12 quotes from Kevin O’Connell’s press conference

tyler forness

Sun, Oct 29, 2023, 10:22 PM·12 min read

The Minnesota Vikings found a way to get the win over the Green Bay Packers by a score of 24-10.

Through the first three quarters, the Minnesota Vikings’ offense and defense were both very impressive. They built up a 24-3 lead. Unfortunately, quarterback Kirk Cousins tore his Achilles tendon when the Vikings were driving to extend their lead from 24-10.

From there, it was a gritty performance by the defense preventing the Packers from scoring on multiple occasions. They get the win but there are a lot of questions for the team moving forward.

After the game, head coach Kevin O’Connell spoke to the media. This is what he had to say following a big win at Lambeau Field.

Opening statement

“Very, very excited about our team’s performance. We made it a point at the start of this month knowing that we would have five opportunities in the month of October to reset our season. We have done that. We are 2-0 in the NFC North. There is a lot of good football out in front of this team, but I do want to first start out and just say thinking about our quarterback, who went out today again as he has for most of the 2023 season, and played the quarterback position as well as anybody in our league and just continued to build and build and build. We are fearing currently, he is being evaluated and will be into tomorrow, fearing an Achilles injury. The severity of that I do not know at this point. But I know that is what our fear is at the moment and we will confirm that as soon as possible. Thinking of Kirk. Every single player in our locker room is thinking about our leader, our guy right now. I am just so proud of him. Proud of the way he has played all season long. Whatever is the case, if we don’t have him for one snap or for the duration of our season that will not change the fact of what I believe the level he played this year, and ultimately what he has meant to me and our organization. So thinking about him right now, but I am excited for our team. It is not an easy place to come get a road victory in the NFC North at Lambeau Field. I thought the defensive performance was phenomenal, gave that whole side of the ball and the coaching staff game balls. They forced six three and outs. Got the huge turnover that we then scored on the next play. Complimentary football at its finest, and then some of those stops on downs there in the second half to really allow us to keep a pretty comfortable lead there all the way to the very end. Offensively, I thought we were efficient throughout the whole game. We didn’t have that first three and out until pretty late there in the fourth quarter. Really executing on third down, coming out of the half getting a touchdown, and then following that up with a sudden change touchdown. I just think our team has really learned, especially through the first three weeks of the season, we have allowed the adversity to be constant learning and growth for our team. That team in the locker room right now is a very confident team. They know that we are getting better and better. We are going to continue to push forward on the hunt for just playing better and better and just being our best when it is required. I love this team, and I love what they are all about right now. It is a credit to those guys.”

What happens if Cousins is out long term?

“They are going to talk about that. First and foremost we will confirm the severity of the injury and then we will talk internally and get a lot of thoughts and opinions on where we are at. I did think Jaren (Hall) did a nice job. It’s not easy to come in cold, legitimately cold, and get a couple of completions there. The third down completion to T.J. (Hockenson) was big in the landscape of time and forcing them to use their timeouts. Every single offensive player told me he was very, very good with his communication, snap counts, and cadence. Some things you don’t give a second thought when Kirk is in there, but I thought Jaren was incredibly cool, calm, and collected. We will definitely talk about the best thing moving forward, but it is going to take our entire football team to rally around Kirk just like we have had to do with Justin and Marcus and some of the other things that happened early on in the season. That is exactly what we will do. We do not know any other way.”

What was your state of mind after Cousins' injury?

“I do know one thing. I do know that It is going to have to be an injury that makes him not capable physically of playing because if it has anything to do with pain tolerance or a choice to go out on the football field, Kirk Cousins is going to be out on the field. Like I said, we will figure out the severity of it and let you guys know what my fear of is right now of the injury. When we confirm that as an organization we will try to move forward in the short term knowing that I’m not sure anybody in this league overall was playing as well as Kirk at the position this year.”

Could anyone else besides Jaren could be the starter

“No I think in my mind I think we have to look at potentially all of the options, including the best possible group around Jaren, knowing that we are going to continue to build a complete offense based upon a lot more than just the quarterback. But I will say previously on Monday night and today on third down Kirk was absolutely fantastic, and it just hurts to know that he is not more than likely going to be able continue on progressing forward on what has felt like maybe his best season as a pro.”

Will QB Nick Mullens will be back soon

“That’s a great question. He is progressing along. That’s why I don’t want to commit one way or the other because we have kind of been allowing Nick to rehab and he has done a really nice job with getting stronger. I imagine he will be a real possibility for us. I don’t know what next week looks like, but that is why I really don’t want to confirm or commit to anything quite yet, but I will keep you guys posted as the week goes on.”

How was the locker room?

“I think you guys can feel it throughout our locker room. They know. Our guys know, and I really didn’t want it to be something where we just don’t talk about it. Gave all the defensive guys game balls. I thought K.J. Osborn, one yard away from a 100-yard performance, I thought he was huge. Jordan (Addison), T.J. they were all big time today, but the last game ball was for Kirk, and rightly so because he is playing absolutely fantastic football for us.”

Thoughts on the offense

“I would have liked to have run the ball a little bit better today. I think we were basically right at 2 yards a carry. I would have liked to have seen us take advantage of some things a little more, but that is a good front over there. They are incredibly healthy. That defense got healthy. As far as our pass game was concerned, and really the run game and the commitment to it continued to set up some of those looks. I thought our screen execution, the one to Jordan was a big play. Third down, red zone, Kirk’s ability to really
digest a lot I could put a wristband on anybody in this room right now and they aren’t going to be able digest what Kirk has been able to do on those downs and getting us to the right play and understanding my vision, my
intent, our offensive staffs intent, regardless of the look we are going to have an answer and he has been finding it time and time again. That has really fueled our offensive production, then allowed our defense to rest, and then come on the field recharged and make their plays. So complimentary football the way we kind of envisioned it has really executed these last two weeks. It has been fun to see.”

Cousins' impact off the field

“That’s a great question because those are the things that people don’t see.
They don’t see the same exact guy with the energy and positivity to make improvements every single day, regardless of the circumstance: short week, wellness days, road game in the NFC North. I know he has meant so much to me personally and the role that I am in knowing that I can lean on him and ultimately work as hard as we possibly can together for the betterment of our football team. He talked to the offense on Saturday about how the truest measure of performance is consistency and that it is the hardest thing to do in the NFL, and that is all he has really done this year is demonstrate and prove that against some really good defenses. Road games, home games, all those things. My challenge to our home team is that we are going to need to absorb
this, own it and the reality of this, but we are going to have to be there for our guys. We are going to have to be there for Kirk every step of the way and then ultimately vice versa. I have zero concern that Kirk won’t continue to be a leader of our football team even if he can’t jog out there and take snaps.”

What did you see with Cousins' injury?

“I think he stepped up in the pocket. We were kind of calling a safe play right there, a little bit of a screen, kind of a double move in case they were aggressive in the moment. Three man rush and he kind of stepped up in the pocket. That is all I saw. I just know in some of my dialogue with Kirk it seems like maybe his cleat might have gotten stuck in the ground or whatever it was. It probably isn’t right for me to speculate, I just know that it was incredibly, incredibly unfortunate in that moment.”

WR Jordan Addison

“You guys can see we are using him in a lot of different ways. We had him out of the backfield today, routes and then just motions. We are just trying to take advantage of the fact that he has a complete skill set. Had a couple more opportunities that he was as mad as anybody about with the touchdown and then potentially that ball down the sideline versus man coverage that got overturned on review, but I am very, very excited about Jordan. But how about K.J. Osborn? He doesn’t get talked about a whole lot, but all he has done since he has really assumed more of a significant role with the Minnesota Vikings is continuously made plays, a huge third down catch for an explosive, but then it is also his ability to be really in all three spots at once. It makes him so incredibly versatile, and then T.J. Hockenson picked up right where he left off once he was able to overcome that injury from Monday night.”

Special teams mistakes

“That is definitely something we have to work on and improve. Too many
penalties in the kicking game phase. I’ll have to take a look at the hold that they called. I did not see it live. If it was a hold right there, if it was what I think it probably was, those officials seemed pretty adamant about that and I do respect that. I know there were 10 other guys doing their job to spring Ty (Chandler) for what would have been a huge, huge play in that moment. We have to clean that up. That tends to happen when your roster is kind of being elevated from within whether it is like Brandon Powell taking more reps defensively. I know TD (Troy Dye) got out there a little bit at linebacker. Andrew Booth Jr. is playing more snaps. You just start seeing more of your combined roster with elevations from the practice squad and guys that we are going to ask the next man up mentality regardless of the position. We have to make sure our execution is clean. We can’t have penalties in that phase.”

Missed field goal early

“Yeah, I just felt like we had internally talked about starting fast and I know our opponent had talked a lot about starting fast so I just felt like in that moment, three points, getting it there, my faith in Greg (Joseph) to knock it through. We just didn’t get the kick. Once again the word response comes to mind because whether it is our defense going on the field in that moment or offensively taking the field the next drive, consistently moving the ball most of the day. I was pretty confident in our group to be able to continuously, regardless of what it looked like previously or how it ended previously, I was pretty confident in our group to go out and execute.”