Vikings coordinators: Murray's big game, O'Neill's growth, Hughes' injury and more
Every Thursday during the regular season (when the Minnesota Vikings play a Sunday game), the three coordinators speak to the media. Here’s a few highlights from this week’s press conferences:
Offensive Coordinator John DeFilippo
Q: How effective have your tight ends been with their ability to max protect and open things up in the run game?
A: They did a good job. I thought last week was maybe our best week in terms of their blocking in the run game. Those guys buy in, and it’s a tough match-up a lot of weeks for those guys. Not just for our guys, for any tight end in the NFL. When you have to block a defensive end and sustain it, that is not an easy job. I give a lot of credit to our guys for sticking their face in there and fighting and straining, and I thought they did the best job that they did all season. Todd [Downing] does a great job with those guys, and the thing about it is what I think has been underrated all season, the job that they’re doing in pass protection as well. Not only just staying in when they’re asked to stay in, but we’re chipping, we have different ways of chipping certain people for that week. They’ve done a great job with that as well.
Q: What strengths of Latavius Murray are you able to capitalize on when he’s getting a large amount of carries per game?
A: Latavius will wear people down. Even when he gets stopped at the line of scrimmage or the point of contact is at a yard or two, there’s always that surge going in our favor. He’s a big guy, and he’s going to fall forward a lot. Number one is just his size and his strength, what he brings to the table and what a downhill runner he is. The thing about Latavius, there’s two things that I don’t think people give him enough credit for, really three things. Number one, his ability to run the mid zone play as well, and being able to get outside and make that first guy miss. Number two, his hands. I think he has much better hands then people give him credit for. The other thing that Latavius understands and another reason why he’s been able to carve a niche for himself in this league for so long is he really understands pass protection. To me, he’s a complete back.
Q: What makes a running back good at pass protection?
A: First off you have to know what you’re looking at. You have to understand the different fronts. Is it a three down front, is it a four down front, is it a spinner front, where’s the rotations? Two-high shell or a middle shell? Is the nickel pressed? Is the nickel off? Do they bring the nickel from off this week? Where is the free safety? Is there a chance for a side adjust, where we’re going to have to read the Mike [linebacker]. I just mentioned about ten things there that they have to see in about ten seconds, and the quarterback has to see in about half the amount of time. That’s what makes running backs good in protection, it’s identification. For the most part, you’re not in this league if you’re not a tough guy. You need to be willing to stick your face in there and be physical. It’s hard to play running back and not be a tough guy. That’s the part in pass protection where the elite guys separate themselves, the identification piece.
Q: How impressed where you with Brian O’Neill this past week in his first start?
A: I thought Brian did well. I honestly went back and watched the game, I watch the game probably three or four times by the time I move on. I watched the game and went back and specifically watched him on every play. There were some plays that I know he wishes he could have back, but there were more times he won than lost. I think any time that you are in your first game, there’s a difference, and I don’t care if you’re a tackle, a quarterback, there’s a difference in knowing all week you’re going to be the guy and all of a sudden just being thrown in when somebody gets hurt. You have no chance to be anxious or to think about, “Oh my gosh, I have to block this guy this week.” As a young player, those thoughts go through your mind as a young player. I thought he handled that situation really, really well. We’re looking for him to grow. The thing about Brian too is he’s tough. He wants to finish guys off, and whenever you have that mentality as an offensive lineman you got a really good shot.
Defensive coordinator George Edwards
Q: Is there an unknown aspect of what their response will be when the pocket breaks down for a rookie quarterback [Sam Darnold] with less film?
A: Yeah, that is one concern but I’ll tell you what, you look at his body of work through the preseason and the six games we’ve had thus far this season. He does a great job of staying alive in the pocket and he also does a good job of locating receivers down the field and understanding what people are doing coverage-wise. That is definitely going to be a test for us. He understands when people pressure him, how to buy time in the pocket and all of those types of deals. We will have our work cut out for us against them this weekend.
Q: What has made their running game so effective?
A: Number one that I think up front their offensive line is a big, physical group. Their two running backs are pretty good after contact. We’ve got to do a good job of limiting the damage once, sometimes they get to the second level and we have to do a good job of building a picket fence on them up front as far as allowing them to get to the second level untouched. They do an excellent job on bounce out plays, making corners have to make tackles and crack, crack, replace. Their receivers do a good job of blocking. We’ve got our work cut out for us to limit their running game.
Q: For a rookie corner to do as much as Mike Hughes did, what do you think of his overall body of work even though it was cut short?
A: I thought it was impressive for him to come in as a rookie, play numerous positions, pay attention to the details of what we were asking him to do. Then be able to go out and transfer that to the game and to the practice field. So, he is kind of unique in that he came in and did that probably as good as anybody we’ve had with the multiple positions and different techniques and fundamentals we asked him to play. It’s unfortunate that he got hurt, but the way that he’s built, we look forward to come out of this, rehab and just approach it the same way. Control the things that he can control and continue to get better at the fundamentals and techniques. I think he got some valuable experience before he ended up getting injured. We hate to see him go but at the end of the day we understand that is a tall task for him and he came in and approached it with a good mindset.
Q: What were your impressions of Geroge Iloka getting more of an opportunity last game?
A: We thought he did a good job. Things transferred from practice to what we saw out there on Sunday. We just look to keep building on that and keep using his skillset as we go along. Just see from week to week matchup-wise what we think is the best thing to do moving forward.
Special teams coordinator Mike Priefer
Q: How comfortable are you having Holton Hill pick up in those situations where Mike Hughes left off now than more so when he started to become a returner?
A: Holton is going to have to fill in. He will have to play more gunner. He will be playing on kickoff and kickoff return, maybe as the returner this week. Punt returner he is still a work in progress. I don’t know how comfortable I am putting him back there as the returner yet. But he is working hard at it. It doesn’t come natural to him as it does to some guys so he is going to have to continue to work at it. He is another young man that has had a great attitude. His work ethic is outstanding. He is a great locker room young man. He is better than I thought he would be than when he first got here. He just continues to impress me by the way he plays the game.
Q: Do you know who you are going to put back for kicks this week?
A: Kind of figure out as you go, depending how much guys are playing offense or defense. Being short at corner, maybe it’s Marcus [Sherels] or maybe it’s Holton or Aldrick [Robinson] is getting reps there as well. He will get more reps today in practice. It is kind of a work in progress and see who is available and the most rested.
Q: Where do you think Mike Hughes has grown the most as a specialist?
A: I think as a punt returner. He didn’t get a lot of reps. Kickoff returner we knew how dangerous he was. He had the real nice one against Green Bay. We just haven’t returned a lot of kicks this year. Haven’t had that opportunity. He got better at gunner. The cool thing about Mike is that he relished the opportunity to get better. He was very, very coachable. He studied tape. It was important to him. Everything was kind of new to him and I think he just kind of embraced the roles he had for us on special teams. He just continued to improve.
Q: With potential winds at MetLife Stadium, do you think harder about taking longer field goal kicks?
A: It depends on pre-game. It normally does in any outdoor stadium, we are going to get there, and I always get there about three hours before the game, walk around the field a little bit, see what the winds are doing. Obviously if they are gusting or moving around a little bit, it is going to change as the game goes on. But I think pre-game and when we go out right before the third quarter that usually is when you determine how far those field goals will be and what I recommend to the head coach.
Q: What role has Matt Wile played in the growing consistency of the special teams units?
A: Matt has gained a little bit more confidence I thought. I think he had five punts the other day; three were outstanding, the other two were okay. One we got away with that we pinned down at the five and they had a penalty, so I think they started the drive at the three. Any time after a kickoff or punt that you can have the opponent start their drive inside the ten yard line, I think there was three of those and five overall inside the 20 [yard line] if I’m not mistaken, maybe four, but Matt helped our defense, our kickoff team helped our defense. Really that kind of set the stage for the whole game. We started fast, we played fast the whole game. That’s our message to our team this week. We got to continue to do those type of things to help our defense, and then on the flip side we had an explosive punt return of plus-43 that set up that touchdown, I think our last touchdown there in the third quarter. There’s a lot of good things that happened on field position that we need to continue to build on.
Q: How is Dan Bailey doing and how has he bounced back from a couple misses?
A: Dan’s a pro. He came back last week and had a good week for us. He kicked off well for us. He made all his kicks. I think anytime you work with a new snapper and holder you’re going to have some growing pains and that’s why we work so hard in practice to get that relationship better and hopefully those guys are more comfortable with each other. We did some good work yesterday in the wind and we’re going to continue to do some more work today and continue to get better there and improve.
Press conference transcripts provided by the Minnesota Vikings
