November 26, 2025 • 20 mins
PA hosts Xs and Os ahead of the matchup with the Seahawks and is joined by Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell!
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
It is time for x'es and o's with Minnesota Vikings
head coach Kevin O'Connell. Welcome Minnesota Vikings Radio Network now
from the TCO studios at Egan. Here is the voice
of the Vikings, Paul Allen.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome into x's and O's with Kevin O'Connell, presented by
Ken Moore. Going into Thanksgiving week, here's the head coach
with pa I.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Indeed, as the head coach, Kevin O'Connell assumes his spot
for XES and o's on this Tuesday. Hey, we have
a new camera for Vikings dot com, so we want
to welcome those watching through our new camera to x'es
and o's at Vikings dot com, those listening at FM
one hundred point three kfam, and most importantly, we want
to welcome the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, Kevin O'Connell,
(00:48):
to the equation and begin by wishing you Leah, Pil,
Suzanne and everybody in your covenant and early happy Thanksgiving.
Four and seven makes it look to like there's not
much for which we can be thankful, but really there is.
And this collaboration with x's and o's our friendship work
(01:09):
that I've done at a Vail Academy. Because of your family,
I just want to give you publicly, give you thanks.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Appreciate that.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
Happy Thanksgiving to you and obviously everybody at KFA, N Nordo,
the Gang. You know, we very much appreciate the relationship
we have and Pa, you know.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
How I feel about you.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
You're very Yeah, You're a very special friend of mine
and somebody I really enjoy working with.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Now.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
The we have the If Kevin weren't here, we'd call
them the Super Chickens, but we're going to call them
the Seattle Seahawks. Three oh five for the Boom f
M one hundred point three, k FA M, KFA and
Audio Network pregame at one with Muss and through it all,
through it all, through these eleven games and nineteen offensive
line combinations, whatever we're up to. Multiple quarterback stuff like that.
(01:57):
Old Jalen Redmond continues to help Old Jail and just
guys like that, sticking out when things may not be
at their best, you know.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
Yeah, And I think you get to this time of
year and you start getting some of the documentation for
the Pro Bowl and things like that, and you just
hope Jalen Redman gets his due for the type of
season he's had. And I know there's a lot of
great players in the D line position in the NFL,
but I would argue his tape and his play to
play impact that he's had for us this year is
(02:28):
right up there with a lot of the players you
know that maybe have a little bit larger name recognition.
And obviously Jalen's got a lot of great football out
in front of him, so those things will come his way.
But can't say enough about what he's meant to our
team this year.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
And Jalen had as what Kevin would call it a
blocked shot in the game at lambeau Field, a pass
defense by a defensive lineman. Yep, those are just I mean,
I know you want more, I know everybody wants more,
but those are so important but not really that easy
to come by, right.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
It depends, I mean, it depends the type of the
thrower you're going against. And you know release points, and
I will say Jordan Love has done a really nice
job over the years of he's got a high release point.
Every once in a while he'll get leaning backwards a
little bit depending on the rush and he's still got
the ability to make some really nice throws over the
middle even when that happens.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
So the block shot is a huge thing.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
And we're going to continue to preach trying to force
those tips and get some of those overthrows where maybe
the turnover ops will come our way, because I know
it's been they just haven't come like they have in
previous years, all those extra possessions, and I know our
defense is doing everything in their power to try to
force those things.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
The pump return debackle that led to Green bay second
touchdown was it was ten to six when that happened.
So like yesterday at your press conference, Oh no, excuse me,
this was after the game Sunday. When you say, paraphrasing
the way things currently are constructed, the margin for air
is razor thin. That's a high end example. Right, When
(04:01):
something like that happens, then they score, make it a
two score game.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
Yeah, And the whole the way we finished the second
quarter and Will making the fifty nine yarder and making
that a ten to six game. A lot of the
messaging at halftime was defense is gonna get a stop
and then we're gonna put together the drive that we
need offensively off of the momentum of the end of
the first half, the stop the defense is going to get,
(04:27):
and then we're gonna find a way to put the
ball in the end zone and see what this looks
like the rest of the way if we're able to
do that, and you know, the offense is gearing up,
getting ready to you know, kind of make the second
part of that plan come together. Defense got the stop
we needed, got him into a third and long, and
got off the field, and then you just have a
mistake made, you know, by a rookie that has had
(04:49):
such an impact on our team from a return standpoint,
both the kick return phase and the punt return phase.
And he's trying to do what he believes is the
right thing. And I think what you have to, you know,
take a look at is just clean clearing up and
cleaning up some of the some of the do a
little bit more.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
You know. It's I thought he made a nice decision.
Speaker 5 (05:09):
He's been a great decision maker back there, specifically on
those sky punts, you know, knowing when to kind of
you know, deek the the gunners out and act like
he's catching the ball. But we're gonna let that thing bounce,
And what I told him and and our coaching staff was,
you know, if they end up downing that ball at
the one yard line, you know, more power to them.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
By what we can't possibly have happened in a.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
Game like that where we kind of went into it knowing, Hey,
we're gonna we're gonna run the football, We're gonna keep
this thing close. I feel like our defense will play well,
maybe make this thing stay where we want it forced
the Packers to expose themselves to a little bit more risk.
Possibly they ran the ball a lot. They were playing
very similar in a lot of ways throughout the early
part of that game as we were, and it was
(05:53):
it was a ball control kind of game. The time
of possession was very close throughout the first half. We
had no turnovers in the first half, very limited penalties
by really either side. And you know that one play
in a game like that, especially on the road in
the NFC North, all of a sudden, you're down eleven
and you're it feels a lot greater, uh, you know,
(06:15):
of circumstances against you just on one play, one bounce
of the ball.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
But what did we do to avoid the.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Negative in that moment by you know, playing smart football,
and that's what I've got to do a better job
of making sure our entire team feels that.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Kevin O'Connell x's and O's per nine to Now and
the KFAM Minnesota Vikings Audio Network also Vikings dot Com. Uh,
Kevin and I, well, well we'll chat after his press
conferences pretty much each and every Friday, sometimes recording a
pregame interview, sometimes just chatting. And uh, this week we
chatted right before you spoke to the Dinah High School
(06:50):
football team. Uh, and they went out won the title
that night. How did that go and what did you
guys talk about?
Speaker 5 (06:57):
Well, it was the first thing I noticed. It had
been a long time since I had been in a
high school kind of locker room setting. Those they're not
washing the football pants and pads as much as they
probably should be. You know, my son Kat and I
walked in and it was noticeable right away. But I
told the fellas, I said, this takes me back right here,
(07:18):
just that that aura, if you will.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
That they have the stench.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Yeah, the stench that's a better word. But it was
it was fun talking to those guys. I mean, they
were in they were already kind of suited up and
in their uniforms, getting ready to get on the bus
to head to the US Bank Stadium, and you know, getting
a chance to talk to some of the individual players
and ask them some questions, and you know, a funny
story though, I kept on talking to them about sixty minutes,
(07:45):
and you know, really, in a football game, what separates
our game is you know, really when you look at it,
the players that play the most, you're probably only looking
at about ten to twelve minutes of actual activity, you know,
between all the play clock going and the huddle calls
and all those things. So I kept telling them if
I if I told you had ten to twelve minutes
(08:07):
for a possibility to hoist a state championship trophy tonight
on the field at US Bank Stadium, what would you
be willing to do? And it circled back to sixty minutes.
In sixty minutes, and every time I said that, you know,
the fellas on the team would kind of smirk a
little bit, and I was like, what am I saying that,
you know, is it some pop culture reference? I'm making
(08:28):
six seven whatever it is, and they're laughing at me.
Or and then I get to the game, had a blast,
took my two boys and wanted to make sure they
got to feel such an unbelievable atmosphere both sides. And
I look up at the clock and there's twelve minutes
on the clock to start the game.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, and best for forty eight minutes.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
And I said, I might have been asking them for
twelve minutes too much, and nobody was willing to tell
me in the moment. But congrats to those guys. What
a season. And you could feel a lot of special
things with that team and their journey throughout the year.
And yeah, you know, you're just so happy to this
game is such a wonderful game.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
It can be.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
It can be tough sometimes like we felt this season,
but make no mistake about it, this game has provided
so many moments in our lives to all of us,
and moments of triumph and moments of overcoming adversity. And
that's what we're going to attempt to do right now
on a daily, minute a minute basis around this building.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
But anytime you can see.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
A collection of guys go accomplish something like that, it
was special.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Well, well, what if you slip in the pregame talk
Saturday night in Seattle's like, guys, I need your best
forty eight minutes here, and then like somebody doesn't play
hard for five minutes, Like, well, you only said you
need it forty eight.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
I told our team the story and everybody, of course,
you know, they were laughing at me, just like the
Dina Hornets were.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
And the Hornets. I had a running back in the
game named Chase Bejorgard, who I've known his father Eric
for many years. Yeah, general manager Metropolitan Ford. I've known
Chase since he started middle school and it's just been
great to watch him mature and get bigger and stuff
like that. My man had six touchdowns and three hundred
and fifty one total yards. Now, Chase and his dad
(10:07):
were in studio on my radio show with Nordo yesterday.
Nice little father son, fun off the state championship and
stuff like that, and so talking to Chase, you know,
he shared that he also plays baseball and he's a
goalie for the Dina High school hockey team. Did you
play multiple sports in high school when you were when
you were growing up.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
I did.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
I played basketball and football were my my main sports,
but I really I always played baseball. You know in
the springtime, and tell you a pitcher I was, and
my problem was, unlike football, I threw it right down
the middle at a very tempoed pace every single time.
As the hitter started to get better and better, the
ball went further and further and started to feel a
(10:50):
little bit more like batting practice.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
And this is so Cal too, right, Oh yeah, so
Cal High school baseball, Cal State Fullerton for college up there.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
It's unbelievable, no question, but yeah, so I And then
you get into the spring football and the year round
aspect of some things which I am highly highly for kids.
You know, my kids are playing everything that they could
possibly imagine. I think they need to play everything, they
need to try everything whigure out. I just think every
sport has a positive effect in some way on the other.
(11:22):
And whether it's change of direction, long speed, hand eye coordination,
you know, depending on if you're a thrower of baseball
versus a football versus anything else. And you know, and
I think the different dynamics of five man sports. You know,
there's nine guys on the field on baseball, eleven in
the huddle in football, and they're just different dynamics of
(11:42):
team building and teamwork, and then the individual aspect of
growth and development from a from a standpoint of for
I think we all forget at times as we start
to see high school kids making nil money and we
are finding a way to turn a lot of this
into a business, when really the most important thing is is,
you know, learning about yourself and the passion you have
(12:04):
to do something for reasons greater than yourself in many
ways is what makes sports so special and helps you
grow as a human being long you know, outside, you know,
much further outside the lines than just playing those games.
And I you know, I told the guys the other
day some of my I still talk to some of
my high school football teammates, you know, on you know, weekly, monthly,
(12:25):
whatever it is, because those bonds will last a lifetime.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Minnesota needed to go to source for everything high school sports.
That's why the Minnesota start Tribune created Strib Varsity. You
can sign up now at startribune dot com slash strib Varsity.
More ex's and od's with Kevin O'Connell around the corner
of the Minnesota Vikings Audio Network tis the season. Join
the Vikings and kfa N at the Eden Prairie Shields
(12:50):
December second, five thirty am to six thirty pm to
support Toys for Tots. Donate a toy and share your
holiday spirit. Will see you at Shields and Eden Prairie.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Back to X.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
That was with Kevin O'Connell.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Well, as Kevin shared to this press conference yesterday, Max Brosmer,
the undrafted rookie from Minnesota. He's going to get the
first team reps until JJ is out of concussion protocol.
We'll see how long that last during the course of
the week. Our talkback for Kevin O'Connell, head coach of
the Minnesota Vikings, I understand, involves Max Brosmer.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
And here it is.
Speaker 6 (13:22):
Good morning, nine to noon coach. This is Vinnie from
mounts View. Say, if Max is a starter this week,
how does his skill set differ from jjson even Carson's
And are you going to have to tweak the preparations
at all to match his skill set? Thanks you guys,
(13:43):
have a happy Thanksgiving.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Thanks Bob.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Good question.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Yeah, I don't know if you tweak the preparation as
much as maybe some of the things that we know
Max does well. And I think I heard the turn
signal or the hazard lights in the background click in
there from our talk back question.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
But the details that matter.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah, boy, he pulled off to the side. He didn't.
We always preach don't talk back and drive.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
It's very, very smart speaking of you know, you can
carry over that analogy to playing quarterback. And what it's
gonna be for Max this week is keeping it laser
focused like he's done throughout this season. And really he's
been a snap away now going on three four five
weeks or so, and his preparation has been fantastic, his questions,
his dialogue.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
He is wise beyond his years. He obviously has some.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
Experience at a couple different schools in college, different offenses,
different levels of play. And what really caught ri I
in training camp is his ability to do things, you know,
at a pretty high level without getting a lot of
time on task or reps to build into that. You know,
watching JJ take reps, watching the other quarterbacks take reps,
(14:55):
and when he got his his opportunities, he always made
the most of it. And what I've challenged Max to
do throughout this week is, you know, whether he ends
up playing or not, let's have that same level consistency.
Let's envision not having to do anything more then go
in there and execute each play as its own. You know,
what's my what's my footwork, and where's my where are
(15:17):
my completions? And what Max has shown is a twitchy,
quick release with you know, the ability to be pretty
accurate not only underneath but in the intermediate part of
the field. And I think there's you know, gonna be
some opportunities for who's ever playing quarterback in this game
to just hunt completions all day long. Really good pass
rush athleticism. You're going to notice it up in the booth.
(15:38):
You and Pete will the speed at which their defense
plays with Mike McDonald's got them flying around. So we
really need to be disciplined when we are throwing the ball,
whether no matter what level of or phase of our
offense that is, we have to be air tight with
getting the ball out of our hands thrown completions and
really getting Justin and Jordan Speedy and obviously TJ Aaron
(15:59):
Jones and the rest of the Grins involved in the
game by getting the football in their hands, and how
many times can we do that? Stack those plays without
the negatives that really doomed us in the second half
the other day and we didn't give ourselves any chance whatsoever,
regardless of the fumble punt, regardless of what took place
on the other side of the ball, and that's got
to be the starting point against a good football team
(16:20):
on the road.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Well, I mean with brozmer I just you know, the
recall is back to things you said in the off
season about processing quickly and just the voluminous amount of study,
the scholarly natured things, always walking around with a laptop
looking at something or the micro the surface pad, whatever
you call looking and stuff. And that came to fruition.
And I think it was the Tennessee game.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Bersich and I were walking out with Max. He threw
a touchdown back left of the end zone. Just asked
about it, you know, preseason, asked about the touchdown. It
took him thirty seconds to explain, well, something with cover
two when it was actually man and then you do
this and then you put the green die here and
you push the red button and it just kept going
and it's like it's it's like a while. We looked
(17:05):
at each other like wow, holy cow. I mean, that's
some pretty good dissecting right there, all right, Uh, Topeka
Kansas is telling me that we need to go. I
got to get in one or two more. Uh if
if if you mentioned getting to a tack mode yesterday,
and clearly that's been a calling card of yours since
you arrived. What what are some keys to returning to
(17:26):
as you would say, attack mode. Well, I'll make that
the last one.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
I think a lot of times you know that that
mentality and that mode can be something where it can
you know, you're trying to be a little bit more conservative,
maybe you're trying to run the football more. All you're
doing in those situations is hopefully setting up opportunities to
get a little bit more bang for your buck in
the play action game in some of the phases of
(17:50):
our offense, and I thought we missed some opportunities in
the game. There was a play where you know, Michael
Parsons goes out of the game. You know we've we've
kind of had something tied up and might have and
early on in the game, and we end up bobbling
the snap coming away from center and ending up on
the turf for a minus three yard loss. But that play,
when you're calling the game and you're operating as a team,
(18:11):
the way we are right now trying to navigate your
way to you know, at the very least a stalemate
and the turnover battle, the very least running the football
for the sake of staying efficient for some of the
third downs that have caused us problems when we get
into those longer yardage dn ds, okay, and then when
you don't make those plays, you know, those are wasted
(18:31):
opportunities that in many ways they're still happening. They're still
the defense is still having to go over and talk
about some of those things, whether the play was made
or not. And we just aren't making enough of those
plays to complement the rest of the way we're trying
to play as a football team. And as we continue
to progress forward and we continue to learn more about
(18:51):
this year's team, we're gonna have to find those plays
because the best parts of our team in many ways,
our guys named Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison and TJ. Hockinson,
and they have to have an impact on the football
game to go along offensively with our ability to run
the ball, our ability to control the football, the clock
and hopefully the time of possession and field position.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Oh oh, John, look over there is Jackson Smith and
Jigbus still strictly a slot guy, and no he's not
not anymore, but he was like last year, right he is.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
He is a fantastic player.
Speaker 5 (19:22):
I mean really watching him and and you know, I
you know, speaking to uh. I remember a few weeks
back when they they played the Rams and and leading
into that game, I got a chance to talk to
Sean McVeagh a little bit about you know, their preparation
and it was going to be obviously a big game
for them in the division, and he was just blown
away by by the player and what he's you know,
(19:43):
obviously grown and and kind of you know, continue to
progress forward in his career early on here, but you're
seeing an explosive guy that can win outside, win inside,
run after catch, making some of the most dynamic catches
in the league. And uh, you know, he's finding his
ops case. You know, Sam's. One of Sam's great qualities
is that intermediate to deeper passing game and really activating
(20:06):
the intermediate to deep part of the field with his arm.
And we saw it a year ago and he's picked
up right where he left off.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Have a good Thanksgiving man. We'll see out here for
practice this week.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
Come Friday, all right, Happy Thanksgiving to everybody.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
I appreciate you, Kevin Kevin O'Connell, the head coach of
the Minnesota Vikings. That's ex'es and.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Thank you for joining us for this week's episode of
x'es and o's with Kevin O'Connell. It's presented by Ken
Moore and as an official production of the Minnesota Vikings
Audio Network.
It is time for x'es and o's with Minnesota Vikings
head coach Kevin O'Connell. Welcome Minnesota Vikings Radio Network now
from the TCO studios at Egan. Here is the voice
of the Vikings, Paul Allen.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome into x's and O's with Kevin O'Connell, presented by
Ken Moore. Going into Thanksgiving week, here's the head coach
with pa I.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Indeed, as the head coach, Kevin O'Connell assumes his spot
for XES and o's on this Tuesday. Hey, we have
a new camera for Vikings dot com, so we want
to welcome those watching through our new camera to x'es
and o's at Vikings dot com, those listening at FM
one hundred point three kfam, and most importantly, we want
to welcome the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, Kevin O'Connell,
(00:48):
to the equation and begin by wishing you Leah, Pil,
Suzanne and everybody in your covenant and early happy Thanksgiving.
Four and seven makes it look to like there's not
much for which we can be thankful, but really there is.
And this collaboration with x's and o's our friendship work
(01:09):
that I've done at a Vail Academy. Because of your family,
I just want to give you publicly, give you thanks.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Appreciate that.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
Happy Thanksgiving to you and obviously everybody at KFA, N Nordo,
the Gang. You know, we very much appreciate the relationship
we have and Pa, you know.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
How I feel about you.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
You're very Yeah, You're a very special friend of mine
and somebody I really enjoy working with.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Now.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
The we have the If Kevin weren't here, we'd call
them the Super Chickens, but we're going to call them
the Seattle Seahawks. Three oh five for the Boom f
M one hundred point three, k FA M, KFA and
Audio Network pregame at one with Muss and through it all,
through it all, through these eleven games and nineteen offensive
line combinations, whatever we're up to. Multiple quarterback stuff like that.
(01:57):
Old Jalen Redmond continues to help Old Jail and just
guys like that, sticking out when things may not be
at their best, you know.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
Yeah, And I think you get to this time of
year and you start getting some of the documentation for
the Pro Bowl and things like that, and you just
hope Jalen Redman gets his due for the type of
season he's had. And I know there's a lot of
great players in the D line position in the NFL,
but I would argue his tape and his play to
play impact that he's had for us this year is
(02:28):
right up there with a lot of the players you
know that maybe have a little bit larger name recognition.
And obviously Jalen's got a lot of great football out
in front of him, so those things will come his way.
But can't say enough about what he's meant to our
team this year.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
And Jalen had as what Kevin would call it a
blocked shot in the game at lambeau Field, a pass
defense by a defensive lineman. Yep, those are just I mean,
I know you want more, I know everybody wants more,
but those are so important but not really that easy
to come by, right.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
It depends, I mean, it depends the type of the
thrower you're going against. And you know release points, and
I will say Jordan Love has done a really nice
job over the years of he's got a high release point.
Every once in a while he'll get leaning backwards a
little bit depending on the rush and he's still got
the ability to make some really nice throws over the
middle even when that happens.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
So the block shot is a huge thing.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
And we're going to continue to preach trying to force
those tips and get some of those overthrows where maybe
the turnover ops will come our way, because I know
it's been they just haven't come like they have in
previous years, all those extra possessions, and I know our
defense is doing everything in their power to try to
force those things.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
The pump return debackle that led to Green bay second
touchdown was it was ten to six when that happened.
So like yesterday at your press conference, Oh no, excuse me,
this was after the game Sunday. When you say, paraphrasing
the way things currently are constructed, the margin for air
is razor thin. That's a high end example. Right, When
(04:01):
something like that happens, then they score, make it a
two score game.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
Yeah, And the whole the way we finished the second
quarter and Will making the fifty nine yarder and making
that a ten to six game. A lot of the
messaging at halftime was defense is gonna get a stop
and then we're gonna put together the drive that we
need offensively off of the momentum of the end of
the first half, the stop the defense is going to get,
(04:27):
and then we're gonna find a way to put the
ball in the end zone and see what this looks
like the rest of the way if we're able to
do that, and you know, the offense is gearing up,
getting ready to you know, kind of make the second
part of that plan come together. Defense got the stop
we needed, got him into a third and long, and
got off the field, and then you just have a
mistake made, you know, by a rookie that has had
(04:49):
such an impact on our team from a return standpoint,
both the kick return phase and the punt return phase.
And he's trying to do what he believes is the
right thing. And I think what you have to, you know,
take a look at is just clean clearing up and
cleaning up some of the some of the do a
little bit more.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
You know. It's I thought he made a nice decision.
Speaker 5 (05:09):
He's been a great decision maker back there, specifically on
those sky punts, you know, knowing when to kind of
you know, deek the the gunners out and act like
he's catching the ball. But we're gonna let that thing bounce,
And what I told him and and our coaching staff was,
you know, if they end up downing that ball at
the one yard line, you know, more power to them.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
By what we can't possibly have happened in a.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
Game like that where we kind of went into it knowing, Hey,
we're gonna we're gonna run the football, We're gonna keep
this thing close. I feel like our defense will play well,
maybe make this thing stay where we want it forced
the Packers to expose themselves to a little bit more risk.
Possibly they ran the ball a lot. They were playing
very similar in a lot of ways throughout the early
part of that game as we were, and it was
(05:53):
it was a ball control kind of game. The time
of possession was very close throughout the first half. We
had no turnovers in the first half, very limited penalties
by really either side. And you know that one play
in a game like that, especially on the road in
the NFC North, all of a sudden, you're down eleven
and you're it feels a lot greater, uh, you know,
(06:15):
of circumstances against you just on one play, one bounce
of the ball.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
But what did we do to avoid the.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Negative in that moment by you know, playing smart football,
and that's what I've got to do a better job
of making sure our entire team feels that.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Kevin O'Connell x's and O's per nine to Now and
the KFAM Minnesota Vikings Audio Network also Vikings dot Com. Uh,
Kevin and I, well, well we'll chat after his press
conferences pretty much each and every Friday, sometimes recording a
pregame interview, sometimes just chatting. And uh, this week we
chatted right before you spoke to the Dinah High School
(06:50):
football team. Uh, and they went out won the title
that night. How did that go and what did you
guys talk about?
Speaker 5 (06:57):
Well, it was the first thing I noticed. It had
been a long time since I had been in a
high school kind of locker room setting. Those they're not
washing the football pants and pads as much as they
probably should be. You know, my son Kat and I
walked in and it was noticeable right away. But I
told the fellas, I said, this takes me back right here,
(07:18):
just that that aura, if you will.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
That they have the stench.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Yeah, the stench that's a better word. But it was
it was fun talking to those guys. I mean, they
were in they were already kind of suited up and
in their uniforms, getting ready to get on the bus
to head to the US Bank Stadium, and you know, getting
a chance to talk to some of the individual players
and ask them some questions, and you know, a funny
story though, I kept on talking to them about sixty minutes,
(07:45):
and you know, really, in a football game, what separates
our game is you know, really when you look at it,
the players that play the most, you're probably only looking
at about ten to twelve minutes of actual activity, you know,
between all the play clock going and the huddle calls
and all those things. So I kept telling them if
I if I told you had ten to twelve minutes
(08:07):
for a possibility to hoist a state championship trophy tonight
on the field at US Bank Stadium, what would you
be willing to do? And it circled back to sixty minutes.
In sixty minutes, and every time I said that, you know,
the fellas on the team would kind of smirk a
little bit, and I was like, what am I saying that,
you know, is it some pop culture reference? I'm making
(08:28):
six seven whatever it is, and they're laughing at me.
Or and then I get to the game, had a blast,
took my two boys and wanted to make sure they
got to feel such an unbelievable atmosphere both sides. And
I look up at the clock and there's twelve minutes
on the clock to start the game.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, and best for forty eight minutes.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
And I said, I might have been asking them for
twelve minutes too much, and nobody was willing to tell
me in the moment. But congrats to those guys. What
a season. And you could feel a lot of special
things with that team and their journey throughout the year.
And yeah, you know, you're just so happy to this
game is such a wonderful game.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
It can be.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
It can be tough sometimes like we felt this season,
but make no mistake about it, this game has provided
so many moments in our lives to all of us,
and moments of triumph and moments of overcoming adversity. And
that's what we're going to attempt to do right now
on a daily, minute a minute basis around this building.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
But anytime you can see.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
A collection of guys go accomplish something like that, it
was special.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Well, well, what if you slip in the pregame talk
Saturday night in Seattle's like, guys, I need your best
forty eight minutes here, and then like somebody doesn't play
hard for five minutes, Like, well, you only said you
need it forty eight.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
I told our team the story and everybody, of course,
you know, they were laughing at me, just like the
Dina Hornets were.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
And the Hornets. I had a running back in the
game named Chase Bejorgard, who I've known his father Eric
for many years. Yeah, general manager Metropolitan Ford. I've known
Chase since he started middle school and it's just been
great to watch him mature and get bigger and stuff
like that. My man had six touchdowns and three hundred
and fifty one total yards. Now, Chase and his dad
(10:07):
were in studio on my radio show with Nordo yesterday.
Nice little father son, fun off the state championship and
stuff like that, and so talking to Chase, you know,
he shared that he also plays baseball and he's a
goalie for the Dina High school hockey team. Did you
play multiple sports in high school when you were when
you were growing up.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
I did.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
I played basketball and football were my my main sports,
but I really I always played baseball. You know in
the springtime, and tell you a pitcher I was, and
my problem was, unlike football, I threw it right down
the middle at a very tempoed pace every single time.
As the hitter started to get better and better, the
ball went further and further and started to feel a
(10:50):
little bit more like batting practice.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
And this is so Cal too, right, Oh yeah, so
Cal High school baseball, Cal State Fullerton for college up there.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
It's unbelievable, no question, but yeah, so I And then
you get into the spring football and the year round
aspect of some things which I am highly highly for kids.
You know, my kids are playing everything that they could
possibly imagine. I think they need to play everything, they
need to try everything whigure out. I just think every
sport has a positive effect in some way on the other.
(11:22):
And whether it's change of direction, long speed, hand eye coordination,
you know, depending on if you're a thrower of baseball
versus a football versus anything else. And you know, and
I think the different dynamics of five man sports. You know,
there's nine guys on the field on baseball, eleven in
the huddle in football, and they're just different dynamics of
(11:42):
team building and teamwork, and then the individual aspect of
growth and development from a from a standpoint of for
I think we all forget at times as we start
to see high school kids making nil money and we
are finding a way to turn a lot of this
into a business, when really the most important thing is is,
you know, learning about yourself and the passion you have
(12:04):
to do something for reasons greater than yourself in many
ways is what makes sports so special and helps you
grow as a human being long you know, outside, you know,
much further outside the lines than just playing those games.
And I you know, I told the guys the other
day some of my I still talk to some of
my high school football teammates, you know, on you know, weekly, monthly,
(12:25):
whatever it is, because those bonds will last a lifetime.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Minnesota needed to go to source for everything high school sports.
That's why the Minnesota start Tribune created Strib Varsity. You
can sign up now at startribune dot com slash strib Varsity.
More ex's and od's with Kevin O'Connell around the corner
of the Minnesota Vikings Audio Network tis the season. Join
the Vikings and kfa N at the Eden Prairie Shields
(12:50):
December second, five thirty am to six thirty pm to
support Toys for Tots. Donate a toy and share your
holiday spirit. Will see you at Shields and Eden Prairie.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Back to X.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
That was with Kevin O'Connell.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Well, as Kevin shared to this press conference yesterday, Max Brosmer,
the undrafted rookie from Minnesota. He's going to get the
first team reps until JJ is out of concussion protocol.
We'll see how long that last during the course of
the week. Our talkback for Kevin O'Connell, head coach of
the Minnesota Vikings, I understand, involves Max Brosmer.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
And here it is.
Speaker 6 (13:22):
Good morning, nine to noon coach. This is Vinnie from
mounts View. Say, if Max is a starter this week,
how does his skill set differ from jjson even Carson's
And are you going to have to tweak the preparations
at all to match his skill set? Thanks you guys,
(13:43):
have a happy Thanksgiving.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Thanks Bob.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Good question.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Yeah, I don't know if you tweak the preparation as
much as maybe some of the things that we know
Max does well. And I think I heard the turn
signal or the hazard lights in the background click in
there from our talk back question.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
But the details that matter.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah, boy, he pulled off to the side. He didn't.
We always preach don't talk back and drive.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
It's very, very smart speaking of you know, you can
carry over that analogy to playing quarterback. And what it's
gonna be for Max this week is keeping it laser
focused like he's done throughout this season. And really he's
been a snap away now going on three four five
weeks or so, and his preparation has been fantastic, his questions,
his dialogue.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
He is wise beyond his years. He obviously has some.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
Experience at a couple different schools in college, different offenses,
different levels of play. And what really caught ri I
in training camp is his ability to do things, you know,
at a pretty high level without getting a lot of
time on task or reps to build into that. You know,
watching JJ take reps, watching the other quarterbacks take reps,
(14:55):
and when he got his his opportunities, he always made
the most of it. And what I've challenged Max to
do throughout this week is, you know, whether he ends
up playing or not, let's have that same level consistency.
Let's envision not having to do anything more then go
in there and execute each play as its own. You know,
what's my what's my footwork, and where's my where are
(15:17):
my completions? And what Max has shown is a twitchy,
quick release with you know, the ability to be pretty
accurate not only underneath but in the intermediate part of
the field. And I think there's you know, gonna be
some opportunities for who's ever playing quarterback in this game
to just hunt completions all day long. Really good pass
rush athleticism. You're going to notice it up in the booth.
(15:38):
You and Pete will the speed at which their defense
plays with Mike McDonald's got them flying around. So we
really need to be disciplined when we are throwing the ball,
whether no matter what level of or phase of our
offense that is, we have to be air tight with
getting the ball out of our hands thrown completions and
really getting Justin and Jordan Speedy and obviously TJ Aaron
(15:59):
Jones and the rest of the Grins involved in the
game by getting the football in their hands, and how
many times can we do that? Stack those plays without
the negatives that really doomed us in the second half
the other day and we didn't give ourselves any chance whatsoever,
regardless of the fumble punt, regardless of what took place
on the other side of the ball, and that's got
to be the starting point against a good football team
(16:20):
on the road.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Well, I mean with brozmer I just you know, the
recall is back to things you said in the off
season about processing quickly and just the voluminous amount of study,
the scholarly natured things, always walking around with a laptop
looking at something or the micro the surface pad, whatever
you call looking and stuff. And that came to fruition.
And I think it was the Tennessee game.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Bersich and I were walking out with Max. He threw
a touchdown back left of the end zone. Just asked
about it, you know, preseason, asked about the touchdown. It
took him thirty seconds to explain, well, something with cover
two when it was actually man and then you do
this and then you put the green die here and
you push the red button and it just kept going
and it's like it's it's like a while. We looked
(17:05):
at each other like wow, holy cow. I mean, that's
some pretty good dissecting right there, all right, Uh, Topeka
Kansas is telling me that we need to go. I
got to get in one or two more. Uh if
if if you mentioned getting to a tack mode yesterday,
and clearly that's been a calling card of yours since
you arrived. What what are some keys to returning to
(17:26):
as you would say, attack mode. Well, I'll make that
the last one.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
I think a lot of times you know that that
mentality and that mode can be something where it can
you know, you're trying to be a little bit more conservative,
maybe you're trying to run the football more. All you're
doing in those situations is hopefully setting up opportunities to
get a little bit more bang for your buck in
the play action game in some of the phases of
(17:50):
our offense, and I thought we missed some opportunities in
the game. There was a play where you know, Michael
Parsons goes out of the game. You know we've we've
kind of had something tied up and might have and
early on in the game, and we end up bobbling
the snap coming away from center and ending up on
the turf for a minus three yard loss. But that play,
when you're calling the game and you're operating as a team,
(18:11):
the way we are right now trying to navigate your
way to you know, at the very least a stalemate
and the turnover battle, the very least running the football
for the sake of staying efficient for some of the
third downs that have caused us problems when we get
into those longer yardage dn ds, okay, and then when
you don't make those plays, you know, those are wasted
(18:31):
opportunities that in many ways they're still happening. They're still
the defense is still having to go over and talk
about some of those things, whether the play was made
or not. And we just aren't making enough of those
plays to complement the rest of the way we're trying
to play as a football team. And as we continue
to progress forward and we continue to learn more about
(18:51):
this year's team, we're gonna have to find those plays
because the best parts of our team in many ways,
our guys named Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison and TJ. Hockinson,
and they have to have an impact on the football
game to go along offensively with our ability to run
the ball, our ability to control the football, the clock
and hopefully the time of possession and field position.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Oh oh, John, look over there is Jackson Smith and
Jigbus still strictly a slot guy, and no he's not
not anymore, but he was like last year, right he is.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
He is a fantastic player.
Speaker 5 (19:22):
I mean really watching him and and you know, I
you know, speaking to uh. I remember a few weeks
back when they they played the Rams and and leading
into that game, I got a chance to talk to
Sean McVeagh a little bit about you know, their preparation
and it was going to be obviously a big game
for them in the division, and he was just blown
away by by the player and what he's you know,
(19:43):
obviously grown and and kind of you know, continue to
progress forward in his career early on here, but you're
seeing an explosive guy that can win outside, win inside,
run after catch, making some of the most dynamic catches
in the league. And uh, you know, he's finding his
ops case. You know, Sam's. One of Sam's great qualities
is that intermediate to deeper passing game and really activating
(20:06):
the intermediate to deep part of the field with his arm.
And we saw it a year ago and he's picked
up right where he left off.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Have a good Thanksgiving man. We'll see out here for
practice this week.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
Come Friday, all right, Happy Thanksgiving to everybody.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
I appreciate you, Kevin Kevin O'Connell, the head coach of
the Minnesota Vikings. That's ex'es and.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Thank you for joining us for this week's episode of
x'es and o's with Kevin O'Connell. It's presented by Ken
Moore and as an official production of the Minnesota Vikings
Audio Network.
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