Postgame Transcript December 2, 2018

VIKINGS QUARTERBACK POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE December 2, 2018

Q: What were the Patriots able to do to keep you off-balance in the first four or five drives?

KC: It all runs together right now. Until I go back and watch the film, I can’t give you the best answer. But I think it was a combination of a good job in coverage and certainly we made some mistakes, but I think they just did a good job of playing their scheme.

Q: Can you talk about how they took Adam Thielen and out of the game? You had to throw to your backs and throw short.

KC: Yeah, we had a feeling they were going to be able to do that or try to do that and they did for the most part. One of the times they were doubling Adam was the time where we had a chance to hit a big play to him and the ball was just a foot too far on the third down. We almost came down with it but it was an incompletion and that was a situation where they were trying to double him and he’s still able to have the chance for an explosive play there. We felt that going into the game, as much as they may try to take them away, that there would still be opportunities there as well as opportunities to Rudy [Kyle Rudolph] and our backs and Aldrick [Robinson] and Laquon [Treadwell] and there certainly were at times. But other times, we just didn’t as an offense find a way to get it done.

Q: Were the looks you were getting from their defense in coverage kind of prevent you from taking some deep shots? Would you have liked to have taken more deep shots?

KC: I think it’s a mixture. I think there was one time where we did take a shot over the free safety’s head but I just didn’t put it on the right side of the field towards where Diggsy [Stefon Diggs] was. Other times we were just trying to get ahead of the chains and trying to keep it to manageable third downs. It was a mixture, they mixed it up. I don’t know that they line up in any one defense over and over where you feel like you know what you’re going to get.

Q: When you picked up the tempo you started to get things rolling. said that interception in the end zone is kind of when the team got deflated but Mike Zimmer said he was more frustrated at the beginning start. Where do you stand on that?

KC: I don’t know, I don’t know. You know, I treat each drive as its own entity, each play as its own entity and you just can’t allow a previous play to affect your approach, you can’t allow an uphill battle that you have ahead of you to affect the way you execute the individual play. You just have to treat each of them in a vacuum and play them out the best you can based on the situation.

Q: Did they do a good job of disguising their looks pre-snap?

KC: I would say so. I think it was more bluffing Cover-0 and bringing Cover-0 and rotating between those. I think that they did that consistently throughout the game. Q: Have they shown that on film before?

KC: Yeah, they had shown it. Probably not as much as they did tonight. But that was certainly part of their game.

Q: On the third-and-long, fourth-and-long sequence, did you have to throw underneath or do you think you had a chance to get those guys in a position where they could break a tackle and make a play?

KC: Yeah, it was Cover-0 on the fourth down so if you do break a tackle, it’s hopefully a . It was just playing with our rules within the offense of if that free safety blitzes, the route he runs, the throw I make, that’s what we do. Obviously on fourth down, with the yards needed, it would have been great to draw one up in the dirt there, hand-signal something, come up with something different. But I thought maybe we’d break a tackle. Some of it was probably also the fact that they had brought Cover-0 so much that they were expecting certain routes or certain adjustments too.

Q: On that two minute drive that led to that touchdown by Adam Thielen, what were you noticing about going hurry-up there that might have taken them out of their comfort zone a little bit?

KC: I don’t know. I don’t think they felt uncomfortable as we were driving, I just think the first play they brought a zone pressure and Diggsy [Stefon Diggs] got open over the middle and then Rudy [Kyle Rudolph] was in man coverage, made an unbelievable catch in the seam, in tight coverage. So they defended it well but guys were making plays and we were just able to stay ahead of the chains and stay out of third downs and just find ways to be explosive on that drive.

Q: What was the team thinking at halftime? That you got the momentum and it was a good feeling or how would you characterize that?

KC: We certainly went into the half optimistic, feeling good. Obviously you get some momentum there, football’s a game of momentum and we had some there at the end of the half. We knew it was going to be a dogfight in the second half. We knew that anytime you play here against the Patriots, that they’re not going to go away quietly at all. So we knew it was going to be a tough battle in the second half regardless of how the first half ended.

Q: You talk about staying ahead of the chains. How much then did the holding penalties kind of put things off-course?

KC: Yeah, I felt like any time you’re in second-and-20 or first-and-20, it’s a tough deal. First-and-10’s hard enough, second-and-10’s hard enough, but overcoming that was certainly part of the challenge.

Q: Do you think that took you out of your rhythm a little bit with the run game?

KC: Yeah, it’s hard to call a run on second-and-20 because you’re basically going to be looking at third-and-15 most of the time and that’s not a place you want to be. So that’s where it became more of a drop-back game and I don’t know if that’s the game we wanted to play from the start, I don’t think we wanted to just be dropping back all the time, I think we wanted to be more multiple and creative and sometimes the situation dictated we had to do that.

Q: What did you think about the balance overall?

KC: Yeah I just think the last five minutes of the game, down two scores, a lot of times in games where we’re ahead or tied, you’re getting a dozen more rushing attempts in those five and a half minutes because of the situation the game dictates and that you just want to pound the rock, especially if you have a lead. So many times the situation of the game can dictate that as well. We can do a better job to make sure we’re not down two scores with five and a half minutes left so that then we can run the ball more in the fourth quarter.

Q: Is there a level of frustration with the two balls in the end zone to Adam Thielen and Aldrick Robinson where both of them clearly thought they were interfered with?

KC: Well it all happened so fast that it’s hard to know what’s interference or not in the moment. I went over to the ref and just asked him, “Why wasn’t there a pass interference? Can you help me understand what took place?” It would seem that they were unable to get to the football, but he explained what he thought happened and why it wasn’t and I said okay and we moved on. But certainly those were plays that when they fall incomplete, it’s tough to have to settle for three.

Q: What did you see that you liked about trying for those plays?

KC: Well, they had lower safeties playing in a quarters look and so they’re doubling Adam [Thielen] and so we had one-on-one on the outside to Aldrick [Robinson] on one of them. The other one was Adam was one-on-one so I wanted to give him an opportunity there and get a chance to go over the top a little bit. Would love to hit one of those, but we just didn’t.

Q: Here and in Chicago, you got it going when you went no-huddle. Could that be a bigger part of the offense going forward?

KC: Yeah I don’t know. I think it’s something we’ve got to talk about. Any time you can do as well as we’ve done in that two minute mode, it’s got to say something about maybe what we do well or trying to emphasize something we could be good at. But I think that’s also the coaches have got to look and decide what they want to do. But I think we seem to have been productive – and I would even argue, two minute at the end of the half against the Packers and some other games this year, we’ve done a good job in two minute going down at the end of the half to try to get a field goal or get a touchdown.

Q: What are the Patriots doing well defensively? Why are they holding you to 10 points?

KC: I think they use a good scheme. I think they did a good job with whether it was Cover-0 or bluffing Cover-0 or having a bit of a walk-around where they’re not really giving any tells pre-snap, that certainly seemed to be an emphasis for them this week, that they were going to basically keep you guessing until after the snap. I thought they did a good job with that this week.

Q: Do you find any consolation in the Bears losing?

KC: Yeah, I’ve never really gotten too caught up in what’s going on around us because we know that ultimately it’s about what we do and if you win games, you put yourself in a position. I know it’s important that we just get in. I’d love a home playoff game but if we can get in, anything can happen. That’s really where my focus is, is just put ourselves in a position at the end of the 16 games to be in and then it’s a fresh start and you hit the reset button and then you go from there. So we’ve just got to obviously get to Week 17, the sixteenth game and have won enough to be in.

Q: Mike Zimmer says he feels as a team, you guys are fine and that you learn from every loss. Is it too soon to say what you think you’ll learn from this one?

KC: I thought our defense played really well. I thought they kept us in the game, I thought Dalvin Cook did a really good job, both in the run game and the pass game. I like our locker room, I think we work hard, I think we had the right approach coming in here, I think that we just didn’t make enough plays today. But these games are all their own entity and so this doesn’t carry over to next week, you hit the reset button, you head to Seattle and you try to put on a great performance there and if you do that, you can be feeling pretty good about yourself pretty quickly. I think we have a good group, we had the right mindset and now we just need to have a great week of practice and have a better result next week in Seattle.

Q: How much collaboration is there between drives with you, Adam Thielen, Stefon Diggs and John DeFilippo as teams are taking away Thielen and Diggs and you’re trying to get them more involved? How much do you work on that?

KC: Yeah, there’s constant dialogue of just talking about play thoughts that we have for the next drive, rehashing the previous drive, talking about what may work and maybe why I went with the ball where I did on the previous drive or just taking ownership if there was a mistake. Just saying, “Hey, that was my fault.” So there’s constant dialogue and that’s every week, after every series, you’re trying to continue to stay on the same page.