Yeah, I mean it's it's always great to get a win.
I think that's that's the biggest thing. Whether it's week one,
you know or week twelve, it's always great to get
a win, and we're just we're happy with it, but
we're not satisfied. Say what was it like to come
back in the building and can you take us through
the first deep pass to Justin down up seven? So yeah,
(25:26):
obviously it's great to be back. It's been a while
since I played here. I played here my first year
in Carolina coming back, that was the last time I
played here. But yeah, it's always good to get back
in met life. And then yeah, just that last that
passed on the sideline to Jets. He ran a great route,
you know, just just like we talked about in practice
(25:46):
and we executed it.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
He was you talked about that in the locker room.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
And he said, like the big thing was that he
just needs quarterbacks to have the confidence to throw that
ball because there.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Is double I guess it's a dub team.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
Yeah, and not every guy's gonna get that ball, but
they could just and and obviously you felt confident to.
Speaker 7 (26:02):
Throw it to him.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
I think that's the biggest thing is just confidence, you know,
obviously thrown to him, but thrown to everyone, you know,
and and being able to stay in the pocket if
I need to and and check the ball down and
just stay you know, stay efficient. I think that was
you know, kind of our mindset coming in and you
know that's that's always our mindset or my mindset personally
passing the ball. And I feel like if I can,
(26:26):
if I can stay efficient and do all those things
I need to do to to do that, we'll be
all right.
Speaker 6 (26:32):
The conversation like before the fourth down, is there any
doubt about going for that there when you.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Guys do a touchdown to justin.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
No conversation that I heard, but I'm sure the coaches
were talking about it. But yeah, I mean that that's
I think that's more of a KO question. But uh,
for us just to be able to go out there
and and execute and you know, jets one on one,
you know, it's a it's a good matchup. Uh, anytime
you can get that on the touchdown with Taylor, How
(27:01):
important is it you is you selling the flat routes.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
That you Everson?
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's always it's always good
to you know, tie the defense down whenever you can.
If you're gonna take a shot like that, you know,
I think just down there in the red zone, especially
in the fringe area where we scored, it's always important
for me to just continue to make quick, decisive decisions
in the red zone. I feel like I you know,
I did that for the most part. But again, there's
(27:30):
there's a lot of a lot of room for me
to get better. Sam.
Speaker 6 (27:33):
I think you talked in training camp about just not
getting too high, not getting too low. How do you
move forward to promote departments like today?
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Yeah, you just you know, keep your head down. It's
only week one.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
Obviously it's a it's a good team win, but yeah
it's one win, and you know, starting tomorrow we're gonna
we're gonna get ready for San Francisco.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
These guys have and you've mentioned, have been very supportive,
whether it's players or coaches, of you and of your
journey through the summer and s curious that the part
of you that wanted to come to this game and
just kind of pay it or like justify it or
whatever the word is, to to show them that it's
that what they were saying and feeling was.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Was really Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
I think for me, it was just coming out here
and like I said, like I keep saying, I think
just playing my game, you know, playing one one play
at a time. But again, just playing with confidence. I
think that's the biggest thing. And you know, because we
got a great offense, we've got a great system. If
I just play on time and to do all the
things I need to do to execute, we'll be all right.
Speaker 7 (28:33):
You're going against them in camp. Was it nice to
see that that defense making life differ for somebody else?
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Yeah, yeah, it's always nice whenever your defense can play
like that, you know, seeing seeing all those looks that
you know, the Giants were getting today, you know, it
was refreshing to to be on the same side as that,
or to be on the same team. I guess, uh
so that that was refreshing. And like I said, man
that our defense played so well today. Gink getting pick
(29:00):
six there, it was awesome just uh, you know, the
entire game, but our defense played really well today.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Same.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
I don't know if you're gonna ask about the Naylor
play already, but if so, just like how much was
that exactly the execution against Branches? Yeah? I think you know,
like I said before, I think it's just you know,
quick and decisive in the red zone and in the fringe.
So you know that's I got to continue to play
like that in the red zone and you know, just
(29:30):
listen to my feet, you know, be confident in what
I see and let it rip.
Speaker 6 (29:34):
Now that you've played a game with Justin, whether it's
throwing the deep ball to him or just seeing how
defense is playing and what that opens up, how much
does he change things for you as a quarterback to
betting to field with him?
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Yeah, I mean it's it's awesome, you know, whenever you
whenever you got a guy like Jets. Obviously Jets is great,
but also the other guys, you know, if they if
they want to double Jets, we got a ton of
other options as well to be able to go to
and that's very comforting as a quarterback.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
On the interception, did you what are your teammates?
Speaker 4 (30:03):
I think it was one of their guys just reaching
in and getting my arm before I could let it go.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
All right, Sam, The challenge next game markedly more formidable.
Those of you listening to this after the Vikings game
on Sunday or before Monday night football, we hooked the
San Francisco forty nine ers. Yeah, the NFC team and
representative in the Super Bowl last year. It's at US
Bank Stadium, so the home openers against a very good team,
(30:31):
a team the Vikings beat on Monday Night football last year.
But we will savor this twenty two point victory for
today and on the flight back from a New Jersey
to the Twin Cities. But just quick twitch on the Niners,
it's yeah, I mean, it's gonna be a thousand times
tougher than today.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yeah, it will be. But that's, you know, so much
of today's league. It's it's when it's how you know,
the how healthy will the forty nine ers come out
of this next game? But the bottom line is, I
believe five of our next six football games minus the one,
and you know, the one team being the exception will
be the Jets in England have all made the playoffs.
So we got to run a gauntlet here a playoff
(31:09):
teams from last year. So none of these next you know,
four or five games are going to be I wouldn't
call them easy because none of them are easy, but
to be as one sided as this one, so you know,
get get the people healthy that we need to get healthy.
But it's going to be a different. This is the
team we're playing next week is going to be completely
different than forty nine ers. They love to run the football.
(31:30):
They're a very physical group. We'll see how we respond
to that. How does our defense match up against their
you know, their style of offense, and you know get that.
We need to get that home field advantage back. I
think that's another part of last year what we lost
a little bit. So getting back at us Bank Stadium
home crowd, I think that's going to make a difference
(31:50):
as well.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Great job as usual.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
That's Pete Bursa channelists for the Vikings radio networking. I'm
Paul Allen. This is a Curly Hearers production and the
Minnesota Vikings begin the twenty twenty four season. Want to
know after throttling the New York Giants twenty eight six,
thanks for listening to the postgame reports. Have a wonderful day.
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