Everything the Minnesota Vikings said after losing 40-3 to the Dallas Cowboys

Everything the Minnesota Vikings had to say after losing 40-3 to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium. All quotes are courtesy of the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys public relations staffs.

Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell

Quick injury update. Christian Darrisaw was ruled out with a concussion. Obviously second concussion in a couple weeks. We’re going to be extra cautious with him moving forward, and he will more than likely -- I can say he won’t be playing on Thursday. (Ross) Blacklock got a stinger.We’ll see how he turns over. But outside of that, just a night where we didn’t play well in any phase of our football team, didn’t coach well enough, didn’t play well enough. This is not going to be thelast time where we have to respond after an emotional win to come back and play the next week with much more energy. We’ve got to coach better, like I said, play better across the board. A huge opportunity for our team to really look inward. We expect in these tough times to be able to rely on our locker room, our players, and our coaches, and we’ll be right back here in four days with an opportunity to get this taste out of our mouth. But you’ve got to give credit to the Dallas Cowboys.

They came in and dominated every phase of the football game. We’ve got to learn from this. We’ve got to use this as an opportunity to grow as a football team and handle adversity the right way. Like I said, four days from now we’ll get that opportunity against a really good football team right back here at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Q. Do you think there was a hangover from last Sunday?

A. I don’t know. I just know we had a good week of preparation and it didn’t translate to us playing our style of football in any way, shape, or form. I thought we were sloppy. I thought there were too many penalties.The early turnover, even though the defense was able to hold to a field goal, we then drive back down and have a chance to put seven on the board and we only get three. It just felt like from there, then on out we were just reaching for momentum instead of doing the things that we’ve done, whether trailing or with the lead throughout the season, we didn’t do any of those things tonight. I think we’ve really got to look inward.We’ve got to look to the next two or three days and try to turn these guys over. That was one of the reasons we tried to start getting guys out of there when the result was really not in question anymore. We’ve got to find a way. We’re an 8-2 football team. There’s going to be a lot of narratives about our team that we can or can’t control. We really can’t control, we know that.

We’ve just got to look inward to our locker room. I felt all along we’ve got the right kind of guys. We’ve got the right coaching staff. I do believe that we will respond to this the right way, but at this point in the season, November comes, and sometimes you can get hit in the mouth. This league has a way of humbling any football team at any point in time if you don’t play good football. We did not tonight, and we’ve got to learn from this and make sure we move forward in the right direction and really trust that we’re going to handle this response the right way.

Q. Why do you think they were so effective rushing the pass with seven sacks?

A. That’s what they do. I thought we didn’t do much. We tried to get the run game going early, and we faced some third downs. Whether they were manageable or not, Kirk (Cousins) was under duress, and when you lose your left tackle early on in the game, sometimes you can try to move that hard down around, and they just kept finding ways to affect Kirk. I thought our receivers did a nice job for the most part against a pretty good secondary of trying to get separation and trying to win on the perimeter. We just could not find those stacked plays together to truly gain the momentum that you have to do when you’re playing a good football team. This will be a good test for us to understand that we did not play our best, or even close to it, and can we respond in the right way? And really try to look inward to a player, to a coach, and I’ll be right out in front doing that. I didn’t coach well enough tonight. I didn’t coach well enough for our team, and we got outplayed.

Luckily, you get 17 opportunities in this league, and we’ll look back on this one, and we’ll be able to see how we handled it moving forward, which will ultimately tell the story of our 2022 season. But we’re not going to let this affect us other than make sure we know tonight wasn’t good enough and we’ve got to get a lot better in a hurry, looking to Thursday as a great opportunity to get right back at it.

Q. Did you want to run the ball a little bit more before it got out of hand?

A. A couple of drives there, we ran it on first and second down, first drive of the game, and have that third-- I think it was a third and four, third and three, whatever it was, we end up taking a sack there, and the ball comes out. Then the next possession we moved the ball pretty consistently. Good balance, good mixture. Then ultimately, just not good enough.

I don’t know if running it a couple more snaps would have changed tonight’s output. We only had 50 -- I think we only had 54 plays total, and that includes once we pulled our guys there in the fourth quarter. So just not enough offensively to sustain and take the pressureoff our defense. Then coming out of the second half, we were hoping to try to just get one stop and respond and see if we can go down and score a touchdown. We didn’t do either of those things offensively or defensively.

Q. Ezra Cleveland left also. Was that an injury?

A. No, he ended up coming out there, and we decided he should be okay.

Q. On Darrisaw, obviously you mentioned this week, but when it’s two in two weeks, do you have concern for longer term than just this five days here?

A. My concern is just about C.D. and making sure that -- he’ll be in the protocol like he was last week. He checked all those boxes going into tonight, and ultimately we’ll make sure. This is one of our best players with a long-term future here, and we’re going to make sure that C.D. is absolutely -- like we did this week,but we’ll make sure he’s absolutely ready to roll when that time comes.

Q. While he’s out, do you have to think about doing anything different with the configuration of the offensive line or just roll with what it is?

A. We’ll take a look at it. I’ll talk to Coach Kuper and Wes Phillips, and we’ll just take a look at our game plan, how we see ourselves trying to play this game on Thursday. Knowing it’s a tight turnaround, there’s not going to be a lot of time for full speed reps or development. We’ve just got to go out and give our guys the best possible plan. They’ve got to be ready to execute against a really good football team that’s going to come in here and play good football. We cannot -- the penalties, obviously we had the one turnover, but we’ve got to force more turnovers. We’ve got to force more plays defensively to go our way, and then offensively we’ve got to find a way to make things happen and be that momentum grabbing side when we need to in some of these games.

Q. Defensively, what did you feel like they were doing just to challenge you guys early?

A. Defensively, the Dallas defense? They were physical up front. They were able to kind of get us on some of those known passing situations and force negative plays. You can have all the route concepts you want to dial up there, but none of that really matters if your quarterback can’t go through those progressions. It was just one of those nights where the tough down moved around, and we kind of took turns up front. We took turns at different positions on our offense, skill players included. Had just an uncharacteristic performance by our offense, and I think we’ve got to try to find a way to eliminate some of those self-inflicted wounds, some of those penalties, some of those things that, even when you’re trying to gain momentum in a game, you do, and you’re going to be playing right into the way that team wants to play defense over there.

Q. Did Kirk come through the game okay physically?

A. He did. He’s such a competitor. He wanted to stay in the game and continue to play, but with four days away being what it is, we wanted to make sure -- we’ll always try to continue to fight. We’ll never give upon any game, but we’ve got to be smart about our team, understanding where we’re at with eight wins and a tight turnaround here. I thought Kirk tried to battle tonight. It was a very tough night to play quarterback out there. We’ve got to do some things to help him any way, shape, or form we can. Running the ball more is obviously something we’ll look to do. Once we establish ourselves in these games, we’ve got to find ways to just generate more opportunities, more plays. Can we convert on third down? 1 of 11 is not good enough.That’s not going to win you a lot of games with the type of offense we have. We need opportunity. We need plays. It just didn’t go our way tonight.

Q. Some of the players were saying maybe it’s not all that bad to be playing Thursday to get the bad taste out of their mouth so quickly. Would you concur with that?

A. I do. We challenged them when they came back in. They know it wasn’t good enough tonight. They know. We’ve got the right team in that locker room. We’ve got great guys, good leadership. They know.They know we didn’t play better. We didn’t play well enough. We didn’t coach well enough. Nothing across the board was good enough tonight. Like I said, the best thing is we get four days from now an opportunity to come out and try to get back on track. I believe we’ll do the things we need to do, control what we can control, and ultimately band together close as ever to come out here and try to get a win on Thursday.

Q. They had 6 of their 7 sacks with just a four-man rush. What did they do to get home, and how much tougher does it make it when they’re able to get home?

A. I think they won some. We were trying to do some things to help on the edges as much as possible,especially when C.D. went down. Then there would be interior penetration. Then trying to maybe help interior-wise and make sure the slide’s going the right way, and then there was some issues on the perimeter as well. Some of those sacks did not come on third down. Some of them came on play passes where you’re trying to protect and trying to give Justin and Adam a chance to work down the field, and we just didn’t give an opportunity for those plays to happen. So whether it was our play pass protection, whether it was our execution in the screen game to try to slow down the rush, or just across the board, even when we did get some completion plays going, earned a couple first downs, then there would be a penalty or a negative play to put us behind the sticks. So just not good enough across the board.

Q. With Darrisaw, do you take a look at whether you guys might have missed something?

A. No.

Q. You’re 100 percent sure he was clear?

A. Yes. He was through the whole protocol as is, and everything was done medically speaking in the best interests of C.D., and he was ready to go tonight. There was actually an impact to his helmet, to his head and neck area that kind of caused him to immediately be pulled out of the game.

Q. Was that his last play, that sack?

A. Yes.

Q. The narratives that you referenced earlier, do you think those are fair narratives about this team?

A. You know what, I don’t think we can get concerned with those things. I just know each and every week in this league is another opportunity to really prove who you are as a football team. I don’t think we did that tonight. I don’t think we gave ourselves a chance to compete. Like I said, we’ve got a lot of things on a short week to try to get right, and I don’t really know any other way than to go back to work and really accept this result. I think it’s important that we accept this result and understand when you can look to a man and coach and player and say we just weren’t good enough, that allows you to move forward. We’ve got to accept it first and foremost. Even on a short week, correct some of the things that we can correct, and then make sure we’re doing everything we can to turn these guys over, build a great plan for them. Even on a short week, the expectation is going to be that we come out here and play well in four days.

Q. Overall, how would you evaluate T.J. Hockenson through his first three weeks with the guys?

A. I think he’s had a really nice impact on our offense. He would have loved to have come down with that red zone target early in the game. He’s made a lot of plays for us already. He’ll make a ton of plays for us moving forward. We’re very, very lucky to have T.J., and we’ll continue to build his comfort in our offense and all the different facets of how we play. He’s learning on the fly right now. We’re trying to get him as comfortable as possible, and we’ll continue to do that because he’s one of our weapons on offense and we’re lucky to have him.

Q. What do you think Dallas did to create so much strain on your defense?

A. I think they got the run game going. I think they got timely third down conversions. I think that some of those runs, where they turned maybe a three or four-yard gain into seven or eight by just running hard and physical. The physicality with which they played on the line of scrimmage. Then I thought Dak (Prescott)made some big time plays. That third down touchdown coming out of half, getting the double move thereto the back, a play we’ve run before in some capacity to score as well. And they just go out and execute.That’s still got to be a great pitch and catch in that moment. They’ve got to protect it. We’ve got to find away to get a little more pressure, try to tighten up on the back end. It’s really a little bit of everything tonight.

As the head coach of a team that experiences a game like this, it’s ultimately on me to make sure that we go back and fix the things we can, control what we can control. But ultimately, this is a challenge. This is going to be an unbelievable challenge for our team. Four days from now, we’ll be right back here, like I said, against a good football team. I’m willing to put everything we got into this game on a short week. And I trust our guys and what we’ve built here to respond the right way.

Vikings Quarterback Kirk Cousins

Not good enough tonight. Got to play better. With a short week this week, it’s important that we get right back to it. And we’ll be at home Thursday night, so it is important to have a much better performance. So we’ll talk about this one and look to improve and need to be better in roughly four days. That’s where our focus goes. We’ve been winning as a team these last several weeks of wins,and now we’ve lost as a team and we’ve got to bounce back. I’ll take any questions you have.

Q. You were sacked seven times, the most in your career. What were the factors that led to that in your estimation?

A. I think it was a combination of reasons. Certainly when you get behind, then you allow a lot more of a drop back game, so that certainly played into their ability to rush us and play for that.

Q. When they’re able to get pressure, most of them with four guys, how does that change how you look at things downfield when they don’t have the extra guys coming at you?

A. It’s effective. When you can rush four, it’s effective. Certainly we want to be in a place where we’re not having to drop back too much. And you certainly need to be in a game where you’re right there and you’re not behind where you have to drop back. So that’s the part that you feel you can stay in the game and then keep yourself from being in those scenarios.

Q. On the strip sack, when you watch that back, did you feel Parsons coming, or what did you see when you looked at that?

A. I just think there you need to have two hands on the football is really where I look back. When you watch it and coach it and look at how to improve, if you’re holding on with two hands as you’re running, it’s less likely to fumble there. So that’s where I say I’ve got to be better.

Q. Is Parsons the kind of guy who you can prepare for but you really can’t comprehend his skills until you see him live on Sunday?

A. He’s a great player. I find each week when you study for your opponent, each team seems to have a player, a pass rusher, that’s pretty elite. He’s in that category of one of the better pass rushers in this league that you have to be aware of, and he can impact the game.

Q. How much of a challenge did you feel like protection was trying to help on the outside and also inside at times?

A. There’s certainly an awareness of trying to get a chip or some help by a halfback or a tight end on the edge. All game long you’re kind of aware of all that, but certainly when you can stay in manageable down and distances, you can run the football, you can play action, you can screen, you can do other things that,when you get behind, it’s just much, much harder to do.

Q. Having won seven straight games, beating Buffalo last week, how much of you is stunned by the margin that you lost by today?

A. It’s certainly a disappointing outcome. What I’ve learned in this league in my years is they all count one.The point differential doesn’t end up becoming a thing that sticks with it, but the loss or the win does. We’ve got to find a way moving forward to get wins and play much better than we did tonight.

Q. What’s going to be key to responding to this on a short week?

A. You’ve got to fix what’s fixable. You have to just be ready to go Thursday night and have a good Monday,Tuesday, and Wednesday in preparation for that. What you don’t want to have happen is any repeated mistakes. So you always say how can we fix what happened so that’s the last time something like that happens?

Q. Overall, how do you evaluate T.J. over the last three weeks, and how valuable has he been to this offense?

A. He’s showing up a lot in our offense. He’s done a great job. We’ll continue to lean on him moving forward.

Q. Is there anything that he did that helped build so much chemistry between you and him so quickly?

A. Well, he’s learned the system very quickly. I think he’s a friendly target. I think Kevin’s also done a great job incorporating TJ into the plan. I think in this offense and on this team we’ll always be incorporating our Y, our tight ends in the pass game, and there will always be production there to be had. He’s done a great job taking on that challenge in such a short amount of time.

Vikings Wide Receiver Adam Thielen

Q. What is the process you go through in a game like that where nothing is going right?

A. Move on as fast as possible. Thankfully, we play on Thursday night, so we’ll be right back in this locker room pretty quickly. It will come up faster than we know it. You obviously have to learn a little bit from it, but I think for this one, probably just move past it and go onto the next. We know that’s not who we are. It’s a good football team, but we did ourselves no favors. We did not play our brand of football. We didn’t do the things that we always talk about that have helped us win eight games so far. The truth is, we got our butts kicked; but also, the truth is, we’re eight and two and we’re in a good position, but we have to move on quickly and go back to work.

Q. Are you glad to be playing Thursday?

A. Yeah, 100% percent. These are the weeks that you want to get back on the field as quickly as possible and go play a game. It will be good to get back on the field and be able to show who we really are. Flush this one and move on and find a way to get better.

Q. Were there any moments in the game that you just looked at each other and said ‘this is not even us’?

A. Yeah, for sure. You’re kind of like ‘what’s going on’? I think, again, we have a lot of confidence that we’re going to find a way. Just because we’ve built that confidence throughout the last eight weeks. We never had a doubt in our mind that we could find a way to come back and win this game. We just never made those game-changing plays that we’ve done in the past that have helped us get those victories. You need to have some momentum to just – someone make a little extra play, break a tackle, get a first down to get things moving and keep the ball out of their hands. We just didn’t give ourselves enough opportunity to make plays and that starts by getting those first downs, especially when we have some manageable third downs that we have to go get early in the games to get momentum. At the end of the day, it just was not us out there. Fortunately, we get to go back in four days.

Q. You said you didn’t play your brand of football, what specifically irked you about this game?

A. From all phases, I don’t think we played our best football. We didn’t do the things that have helped us win eight games. We expected that we would find a way to win because we’ve been doing that. Sometimes these games are good to wake you up a bit and realize that you’ve got to bring it every single week. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, you’ve got to bring it. You’ve got to find a way to bring your best football.It doesn’t matter if you’re sore, tired, injured, nicked up, you’ve got find a way to mentally play your best football. Otherwise, what happened tonight, happens.

Q. Did the Cowboy’s defensive line show anything different than what you were seeing all week?

A. That’s a good question. We’ll have to go look at the tape because it’s hard to say, especially as the receivers were running down the field. I’m not really sure. I think for us, we‘ve got to go look at that tape tonight and figure out how we could’ve done better individually and then move on as fast as possible. We’ve got to find a way to play our best football on Thursday night. With a primetime game, we want to show who we really are, not what we showed today.

Vikings Linebacker Jordan Hicks

Q. Do you think there were any effects of just coming off such an emotional victory last week?

A. No, no excuse there.

Q. What was it like after halftime?

A. Yeah, I feel responsible for that first drive, you know, we were third and fourteen I think it was. I need to be better on that third down and hopefully not give them that type of momentum to continue.

Q. We see the videos of Kevin O’Connell; does he say anything to you after a game like this?

A. Whether we win or lose, it’s about us sticking together and being us. Preachers preach the same thing that we preach since day one and it’s about our belief and ability to go back to work every win, lose or draw and continue to press forward.

Q. Is it maybe good you play so soon on Thursday just to get this out of your head so quickly?

A. I’m excited, especially after something like this you want to play as soon as possible. You want your body to be as healthy as possible but if you could pick a Thursday to have it for me, personally this is the one I’m picking.