Postgame Press Conference: Interim HC Mike Kafka on loss to Vikings

Interim head coach Mike Kafka speaks to the media Sunday after the Giants' loss to the Vikings.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
At Hamstring, flot has a knee, JMS has a hand
that we're working through, DJ Davidson neck, and then Burns
and Nubin they were both cleared, you know, but you
know they were clear during the game. Then run In,
you know, his wife went into labor, so you know,
thinking about him as well as he's going through that

(00:20):
process with him his wife. I think that's pretty much it.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Any concerned plot that it.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Can be as serious. Well well yeah, we'll see. I
haven't had a chance to meet with the doctors yet
and stuff, but yeah, they're looking at them right now.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
What was it about the defense that was giving you
a passing attack.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Some challenges today? Say again, I'm sorry, What was it
about their defense that was so challenging to your passing
attack today? You know they did they didn't a job
of mixing up some coverages, some pressure packages, you know
in the attempts that we had which were limited, you know,
we had some cover zero alert, some tags built into it.
You know, just need an overall better execution there from
the whole group.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
I can seem to be very conservative game plan run
heavy game plan? Was that the way you wanted to
go into this game?

Speaker 1 (01:04):
I wouldn't call running the ball conservative. I'd say, you know,
I think for us, we just wanted to try to
minimize some of that pressure package and let our run
game go. So we're mixing a couple of different personnel groupings,
you know, getting some three thirteen personnel, some twelve, a
little bit of eleven, but you know, trying to create
an advance for.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Us, just minimizing that pass rush and throwing four passes
in the first half. I mean, so what you know
was that, you know, it seemed like you never could
get into your passing game in any way, shape or form.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, I mean part of the part of the plan was,
you know, maybe you know, getting to the run game
a little bit more. And that's you know, part of
the process we went through this week. You know, when
you have you know, corner that likes the pressure and
that's the strength of theirs, you know, you can you
can minimize it by a couple of things, whether it's screens,
whether it's max protecting it, or the run game which
helps neutralize that.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
I think it was thirteen a passing yards and I
think guys had depending on how you want to characterize
about three or four drops as well, why were things
so out of.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Sync with that passing attack, because I belie you've.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Seen one that bad yet.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, we'll go I'll go back and look at exactly
on the field. It just felt like we had some
opportunities we missed them. So we'll look back at the
tape and see where we can get those things cleaned up.
Whether it's you know, protection, whether it's a scheme, whether
it's ball location or just drops. Like I think there's
a couple of different factors that could go into it,
So I don't want to be too early on what
the exact reason was without watching it again thoroughly.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
He had two today. He's had quite a few this year,
eight or nine, depending on what the foot website you
want to go, which tracks me.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Why has that been an issue for him so far?
THEO is a guy that we really rely on, and
I think he's a guy that's made a lot of
big plays consistently throughout the course of these last call
at five to seven games, and is the guy that
will continue to put the ball in his hands and
give him opportunities down the field. So I know he's
had some drops in the past, like that's in the past,
I have a lot of confidence in THEO and him
be able to make big time plays for us. Like
what do you say, what do you say to Jackson

(02:52):
after these you know, least productive games and prow here.
You know, it's it's it's for the whole group, you know,
the whole group. We got to continue to go back
look at this tape, be ultra critical and what that
looked like and the things that we can get better at,
you know, for any for any player, like what they
can do individually, what we can do as a unit,
and then holistically as a team. You know, where are
some spots where I can improve and I can be

(03:14):
an asset to the group. And whether that's you know,
being aggressive, being less aggressive, you know, toning the line
in terms of how the how we want to play
the game and the game management part of it. And
that's what I'll evaluate and be hypercritical on myself about Mike.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
What did you see on a thirty seventeen a big
play to Justin Jefferson kept the sticks move for them.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, you know, I was bouncer. I didn't see that.
When I was bouncer, I was talking to the offense.
I saw, I saw like the replay, but I don't
know exactly what happened on the on the play.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
And generally, Mike the defense give a lot of third
and long chunk plays and you know, how would you
evaluate that? What did you see that was?

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Again like some you know, during those times sometimes I'm
like getting ready, like thinking, you know, if we get
the ball back, trying to get the off talking to
the offense, summer line on some of the eyes upstairs.
So I'll go back and look at it. You know,
obviously we don't want to give up those big, those
big third downs. It might be something as simple as
just the fundamentals of just getting the guyed down tackling them.
I know on a couple of them, we had some
opportunities to tackle them. Sure the sticks didn't do it,

(04:09):
but you know that we'll we'll look at it, we'll
focus on it and make that a point of emphasis
for this week of practice. You mentioned that that takes something,
the coverage through things that you that you weren't expecting.
You have to adjust to them. No, I actually felt
great about the plan and what we know what we
were expecting there. Obviously, sometimes the down and distance, you know,
we talked about this earlier, get back on track in
the early part of the down you know, second and longs,

(04:31):
those type of things. We wanted to stay out of
those because we knew what elements could show up. But
I felt really clean about the plan and clean about it.
You know, we just got to look look back at
and see where are the things we could have done
better in that particular area.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
How do you think Jackson handled the pressure? Looked like
he maybe had a couple of opportunities to maybe throw
the bowl away.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, yeah, I mean jack Yes, I think Jackson, I
thought overall with the plan. I think he understood the plan,
and I think at the line of scrimmage he was
doing a good job of seeing it and being decisive
of what he wanted to do. I think as he
learns and he sees more of these ability to get
the ball so touch faster, you know, use some of
those sites, keep his mind clear on it and not
you know, you know, not put himself in a bad

(05:11):
spot because I thought, I thought he had some opportunities downfield. Sometimes,
you know, whether it's a popper or someone gets into
that window, you got to hold it an extra tick longer.
So that's part of the growth process with it. But
I thought Jackson was seeing it clearly, and certainly the
conversations we have on the sideline, you know, he felt
good about the plan as well. So it's it's but
it's not just one guy, like, everyone's got to see
it the same way, and we got to go out

(05:32):
there and execute better. On the opening kickoff wall out
of bounds?

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Was it the win?

Speaker 1 (05:36):
What was the explanation as to while the ball went
out of bounds? Yeah, I think he just I think
he just hooked it a little bit to the right.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
You passed up a fairly short field goal for a series, Yeah,
why you do that? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Ilays wanted to stay aggressive. I knew I want to
stay aggressive in the early part of the game, and
we had an opportunity. It was kind of right there,
and I was talking with our analytics guys and the
game management guys, and it's right there, it's probably a
go for, and so I wanted to put it in
our offenses hands early in the game. Especially, you never
know how the game is gonna, you know, declare and
be at the end of it. So we wanted to
stay aggressive early in the game and if we had

(06:08):
an opportunity and that and that down and distance. We
were gonna go, Sarah talk to abdul head all after
the off side and nick any touchdowns. No, I have
that chance to talk to him. I know he's he's
you know, he's beating himself up about it. You know,
it's tough. He's trying to get a jump on the
football a little bit, you know, a little bit too far.
You know. Unfortunate, really unfortunate play just overall because it

(06:30):
takes away points, takes aways to huge play, you know.
But the defense, you know, they battled back from that,
from that, from that and ended up getting another one.