
Q. Could you take us through the last drive. You called three pass plays in difficult situations.
A. I just didn't want to worry so much about the clock and making Matt use his timeouts. I felt comfortable with Sam in those moments, and I loved how some of those things married up with some of the runs we'd either done late in games throughout the year or even tonight in the game. So I thought we'd get some edges and get Sam and his athleticism out on the perimeter. Great drive started with C.J. Ham, popping him out the back door there, and we were able to get a great edge on the next one, where Justin comes screaming across on the low cross, and then the last one just burying that thing all down and sneaking Cam out there. That ball felt like it was in the air for absolutely ever. Sam threw a lot of balls tonight, and that one probably stressed me out the most out of his 43 attempts. But what a play by Cam Akers. To say what that guy has been through, I hope fans understand just how significant what he's been through has been and how he wanted to be a Minnesota Viking and made the play when we absolutely needed it, in addition to catching the touchdown on that screen.
Q. Your running backs had a couple of catches on drives tonight. Just how much does that help in terms of making something high percentage even if you decide not to run it, you stick with the passing game knowing you have a high percentage option?
A. It's about making the best possible play to see if we can get Sam out on the edge. Normally, if people aren't letting you get out on the edge, we should be able to get some runs off. It's a marriage of being able to defend every play they've got to defend out of those looks. I thought the execution was high. If at any time Sam needed to dirt it or just go down, we were not going to stop the clock on our own accord. I just trusted in the execution of our guys. Between Cam's catch, C.J.'s catch, and Justin's was not an easy one late in the down, kind of driving that low cross right on the one and eight and staying inbounds as well.
Q. What was the moment you mentioned? There was a moment with Sam?
A. He might have been talking to Tom upstairs, but we felt like we waited for a long time, and I certainly wasn't going to interrupt that conversation. When he came back in, the guys were -- they were ready with some water bottles and kind of lifting him up. It was a really cool moment.
Q. The pass to Akers, when were you thinking about that as a clock killer and that whole process?
A. A lot of times in those moments, you spend so much on the game plan, a lot of times in those moments, it's about finding a play and then trying to coach the risk management within it. I thought we had a chance even on the previous drive for an explosive, and one half click, and they were able to hit Sam's hand. Luckily that was incomplete. I'm going to keep being aggressive in those moments. I felt like the drive starter -- we put it together in a way we felt like we'd get a good play regardless of what the final play ended up being, and then the last one to Cam was really understanding -- once we got the ball completed to Justin and it was a third and two, a little over two, whatever it was, now you truly have on a third down the threat of putting 11 personnel in the game, and they've got to defend everything in our playbook at that point. Gave them a run formation, and then our guys just executed from there to see if we can get Cam out in space.
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