Xs and Os: Week 4 with Kevin O’Connell

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3:05Send her with more peace of mind. Get birdie 3.0 now from she's birdie at shes birdie.com. Again, that's shes birdie.com. It's time for X's and O's with Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell on the Minnesota Vikings radio network now from the TCO studios in Egan. Here is the voice of the Vikings Paul Allen. Welcome to X's and O's with Kevin O'Connell presented by Little Caesars. On Vikings game day score 15% off your little Caesar's order of $15 or more. And the code is Vikings 15 also Minnesota needed a go to source for everything high school sports. That's why Minnesota star tribune created strip varsity sign up now. It's at star tribune.com slash strip varsity head coach of the undefeated Minnesota Vikings has joined us Kevin O'Connell is with us here at the Vikings entertainment network posh

4:10and Tony and plush radio studio and we welcome them to the equation. Congratulations on the fast start. Yeah, thank you. Free and all. And hopefully all those Vikings fans made it back from Tampa safe and sound. Amazing. Amazing. That was unbelievable. And I actually did you notice on the bus because you're on a bus and I'm on a back bus. You're early buses. Everybody walk. I don't know what the long highway was ocean side, channel side, whatever. I mean thousands walk into the game. Yeah, it was unbelievable. And I turned to I think Matt Daniels was sitting behind me on the bus. I'm like, are you seeing what I'm seeing? And just it was unbelievable and then kind of tied in. I told the I told the guys the night before the game. I'm like the goal is, you know, fourth quarter that that bottom lower bowl, hopefully all purple and I'm kind of just crossing my fingers. Yeah. Vikings fans showed up and they always do. Man, we got the best fans in the world. I'm really glad you mentioned the name Matt Daniels and he's special teams coordinator

5:13for the Minnesota Vikings and and Kevin O'Connell, you know, whether we're chatting on the radio or off the radio, you're not one to make predictions. Okay. And Saturday night after chapel slash mass, you told me Miles Price and this is when you were eating ice cream cake that was designed for Matt Daniels and you were just having a good time with that cake by the way. But nevertheless, you said Miles Price is going to pop a return tomorrow and Miles Price popped a return the next day. So is it a profit for profit here? Like how did you see that coming? I just we've been we've been close and you know, it doesn't always materialize in the statute of how close you are in a certain phase from something popping, but it just kind of felt like the ownership the guys have the type of the way the young players were coming along and guys like, you know, Bartholomew and and you're bread us in and these guys that you're thinking, okay, we're going to have a chance to maybe pop one of these.

6:16Yeah. And I just think Miles is so talented. He's got the ability of a running back in many ways from a vision standpoint. It makes sense to him. He's got the ability to set things up and I just know that it's we've talked about it for so long. I mean, you're going back a long, long time since the last time we run, you know, ring the bell on pump return. And I made a prediction many, many days ago in addition to that one that when it happens, either Miles Price or Matt Daniels or Chilli Davis, our assistant special teams coach, were likely to get a penalty and I ended up being right. I think I think either Matt or Chilli were out on the numbers by the time it scored. The official came over and said, Kevin, I got to call it. I'm sorry. Yeah. I'm like, doesn't take away from the play. And I said, well, it kind of does. We got to kick a 40, a 50 something yard full goal now. But I'm going to play what a big time play. He's had, you know, you think back to that opener against Green Bay and that that the return he had to kind of set us, set us, set us, set us off a little bit, get us going.

7:17And then that one was, you know, clearly critical in a, any game where points were very valuable. Well, I mean, that's nice of Scott Novak or a member of his staff to come over to you and say, I mean, this is all fun and everything. I got to drop the flag here. Look at him. But it's analogous to the way the day went. Yeah. And I'm not just talking about accepted penalties. I'm talking about flag thrown. I mean, you know, that, that staff, it's, let me just ask you this. And it's, I know on average through two weeks, that's, that crew throws a lot of flags. Led the league. Okay. So you guys come into it knowing that told the team, but you don't want to have him over thinking and you want him to play fast, right? Yep. So when, when there's so many flags thrown in a game, how does it impact game flow if any? Well, I think what it does is it just, you know, it can sometimes, and when the flags are, or, or the penalties that were called on the play have a direct impact on the result of the play. And I think some, many of those penalties likely did.

8:21I think they need to be called, but I did tell our team last week. I told them, hey, you know, we've, we've been number one in the league, fewest penalties through these first two games. And what did we get to show for it? We got the crew that leads the league and throwing penalties. And I know, wow. Maybe by coincidence, maybe by accident, maybe it's on purpose, but, you know, we got to, we got to try to have a clean sheet and play the game the right way, play with great technique, fundamentals. We still want to have that play style and a couple of those penalties, you know, there was a third down where I think if they, the way as physical as that game was, I think they could have called on either side about five or six of those, you know, kind of helmet to helmet type hits, you know, just, just the way the game was. I mean, two physical teams and it was that kind of game, but they called it on one time. They called it on, you know, they called it on us on another time and you just got to adjust and you got to find a way to continue to make the play, but don't let it change

9:21your play style and stay true to your technique and fundamentals in a game like that. And that's really every week, PA. Now, after the Vikings win and they won three this year and lost zero, Vikings fans grab a victor's, uh, Voyage ale from Lyne and Google's crafted for those who bleed purple and gold skull. Kevin O'Connell X is an O's KFA and KFA and Vaston ever expanding audio network and Vikings.com and mentioned when you mentioned the word physicality, Ivan paste junior comes to mind. I mean, Ivan paste junior, he's on an influential run right now, in my opinion. I mean, he became, he became a father and, and the way and the way he, the physical nature with which he's playing mostly on special teams because he plays there a lot to, but, uh, defensively this last game, holy cow. This is, you guys brought him in undrafted from Cincinnati in 23. Is this the best he's ever played? Yeah. And I think he's, he's always been such a physical player from day one.

10:21That's why he made our team that, that first year as an un, unundrafted player. I think the way that the game has slowed down for him in a, in a mental capacity and, and he's locked in on what he's doing, what his job is and can react post snap, but he still is carrying that violence, physicality with him. He's a nightmare matchup on the running backs when we get him, you know, one on one in past protection against those backs and, and I, I think the way flow is using him, you know, to kind of take some snaps off of either, he will or cash here and there, uh, make it a priority to get him in the game on those matchups and let him do what he does, especially with the amount of snaps those guys have been playing. I think it's important to continue to evolve and make sure we're using that entire defensive roster and flow and a staff are doing such a great job of that, weathering, you know, the storm of a lot of snaps that they have to play right now, whether or offense, not being exactly where we want it to be, but Ivan's one of those guys and didn't make the trip with

11:21us. You know, and you know, he's at the, at the hospital and has a baby Iverson as he told me named Iverson. So it is a boy. Yeah. And you know what, I'm just, I'm just, you know, I'm, I'm ripping off the bandaid when it comes to baby names. I'm not asking permission anymore. I'm going public with it. I love the name for, you know, obviously, Ivan and his wife and what a cool moment and then to be able to give him a game ball for Iverson after that game was really cool. And it's also really cool in the games to see and this probably has happened before, but maybe I'm noticing it more now. So we got Turner and Van Gankle. We got deal with that and we got Cashman and Wilson playing at an incredibly high level. But you guys, Flores slash you guys, not afraid to have Wilson over here like change the, like full, full wholesale hockey changes, you know, to bring guys in and that only fresh ends, you know, the, the other guys don't you agree? I do. And I think what they did a great job of Zac, Zac Robinson had a good plan, you know,

12:23coming into the football game and the adjustments that were made as the game went on. And then the one thing about, you know, flow is when he sees something, you, you, you, you better find a way to have an answer for it because he's just going to keep doing it and doing it and doing it. And he gains, you know, the confidence level of, of that group and they make one play and then two and then three and then you can kind of feel it, especially when we're on the road and you feel it in the stadium, just the anxiety people are feeling playing against those guys. We, yesterday at the Monday press or the beats emptied the chambers and, and Max Brozmer's name came up. How much do you like bro, brozmer, not not saying like he's an immediate player or anything, but you brought him up and, and his advancement with that third quarterback role, like what do you think of Max? Yeah, you know, I think Max is a guy when we first brought him here from the U. We had a very long term vision for, it's really smart. He works in a tremendous capacity, both during the, you know, the practice hours, during the

13:24work day hours, but he's normally here early in the morning, he's here late. He wants to be great and he wants, he knows that he's got a long quarterback journey ahead of him, but he's not missing out on a chance to, you know, be tied to the hip of Carson wins and Kyler and asking them questions. He brings a lot to the quarterback meetings, but I think Max got unbelievable experience last year and, and, and that can be used in such a powerful way, moving forward because he's smart enough to be able to apply it, know where the growth and the areas where he can continue to improve and when called upon, I know Max is going to be ready and, love having him, love having him in that quarterback room and, and obviously that was, you know, Max as much as people wanted to throughout the off season talk about the other quarterbacks in the room, Max has been a major part of it, just knowing the depth that we want to have and there's always something ongoing in the quarterback room development, game readiness, you know, Kyler and his continued feeling of being comfortable in the offense and how

14:25do we do things to continue to allow that, that process to speed up, even though we lost some time with the concussion in week one. So there's a lot of things going on, but it's a major part of where we want to go as a team. Welcome back to X's and O's with Kevin O'Connell and Paul Allen and the Minnesota Vikings audio networks presented by Little Caesars. Let's hear KOC talk about the limited amount of time that we've seen Kyler Murray and also preview the dolphins match up this weekend. You're right. We're basically looking up four, four and a half quarters of football and basically outside of the first 11 plays of the season and the first six at Tampa Kyler didn't play those snaps with Justin Jefferson on the field, having practiced the whole week and all those things. As I told him, you know, we got to go and we're going to figure it out. We're going to figure it out together and I thought he made some big plays there to Jordan

15:26on the touchdown drive, those two big chunks. And then we're not far off from seeing a more of those things come to life, but we got to continue to get better. We got to get more consistent on offense and pair that with what we're doing in the other two phases. Okay. And to that point while raising a quarterback on the fly, so to speak during the regular season, where they count, it's you're coming at it from three and oh. I mean, that, you know, that, that, that has to like what's the importance of that? I'm not saying if you're o and three and trying to do it, well, the whole building would feel differently, but the fact that you are winning in the ultimate team game in complimentary fashion while bringing somebody knew it an incredibly important spot up to speed with something that's proven that you know works coming at it from three and oh, it's pretty good. Yeah. And the idea all along was to kind of pick up where we left off towards the end of the last season where we're winning and had learned how to win maybe differently than

16:27then we had in previous years. And I think our team and the maturity that goes with that is a great way to start three and oh, you know, we're outside of a, you know, we've got two turnovers via one being a tip ball from a D line man and the other one being the second play of the season where we opened up the A gap and allowed a something to happen that shouldn't happen. So outside of that, the security of protecting the football still remains number one. Priority at all cost. And in some games, that's forcing us to maybe not take the, the, some of the swings that we would need to if, for example, we didn't have to lead the entire game the other day, which we did. Yeah. You know, so it's, it's partial management of it, but at the same time, we expected to kind of progressively build the offense throughout the season, how comfortable the personnel, including Kyler could, could get as we progressively build. But I do believe it's time we need to start seeing a little bit more consistency. We're still navigating some injury things, you know, hopefully at some point here we'll

17:28get Jordan Mason back. Obviously, the Josh Oliver loss is a big deal. And we dodged a big bullet, I think, with Justin, you know, but still the, the facts are, we've got to, we're tasked with moving the football and scoring points and doing our part on offense to, you know, obviously supplement what we're doing in the kicking game and most importantly, the phenomenal play we're getting out of our defense. The Josh Oliver news, first and foremost for him is terrible. I just terrible. I mean, just what a, what, but such a key component component to what you've worked on for quite some time and it's working and you're getting singles with right guys at times that you need them. Okay. So it's not, it's not all doom and gloom here because you got to move on. But you know with, with, with, with Oliver, another sneaky, fast, when I was watching the game back is whatever the positions called the wing on the field goal team. Yeah. And with the seven might have been McCullum. It'll allow Isaiah Rogers to him on one of those right card hits and one of the best in the league for sure. Is he really? Yeah. Okay. And Oliver got him.

18:29So then I'm like, right, these questions and I'm thinking, geez, well Josh plays that spot too. So it's multifaceted, right? It's actually the, the play he, he, he, he heard his, his bicep on those reaching that arm out. Reaching that arm out. Stubbed him running around the corner. Yeah. And obviously three points were massive. Right. Whenever we could get him in the game. So you know, that's, that's part of the game. The special teams impact and you only get 48 up on game day. So guys got to be out there doing their part in that phase in addition to what they do on offense and defense. But, but offensively, I mean, in fairness, this is a tricky one to work around, right? It is just because, you know, we, we really, you, you feel so strongly about where a guy like Max Predison has been at in his impact. A lot of that, those personal groupings when Max is on the field, you got Josh Oliver in there at the Y Ted end position and just providing such a, he's a power player, physicality, compare really well with either of those two tackles as far as combination blocks on the edge. And it's been something we run behind, Josh, you know, a lot for a reason.

19:30He's one of the best blocking Ted ends in football. Yep. And now we're going to have to navigate that and have some guys step up and also take a look at how we do things to, to do it the most efficient, effective way possible. Yep. And I want to, you know, this Miami defense is a bunch of young players. Jeff's one of the best defensive coaches in the league and they're going to be flying around playing fast and we just got to limit the negatives and make sure we protect the football and, and, and the bigger plays the chunk plays will come. And, and the, the dolphins game is 305 this, the Sunday on KFAM. And, you know, I'm glad you brought that up because I recall you saying something when, when, halfly was the defensive coordinator in Green Bay. And despite the struggles that the dolphins have had so far, you have a lot of respect for Jeff happily, don't you? Yeah, he's one of my, he's one of my closest friends in coaching, especially considering he, he coaches on that other side of the ball. Yeah, he was actually my neighbor my first year coaching when I was with the Browns. My, my wife, Lea and his wife, Gina are really close and Jeff's always been a guy, you

20:31know, Brandon Staley's very similar. They're defensive coaches, but they have an a love affair with offense, studying it, you know, they think they know it and they love talking about it. So we've had thousands of conversations over the years, but, you know, the best part about Jeff is he is really brilliant from a football standpoint, but has an unbelievable way about him with players and can get guys, he can connect with players of all backgrounds, different stages of their career. And I tell him all the time he's got a screw loose. So that's what helps him do all that. But he's really good coach and, and I think the dolphins got a good one. All right, one offense and one defense to close for a Kevin O'Connell head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. And this is X is the nose and good morning. You got offense first. You guys are 18 and four Aaron Jones. You guys are 18 and four when Jones carries it 10 times or more. Okay. But just how much has he helped through this three and O star? Yeah, he word, you know, we would, we would love to have him in there every snap if we

21:31could. And we're just, you know, we're putting a lot on him right now and he's, he's handling it. He's, you know, we're trying to navigate it to make sure that he's the lead back. We need to still offset that with the mom and, and DJ Dallas and, and try to find a way to kind of thread this needle. We're not going to have to do it much longer. JP's doing great, Jordan Mason. Good. And obviously coming into the year, we really looked at that one A1B as a way of really seeing Jordan Mason burst onto the scene as he did kind of late in that green Bay game. And it's just part of it. You just got to navigate it. And I think we still want to stay true to how we want to play. But at the same time, know that Aaron's going to, Aaron's going to do so many great things for us as an offense for the whole season. And we just can't wear him out too much over these three, four weeks that Jordan's out. And lastly, Isaiah Rogers, he's a, and I probably should have noticed this last year, but he's a good tackling corner, isn't he? I mean, he's a huge part of our defense. He's a high end or certainly well above average, tackling corner.

22:34Yeah, you can't run our scheme without the corners being guys that end up having a moment of truth type tackle, whether it's Murf, Zay, I thought Josh Mattelis had some huge tackles in space where if he doesn't make that play, they extend drives and ultimately have some more opportunities against us. So tackling, I think, has been something flow. Even in this day and age where you don't get to practice it a whole lot, they're doing circuits every single week. They're trying to make sure that they're prepared, even though they might not actually be simulating the actual act of tackling. They are working the techniques and fundamentals and making sure we're dialed in from a standpoint of being able to get people on the ground because that's the number one way within our scheme. We can cause chaos and wrecks havoc on people, but you still got to get them on the ground. And when they try to put the ball in play in space, which there can be sometimes, and we're able to tackle, man, our defense is hard to move the ball against. Thanks everybody for watching End or listening to X's and O's presented by Little Seasers.

23:34Once again, a Vikings game day score 15% off your Little Seasers order or $15 or more with Code Vikings 1.5. Thank you very much. Congratulations on the win and I'll see you this week, right? Thanks, PA. Yep, for sure. Kevin O'Connell, head coach for the Minnesota Vikings. Thanks for listening to X's and O's, Kevin O'Connell, presented by Little Seasers and his production of the Minnesota Vikings Audio Network. To feel confident again, visit orderlymeds.com to learn about which GLP1 you may be eligible for. Getting started as fast, easy, and happens virtually through telemedicine from licensed professionals. Game confidence, choose healthy habits this fall. Check it out for yourself. Go to orderlymeds.com. That's orderlymeds.com. Taking care of yourself feels great. Compounded medications are not FDA approved. Electorality required an interim biolicence provider. Individual results may vary. See website for details.