Sunday, October 9, 2016

Transcription

1 Sunday, October 9, 2016 Texans Head Coach Bill O Brien Q: What are your initial thoughts about your performance? A: I thought it was bad. It was bad starts and ends with me. I have to do a much better job with this football team. Q: How do you explain such bad stats on the road? A: Yeah, I don t know. I really don t. If I knew, obviously, I would be able to fix it, but I don t know. Q: What do you think about Brock Osweiler s performance? A: I thought he battled. I thought he battled. Again, I think it starts and ends with me. Q: What were the Vikings doing to negate Will Fuller and DeAndre Hopkins? A: Again, it starts and ends with me. I know, I m sorry. That s the answer I m going to give you, because I m not doing a good enough job of getting them the ball. (Reporter: Well, you can say that all you want, but you re not playing.) Yeah, well, I m in charge of the football team. When you play like that, it s not very good, and it s a reflection of the coaching. And I m the head coach. Q: You had said up in New England that it was just one game, but then to have this happen, in some ways, it was a kind of a replication of the Chiefs game in the playoffs where after two or three drives, you guys are unless there s a miracle you re almost out of it. How does the team get past that? A: I think the most important thing is to come in, work hard tomorrow to fix the mistakes and then move on to a big game. And, I think, one thing I ll say about this team is I know that this team will never stop playing. I think we battled all the way through. Obviously, it was a bad performance. So, like I said, I m the head coach, but I think this team will I think it is one game. I think there s a lot of season left, and this team will play hard. Q: Did Osweiler take a step backward today? Do you worry about his confidence at all? A: No, I thought Brock like I told John [McLain] I think Brock battled hard. I think, like I told John and like I told you, I think I need to do a better job. Q: Brock got hit a lot today. Do you think there s anything else that could have been done to prevent that? A: Yeah, better play calling by me. Q: Do you think he played as if he was expecting breakdowns? A: I thought he battled. I thought he battled hard the whole day. Q: What did you do to get the ball to DeAndre Hopkins when you did, that you couldn t do early in the game? A: I don t know. At that point, we were just in a two-minute mode, and we were down by so much that we were digging ourselves out of a big hole. So, we went into more of a basic-play, two-minute mode, and we were able to get him the ball. -- OVER --

2 Q: You ve been patient with the run game before. You clearly weren t today with a lot more passing. A: It was 14-nothing after five minutes, I think it was. I don t think running the ball was going to be able to get us back in the game as quickly as we, probably, needed to get back into the game. Q: Defensively, was it all about settling down, because after that first couple drives, you guys got into a groove? A: Yeah, defense is fine. Defense is doing a good job. They re going to be fine. Q: When you say it s on you, you re practicing the whole week, you re going through the game preparation as always is it the intensity? Is it the execution? A: Obviously, if we had a good practice week, but didn t show up on Sunday. So, that s a reflection of the game plan, especially offensively, and it wasn t good enough. So, that s a reflection of me, and I m serious. I don t know any other way to tell you. I m not up here trying to cover for anybody. I m telling you how I see it right after the game, and that s how I see it. I have to do a much better job with this team. I think that this team can be good. It can be a good football team, but I have to do a better job. Q: How much of it is a reflection on what the Vikings did, because they re pretty good? A: I give them a lot of credit no question. I should have said that at the start. Mike Zimmer does a great job. He has done a great job with that team, and they play good team football. They re a good football team. Q: Do you worry about the team s confidence? A: I don t worry about the team s confidence. I think this team has confidence, and I think this team will come back and play hard. Q: Why was Brian Peters kicking off? A: It was just a changeup, and he had done a nice job with that during the practices leading up to this game. And actually, that kick worked out pretty well. I think we tackled them inside the 20-yard line, and he has got a very strong leg. So, sometimes we want to do that to we think it gives us a good chance to cover the kick. Q: Did they fool you with anything, or did they just outplay you? A: No, they didn t fool us with anything, and again, I just think that I didn t do a good enough job with this team today. Q: You re already without Kareem Jackson, and then Johnathan Joseph and Quintin Demps go down. What is the level of concern with the defensive backfield right now? A: Injuries happen. I thought that our defense really played hard, and it didn t start out great, obviously, but we weren t doing anything offensively. So, you don t ever want anybody to be injured. You want your full team out there, but I thought those guys played hard. Texans Quarterback Brock Osweiler Q: Bill O Brien just came in here and took the blame for everything. What do you think about that? A: Well I think we just need to play better as an entire team in every phase of the game. I think it starts with me. I need to do my job better. I need to play better, especially on the road. Whenever there is a loss like this, it is never all on one person. Q: How do you assess your performance today?

3 A: It is disappointing. I felt like I had a great week of practice. I felt like our entire football team had a great week of practice. I was very confident coming into this game today. I knew we had a great challenge ahead of us, but I felt confident with what we could do. I am very disappointed with the outcome today, and I am very disappointed with how I played. Q: Can you put your finger on a couple different things that are causing problems for the offense right now? A: There are a few things. Obviously, when you are out there and you are part of the offense, your job is to put points on the board. Right now with our two losses, we have not done that. I think that is where it starts, that we need to score more points. It starts with me doing my job better and me playing better. Q: In New England, and then today, there were times that you were getting flustered and you were not seeing things the way you wanted to. Are there situations where, whether it is the pass rush or looking down the field, you are going to have to get developed to get to that next level quarterback of this team? A: I think I saw the game fairly well. There were a few plays that I would like to have back, but for the most part I think I saw the field very well today. But in the end, I need to play better. Whether I see it right or wrong regardless, I need to play better. I need to do my job better, and as an entire team we need to play better. Q: Are you getting mentally hurried in terms of your progressions and as you are going through things, compared to when you are at home and it is a more comfortable situation? A: No. Whether we play on the road or at home, it makes no difference to me to be honest with you. The crowd noise does not affect me, or anything like that. I try to use my feet to kind of give me an internal clock of when I need to throw the ball away or when the ball needs to come out to a check down. But certainly there is always room for improvement, especially after a loss like this. Like I said, I need to play better. I will have a great effort at practice and will study harder this week. I expect to turn this thing around. Q. What does it mean to you when Bill O Brien multiple times kept pointing the finger at himself saying that it begins and ends with him? A. I think that just says a lot about coach. At the end of the day, like I said prior, anytime you lose a football game like we did today, it is a group effort. It is never just one person. I think everybody needs to look themselves in the mirror and be honest with themselves. We need to learn from this, we need to get better from this, but more importantly we need to stay together as a team. It is a very long season. I think we have a great football team and great chemistry in the locker room. We need to stay tight and keep moving forward. Q. Does the confidence disappear as a team when suddenly you are down 14-0 and the game on the road gets out of hand? A. You know I think that is something that we certainly need to talk tomorrow in meetings. How can we start fast on the road in all phases of the game? I am sure that will be brought up first thing. But like I said, this is not one person. This is not one thing. We need to play better as a team. It starts with me. I need to lead the way and I need to play better. Q. How much does it have to do with your performance for the Vikings? A. Give credit where it is due. The Vikings are a tremendous football team and are very well coached. They have great players. It seems like they have their scheme mastered, and they are a hell of a football team. Give the Minnesota Vikings credit. They came to play today. They had a great game plan; they got after us and they played great football. Q. Were the noises a factor today at all for the offense?

4 A. At times as far as if you see something that the defense is doing, you want to audible and the play clock is getting down low, that is where it affects you because now you do not have time to do that. So now maybe you are throwing high and you are just going to throw the ball in the dirt. Where if you were at home maybe you can verbalize something in 2 or 3 seconds and get a different play. That is where the difference on the road comes, but that is no excuse. We talked about it all week. Coach O Brien prepared us. He said rogue communication is going to be the one of the biggest keys to this game. That is something that we will certainly look at tomorrow, and we will be more prepared the next time we come. Q. What were the Vikings doing to take out guys like DeAndre Hopkins in the first half? A. I think once again you just need to give credit where credit is due. The Minnesota Vikings had a great game plan today. They executed their game plan, and bottom line if the receivers are not getting the ball, who is the first person you need to look at? It is me. I need to play better and I need to find a way, regardless of what the defense is doing, to get those guys the football. Q. The big interception where you threw it strong and almost had triple coverage there. Is that a ball where you thought you could get it in that window and someone came out of nowhere, or did you read that wrong? A. No, I did not read it wrong. I saw the exact coverage that they were playing. I knew exactly where I wanted to go with that football. I think that just comes down to the meeting tomorrow. Just making sure that everyone is on the same page. Like I said, this loss is not one person, or one phase of the ball, or anything like that. We win and lose as a team, so tomorrow we will look at everything, including that play. We will get on the same page and will be better because of it. Texans Cornerback Charles James Q: What s the level on concern with this group? It s one thing to lose, but another when it s not close. A: I don t think it s a concern. It s a long season. You don t get too high on your highs and you don t get too low on your lows. For me and this team, we re going to come back, fight hard, and continue to try and play team ball. Q: What did you see on their punt return for the touchdown? A: It was a deep punt. [Marcus] Sherels is a nice returner. He did a great job of basically squeezing through the hole. He was able to break through and score a touchdown. Q: What did see from Sam Bradford and his accuracy? A: He s a good quarterback and that s why he gets paid the big bucks. I didn t expect anything less from him, to be totally honest with you. He s a good quarterback. Give a lot of credit to those guys, they made a lot of great catches. Q: What are your overall feelings about this game? A: I hate losing. I hate losing to the utmost. One thing you have to know, everybody gets paid in this league. There are a lot of good teams out there. We re one of them still. We have to continue to fight. Q: What happened there in the beginning when they jumped out to a 14-0 lead so quickly? A: It s a road game. The crowd and all that stuff plays into it, but at the end of the day we have to be better as a team, period.

5 Texans Receiver DeAndre Hopkins Q: What made it difficult to get on track until late? A: Good defense. I can t take anything away from those guys. Q: What were they doing to make it so difficult for you? A: What everybody was doing. Doubling me. Q: Is Xavier Rhodes one of the best cornerbacks in the league? A: He s a very good cornerback. Q: Do you think there is a lot to be improved? A: We lost the game so there s definitely room for improvement. Q: What percentage of the time do you think Rhodes was on you? A: He was on me most of the game, unless he was out of the game. Q: Was your touchdown an indication of how the offense was doing or was it too little too late? A: We lost the game so obviously too little too late. Q: What do you think needs to improve? A: We lost the football game so you can t just point at one area to get better. It takes a team to win a football game. We lost the game so we need to improve in all three areas. Q: Did you think you would have more time for routes to develop? Is the defense better than what you saw on film? A: They re a good defense. They beat us fair and square. Can t make any excuses. They beat us. Q: Is it frustrating that you started the game 0-12 on third down attempts? A: They beat us fair and square. They have a good defense. Texans Defensive End Jadeveon Clowney Q: What happened today? A: We didn t win. Nobody played good. Q: Is there a lot to improve on? A: All the time. We have to turn around and get ready for the Colts. That s a division game. We have to win. We have to win division games that s what it s all about. We have to win all of them really. Q: What is it going to take for you guys to become a good road team? A: We just have to pick it up and play competent football all together. Both sides, everybody has to step up to win on the road and play better. Q: What was it like to play out there?

6 A: It started out rough. Penalties hurt us. I got a personal foul that hurt us. They moved the ball, hurt us. They scored on the first possession, hurt us. We didn t move the ball the first possession, hurt us. Everything was hurting us. They got up on us and we couldn t come back Q: You had a career high tackles for a loss, can you talk about that? A: We didn t win. If we would ve won the game it would ve been a lot better. We didn t win. We have to get ready for the Colts and get ready for next week. Q: How concerned are you with how some of these games against better teams? A: We just have to play better. I think we have a great group of guys. We just have to pick it up all around and play better. Texans Nose Tackle Vince Wilfork Q: Bill O Brien was saying that all of this was on him. He said none of this was on the players. Do you agree with that? Is it all on the coach, or is it a combination? A: We re all in this together. It s all on all of us. It s not just one person or unit. It s on the whole organization, everyone who is a part of the Houston Texans. We have to figure it out, though. Q: They Vikings are 5-0. Do you feel like they re one of the elite teams when they play like that? A: They played well. Q: How did Sam Bradford play today? A: He played well. They did what they ve been doing all year, winning. They made plays. They did what they wanted to do. That s twice that we ve faced an elite team and we didn t look good. It s a gut check. It s gut check time. Q: Is it shocking and surprising with what s happened here? A: Yes. Very. Because we re way better than that. But we haven t shown it. Maybe I m seeing things a little bit differently. Maybe I m the one screwed up. I thought we were better than that. Until we show it, that s what we are. Q: What does it mean that Coach O Brien said it was on him? A: Being the leader of the organization, you re going to take the blame. He s our leader. As he can sit back and say that he ll take the blame, there s a bunch of guys in here that point the finger at themselves, and I m one of them. We re not in the pointing finger business. There s not one person who has to get better. We all have to get better. It s on everybody. Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer I think it was a good team win today. We were pretty effective in all areas. I thought the fans were great, they were nice and loud. You can still hear them with the Skol chant going on. They were loud. They helped us defensively a lot of times. They didn t convert until the last in the ball game on the third downs because they were so loud. I think they used two timeouts because of that as well. It was good to have the alumni here. It important to me to get those guys involved. We had a bunch of alumni. I know at halftime they had a big thing and we had guys out at practice last week as well. We re going to take a little time off and then we re going to get to work. Q: How have guys been able to step in and start on offense and find such success?

7 A: Well I think it s a credit to our offensive coaches. They ve done a really nice job of getting guys involved. Trying to get them ready to play in a short period of time. Its also a credit to our players because they get ready to go. I talked to them last night. I talked about Jarius [Wright] getting ready to go play this week, and Jeremiah [Sirles]. It s important, and I keep saying this, we re a team. We re not a bunch of individuals. We re just going to keep fighting Q: What is your level of concern with your offensive line depth? A: When we keep getting guys hurt, it s always a concern. We ll continue to figure things out. Q: What has been the key to defensive consistency? A: Well we have good players and they do things right. I don t know, I don t think it s a big secret. I m probably the one that underestimates them the most. Each week when we go in to game plan, I m the most miserable person in the world trying to figure out how to stop a team. They go out and they perform. I think they like to compete. I think they like to try prove how good they can be. Q: Could you pick a defensive MVP? A: I don t know, it s awfully early. Five weeks. They play hard. Q: Is the bye week coming at the right time? A: It is for me. I can use it. Yeah, I think it is for us. Because we ve played five ball games. Get a little time to recoup, hopefully get some guys healthy. There s some things that I want to work on that we haven t been able to do because of trying to game plan and things like that. So there s some things we need to get better at. Then I think it is the week after Thanksgiving we ll have the Thursday game so we ll get a little time off. Hopefully it is coming at the right time. Q: Why have you been using the shotgun more recently? A: Honestly, it s really just each game is different. Sometimes it s a little more that way. It just happened to be the last two weeks the defense we were playing was really the only reason. Q: How much has Adam Thielen progressed? A: Well he s progressed an awful lot. Adam is a tough, competitive guy now. When he gets the opportunities he makes plays. Even a week ago he catches a ball and beats a guy and makes him miss a tackle and gets a first down. This afternoon he makes a great catch on the sideline there to convert a first down. Then obviously he had a couple of those longer ones. He s a good guy. He competes every day in practice, goes hard. He s kind of the typical Viking, guys that just go in and fight. Q: Can you talk about Cordarrelle Patterson s consistency? A: Yeah it s been great. I think I was talking on the radio a minute ago and I said, what we try to do here is we try to get our guys to understand that they have to earn the opportunity to play. When they do those things then they get their opportunities and what they do with it is up to them. He s earned the opportunity to play and I think it s good for everybody on the football team to see that when guys earn their opportunities, they get opportunities to play. He s done that and he s been doing great. He s obviously a weapon for us. I think he s taking everything that we re giving him and jumping at it and trying to do the very best he possibly can. Q: Did you like to see him get rewarded with the touchdown? A: Yeah well that was a great throw and a great catch, both. Obviously he s a very talented guy and we re trying to figure out a lot of ways to use him and when he gets these opportunities to do things it s good. We still have a long way to go in all phases but we re going to get back to work. Q: What have you been saying to Jarius Wright to keep his head high? A: I just tell him keep fighting and his opportunity will come. Last night I was in front of the team and I said, You know guys get opportunities and Jarius you re going to get your opportunity tomorrow. Q: What is the boost that a Marcus Sherels touchdown gives the team? A: Well everybody loves Marcus because he does anything you ask him to do. Sometimes he plays receiver on the scout team, plays DB, any position you ask him to do. Guys are hurt, he does

8 whatever. He s a gunner, he d do anything for you. Again, he s a lot like a lot of our guys that we have on this football team. Q: How has your confidence in Sam Bradford grown? A: Well he s played really good the last four games I guess it is. I think he s a good player. I didn t ever not have any confidence in him, that s why we traded for him. Q: But since you didn t really know Bradford before this season? A: No, but our guys in the front office, they do a pretty good job of getting to know people and understand them. He did have a pretty good pedigree. We keep him healthy, we keep him upright then he ll continue to do good things. Guys are believing in him, making good catches. He s making good checks at the line of scrimmage. He s doing good. Q: What were some of the other keys on third down defensively? A: I thought we covered really well today. I thought we rushed them good. Defensively I thought we were swarming to the football pretty good today. Q: Can you afford to have a lot of patience with TJ Clemmings? A: Well I don t know, we ll keep looking at him. I haven t seen the tape and I know he got beat a couple times today so we ll just figure out you know this team is about finding a way. We re going to find a way. Guys need help, we re going to help them. It s no different than when we re on defense or offense or special teams, we re trying to help them. Q: Any idea of MyCole Pruitt s injury? A: I don t know. He has an MRI tomorrow. Q: Is it the same knee? A: I don t believe so, no. Vikings Offensive Guard Alex Boone Q: What s going through your head when Brandon Fusco goes down early? A: You know what s going through our head is there s still a game to play. So let s go. You want to be undefeated, it s going to cost you a lot. We hope that Brandon (Fusco) is okay, hope to see him back soon, but for the most part we don t have time to sit around. We have to go. Q: What did you see from Zac Kerin and the other guys? A: Thought they did great, as guys have been. They know their role; they know that as soon as they get in there they re not playing anymore. The Houston defense was fired up. It was a good game overall for everybody. Q: What was your backup game at tackle? Would it have been you sliding outside? A: God, don t say that please. It s been so long since I ve had a tackle rep. I don t know and I don t want to think about that so let s move on to the next question please. Q: An NFL football team is not supposed to be 5-0 having lost half of their offensive starters. It s definitely not. A: You know, we re dinged up up front. This bye week could not come any sooner. We re looking forward to a week off and hopefully getting some guys back. Q: Everybody says next man up. Any team can say that but what is it that you guys have done? A: It s literally next man up. And it s barbaric to say but at the end of the day if you re going to say it you might as well do it. The guys have stepped up great here. (Jeremiah) Sirles, Zac

9 Kerin, TJ (Clemmings). We ve lost three offensive lineman and the other guys have stepped in great and have done a phenomenal job. Vikings Wide Receiver Adam Thielen Q: How d that feel today? A: It feels good, but it feels a lot better that we are going 5-0 into the bye week and now we can rest up and get back to work. Q: Knowing you were going to be without Stefon Diggs, was that a little bit of pressure on the guys playing that they need to step it up a bit? A: Yeah, we know we have a lot of good receivers on this team and that we have a lot of weapons on the offensive side of the ball and we just have to make sure that when the ball is in the air we have to go get the ball and make our offense move. Q: With each week that goes by are you getting more and more comfortable with Bradford back there? It looked like you were locked in today. A: Yeah, I think that from the first day he came in, just the way he practices and stays after it and is locked in. It s pretty easy to get comfortable with a guy like that and a guy that just trusts whoever s in there and trusts whoever s in there to go make a play. Q: Are you ready for us to stop asking questions about you as a feel good story and it just becomes the expectation? A: I think so, I m just playing football and that s what I love to do. I just want to play to the best of my ability Q: What is it with the offense, you keep having these injuries and keep losing starters to injuries, but you haven t seemed to miss a beat on offense. A: Yeah, I think it just shows how deep we are on both sides of the ball. It s a testament to the GM and coaches and coaches preparing the guys. A lot of good football players in here. Q: Were you pretty sure you were going to start for several days or did it go up to game time? A: No, you have to practice like you play. Even when I was on practice squad I practiced like I was going to play, so you just have to prepare like you were going to start and whatever happens happens. Vikings Defensive End Brian Robison Q: I know you say it s not all about the sacks, but you personally got two today. What is it about this defense? A: We just go out and we do our job. I can t say enough about these guys that are in the D- line room with me. It s not all about me, it s not all about the guys that get sacks. It s really about our defensive line as a whole. At the end of the day, no one man can do any of the things that we ve done without each other. That s the special thing about our group. Q: You talked about the offense briefly, after everything they ve been through, what can you say about them? A: I can t say enough about those guys. They ve faced a lot of adversity this year, and they keep coming into the games and figuring out a way to get it done. Sam Bradford is playing lights out. That O-line, with the guys that they ve had to shuffle and everything else like that,

10 they re putting their heart out each and every day. I really can t say enough for those guys. Every time somebody goes down, somebody steps up and they play well. Hats off to them. Q: What s it like to play on this defense? A: It s fun. It really is. At the end of the day this is probably one of the most fun defenses I ve ever played on. We ve got a great group of guys. We just got to keep doing what we ve been doing, and at the end of the day we ll have our opportunity to hopefully be able to call ourselves one of the best. Q: You guys have set such a high standard, when you don t get that sack or when he slides off, do you get mad at yourself? A: Absolutely. At the end of the day, we re always trying to do something extra. We re always trying to make a play, but it all starts with doing our job. That s a special thing, that nobody is selfish in this defense, but we are so competitive at times that I think that s what makes us great right now. Q: Is this an unselfish group? A: Absolutely, I think at the end of the day when you look at our group, we re about one thing and one thing only, and that s winning. Guys aren t out for themselves to pad the stats, they re not going out there and being selfish and putting others in bad situations, we go out there and do our job and we do what we need to do within the scheme of the defense. If we keep doing that, we ve got some great things that can happen moving forward. Q: No quarterback has looked comfortable against this defense this year. Is that the goal, to rattle and hurry those guys? A: Absolutely. Number one, it always starts with stopping the run. That s going to be any team we play. We have to stop the run and put them in those situations where they have to throw the ball. Once we get them in those situations, that s what we want to do. It s not necessarily all about sack numbers or things like that. At the end of the day we want to get a bunch of sacks, but what is more important to us is making sure we re getting hits on the quarterback, that we re getting around and frustrating him, that we re having him move around in the pocket and do some things that they don t want to do, because now they can t sit there and look downfield for a 50-yard bomb. They have to pay attention to where we re at up front. Vikings Linebacker Chad Greenway Q: What are you going to do over the bye week to recuperate? A: Keep preparing, we ll have a couple days of practice and work and have a couple of days off and come back. Q: What s going on with this team? A: It s getting fun to have a group of guys that are really playing well together and our back end and our front four are just playing lights out. We re playing pretty well, defensively it s gotten to be a lot of fun. I think our offense really played well today. (Marcus) Sherels with a great return and we can do this hopefully every week. Q: Do you think the early lead helped? A: Yeah I think it bodes into our style of play. It definitely helps us in what we try to do. At the same time it s about us to continue to apply pressure and they re a good offense with great weapons. Q: Is this potentially one of the best defenses right now?

11 A: Yeah, so far things have gone well. But, things can change quickly in this league. There s nothing accomplished until we reach the ultimate goal. Win the Super Bowl, that s the goal. Your numbers don t mean a thing unless you go do that. That s what we re worried about, wins and that s it. Q: Is this defense taking on Coach Zimmer s personality? A: I think your team does that naturally with a coach, good or bad. He [Coach Zimmer] embodies this football team and we obviously respond to him. Vikings Wide Receiver Cordarrelle Patterson Q: Describe your TD catch. A: Oh man, it was a blessing and Sam Bradford did a heck of a job putting the ball right there at the right time. Last week we actually worked on the play at practice and that play was called and he actually did a good job getting it to me. Q: The offense is missing half of the guys that were supposed to be starting with at the beginning of the year. How are you guys doing this with so many different guys coming in? A: We are all in the league and next man up is what we preach around here. Everybody is hungry and everyone s having fun. I feel like everyone in this organization is having fun, not just football players, you know the coaches, players, PR guys, everyone s having fun. That s what we like and we want to keep smiles on everybody s faces and keep proving people wrong and just keep going out there and doing it. Q: You and Adam Thielen have been close since you both have been in the league. What was it like for you when you both caught touchdowns today? A: Oh man, Adam. It s hard work, hard work he put in and it makes me work harder every day. Since I got here we ve leaned on each other for whatever and we re always texting each other, before the game, after, during the week, to stay on top of each other and just seeing him go out there and have the day he had, you know I m just lost for words. He s like a little/big brother to me and when he does good things it just makes me push myself to go out and push myself and do things harder. Q: You and Marcus Sherels work a lot together on special teams. What was it like to see him get into the end zone today? A: He s so quiet. You can t say much to him but once he has the ball in his hand he s so explosive. Those other guys did a heck of a job blocking for him. It seems that if you kick it to Marcus, he s going to make you pay for it. I m so happy for him. Let s go make a difference each and every game and that s what we ve been doing these last five weeks. Q: For Sam Bradford to come in as quickly as he has, it s not just learning the offense, but having to develop timing with the receivers. What is it about him that helped him do that as quickly as he did? A: I don t know, you ll have to ask Sam. The things he s done is mind-blowing. To come in that quick and just do the things he s been doing, that s really something you can ask Sam. I just hope he keeps doing what he s been doing. Vikings Linebacker Eric Kendricks Q: What are you going to do as a team during this bye week?

12 A: Get better. Get in the film room, study our next opponent. I believe we play the Eagles. I m just going to enjoy this win right now, a lot of emotions going on. We played great, we had an enthusiastic first quarter and got the job done. Q: Your team was able to frustrate Houston with players from all different levels of the field, how was that? A: That is our tactic. Everyone is required to do their job and communicate well. We did that today, we communicated very well. Q: Your very good at covering running backs out of the backfield, is a big part of your game doing just that? A: I better be able to guard those guys. I just listen to the call and do what they tell me. Q: What is the theme of your defense? A: I think it s always communication. Knowing their looks on offense and just playing off that. We know what they wanted to give us and they always come out with a theme. They played their theme right away and then they started going away from it. We just have to play off that. Vikings Safety Harrison Smith Q: How do you feel being 5-0 going into the bye week? A: It feels good, we re not really worried about the bye week. Q: What does it mean to you to be at this point despite all the injuries? A: It s not really something that we dwell on too much. If you re on the field you re expected to make plays. This is how we play, nothing crazy about it. This is our mentality, it s genuine and this is how we do things around here. Q: The team seemed to play fast today, did you notice the speed of the defense? A: Yeah, people talk about the speed of the game and all that. I think that when you know what your job is then you can play fast. We re not overthinking stuff, we re just playing fast. Q: Did Andrew Sendejo jump in front of you and take an interception you could have had? A: Nah, that was his play. He caught it so that s more than I can say about myself. Q: So by playing faster you know where you are going more? A: Yeah, absolutely. The players go out and do it, but the coaches allow us. They don t bog us down by giving us too much or having us overthink it. They tell us what s going on and we go out and execute. Vikings Wide Receiver Jarius Wright Q: Are you like a fan when you re watching Marcus Sherels scoring those touchdowns? A: Marcus is one of my favorite players on the team. When I first got here I was partly training with Marcus so I got a chance to understand Marcus as a person more than just a football player. No matter what, I cheer for Marcus because he s always been a playmaker, he always gets the job done, is a friend, and family. Q: Was it tough to accept your new role?

13 A: You know, it is tough to do. Just knowing I could help the team. But, also just knowing our receivers have been making plays. I was a little frustrated, but at the same time I can t say that I was happy, but I was happy with what the guys were getting done on the field. Q: Have you seen progress from Adam Thielen in practice? A: He s just continuing to get better each and every day, each and every week. I can t give him enough credit on how he s handled himself the past two years. He s out there making plays. We expect that our guys go out there and make plays. That s an expectation. Just seeing him getting out there and doing it is exciting. Vikings Defensive Tackle Tom Johnson Q: It seems that day in and day out, this defensive line comes up with something. Brian Robison said it s the most fun he s had playing D-line. How about you? A: I agree with him. This is one of the best D-lines I ve actually played with. I think it s just that everybody is selfless. Our coach set up a game plan for each one of us to win, and tonight it just ended up panning out that way. I know I was able to make a sack, and I think Everson had two of them that were called back for crazy penalties. But with the collective group we wound up with the win. Q: Are you an unselfish group? A: Definitely. We ve got a lot of leadership in that room. A lot of older guys, a lot of experienced guys, and they know that when you got so much talent inside of one room, that s when you ve got to be able to exploit guys sometimes. I think that this is only the beginning of what we can actually be. It s week 6 and we got 10 more weeks to go. Q: There s respect for the quarterbacks, but you can see each and every week when you get them visibly upset and that rattles the offense. Do you guys kind of like that? A: Definitely. You can see that a lot of those teams are changing what they like to do. Guys that like to be in four or five, six or seven step drops are staying shallow, three or four. Guys that like to be real deep, to have their tackles one on one with our ends, they re not doing that. They re chipping out, having some back up. That s part of the respect that they re giving us, and at some point they re going to have to go to what they like, and that s going to open our game plan up. Q: Do you think that sometimes the sack goes to whoever the fastest guy is? A: Definitely. We had a few of those tonight. He was trying to scramble and everything, and you re seeing all of us swarming to him. The fastest guy, the first guy to touch, gets the sack. Q: With Hunter, Everson and you, especially on that last one, it really is whoever gets there first. A: I was trying to steal that, I was trying to test him, but he had already got him. But it s always good, it s always fun, with guys flying around, we all feed off of one another and at the end of the day somebody is going to get back there. Q: Do you sense a big difference in team speed? It just looked like they didn t have an answer for team speed all day? A: Oh yeah. Like I said, anybody is capable of winning at any time. Everybody has speed, everybody has got to have power, Linval had a couple of them that he held a guy and jerked him and got a quarterback hit. I think that everybody is deadly, so the offense has a lot on their plate trying to stop all of us at one time.

14 Vikings Cornerback Xavier Rhodes Q: Could you sense those guys were getting frustrated? A: I don t know. We just had great coverage. Our D-line was getting there. We were just playing great defense. Q: When you re shutting down receivers like that, can you feel those guys getting frustrated? I know you got into Beckham s head last week, but do you just kind of feel that even this week with Hopkins? A: I feel like I did an okay job today. He got a touchdown and caught a couple of balls, but you know that Hopkins is one of the best receivers out there, so I knew he was going to compete. I ve been going against that dude since college. There s a lot of love between us, and he s just a good guy. Q: When you say you ve been going against him since college, it s been kind of that one of one situation right? A: It was a great day. We were talking at the end of the game; we told each other that it s always a good battle. We always battle, and it was good going against him again. Q: We saw Sendejo come up with the huge interception. If it s not you one week, someone else. Talk about the depth on this team. A: We just hold everybody accountable. Everybody is doing what they need to do on this defense and on this team, period. If it isn t one person, it s always another. There s always one heartbeat. Somebody is always going to pick up somewhere, so it s a great thing that you can completely trust and believe in anyone on this team. Q: You guys have now for five games in a row frustrated the quarterback first and the rest of the offense second. Can you tell when that happens, can you see that outward frustration? A: We re just out there playing ball. We just get the calls, and whatever the coaches call we play it to the best of our ability. So far it s been going well, and we need to continue to do that. Q: Is pretty sweet to be able to sit and watch this week as an undefeated team? A: Absolutely. It s a great feeling. Vikings Quarterback Sam Bradford Q: How big was it for the offense to score on those first couple of drives? A: Starting fast is something that we ve talked about the past couple of weeks. It seems like it s taken us a little bit to get into a rhythm. So, it was nice to kind of start the way we did and play with a lead. I think when we play ahead and give our defense a chance to get after the passer, I think that it s pretty tough on the team. Q: How did the early usage of shotgun help with getting the offense going? A: I d have to go back and look at it to be honest. I really haven t thought about it like that. You know we liked some of our stuff against their nickel people kind of in spread. Even when they had base with a 4-4 personnel on the field, we feel like we can spread them out a little bit and kind of put it in the air. There were some matchups one-on-one that we liked with different guys, so I think it was a good use of our personnel. Today we showed them quite a few different looks. But, to start fast and start the way we did is really key to us.

15 Q: Before you came here did you realize that there was that much speed when it came to the playmakers on offense? A: No, I really didn t know much about this team at all to be honest before I got here. I think I learn a little bit more each week. I think we ve definitely got a lot of playmakers on the offensive side of the ball. A lot of guys that we feel if can get the ball in their hands, then good things will happen. Q: Did you say anything extra in the huddle after losing another offensive lineman early in the game? A: No, I think that s been the greatest thing about this team so far just its resiliency. We ve overcome a lot of hurdles and some adversity early in the year. I think everyone understands when somebody goes down it just means it s an opportunity for the next guy to come in and step up and play well unfortunately. We ve had a lot of guys answer the call. Q: What did you think about Adam Thielen today? What have you learned about him? A: Yes, obviously I m learning more about it. How a guy like that goes undrafted is kind of hard to believe especially when you look at the way he s played this year. Obviously, with (Stefon) Diggs down today we moved Adam around quite a bit. He just made plays all over the field for us in the slot, outside, a variety of different routes. To have a guy like Thielen who can step up and have a 100-yard game when Diggs is out is huge to us. Q: It seems the offense has been improving each week, it that indicative of your growing comfort level with the offense and chemistry with your teammates? A: Yeah, I think it s just a combination of it all. I think just us being together, learning how we play together. I think a little bit of it too is when you lose Adrian (Peterson) against Green Bay that kind of changed things a little bit. I think you ve seen more spread from us. I think you ve seen some of the gun runs, more of the quick-game passing attacks from the shotgun. I think that s a little bit different than what the offense has done in the past. I think it s just us getting to know each other, us getting familiar with where we re going as an offense. But, I think it s just guys buying in. Q: What have you seen from Cordarrelle Patterson in practice and did you see a big game coming from him? A: Yeah, I did. I love CP. He s just one of those guys who has energy every day. His smile out there at practice. He s just fun to be around. I think the guys feed off of it. He s had a great past few weeks of practice. Like I said last week, he s a guy that we re going to continue to him involved. Obviously, today just like Adam (Thielen) with (Stefon) Diggs down, we knew that he was going to have to make some plays for us and he did. Q: When are we going to see you go deep on one of those wildcat plays? A: Ask Norv (Turner) that. Q: You guys are the only undefeated team in the NFC, could you have envisioned this and how do you feel about it? A: Obviously, it s a great start. You couldn t ask for anything than being 5-0 going into your bye week. You know, like Coach Zimmer said after the game, it s still a lot of work this team needs to do. I think they re still rooting for us to improve and I think that s our mindset going forward. We re not satisfied. It s early in the year and we haven t accomplished anything yet. We re going to continue to try and get better.

16 Q: Is the bye week going to be a good thing for this team or do you just want to ride the momentum? A: I think we re a little banged up right now, especially on the offensive side of the ball. So, hopefully with the bye week we can get some guys healthy and get some guys back when we comeback after the bye. Q: Were Thielen s big plays due to game planning or the defense taking him lightly or just him getting open? A: I think it was just him getting open. Obviously, we knew he was going to be the guy that kind of had to get us going with (Stefon) Diggs down. Game plan-wise we did have some shots in there for him. But, I thought he did a great job from the first drive on. He just went out there, got open and made plays. Q: Was the touchdown a designed double-move that he put on the guy? A: Yeah. Q: Does Thielen remind you of anybody? A: You d probably have to give me more time to think about that one.