WIDE RECIEVER JUSTIN JEFFERSON
Justin, we were talking to TJ (Hockenson) after last week that the offense kind of took it personally that you guys had not been finishing. How did it feel to go out there today and finish, getting things started early?
Yeah, it definitely was great. We were moving the ball and extending those drives. Of course, on some of those drives we would like a little better execution. The first drive we had the turnover, so there's definitely room for improvement, things to look at and things to improve on. I definitely felt like we took a step further, especially from last week.
Not many teams can say you get to learn from a win. TJ (Hockenson) was also saying in the middle the offense either lost focus or maybe a little bit of energy. What did you see there?
I'm not really 100 percent sure. We just got to carry on that same energy throughout the whole entire game. Which is difficult. It's not an easy task to stay into a game and play 60 minutes of great ball. But it's possible. It's something we got to buckle down to and understand what we have in front of us. The opportunity we have in front of us. It's just like we always say, we haven't played the best ball we have been playing. So, there's room for improvement. It's a good point in time to really start turning over things to get to where we would really like to be at.
How did they play you differently today?
Totally different. Last week they stayed in that two-high, pretty much played either Cover 2 or 2-man the whole entire game. This week they mixed it up a little bit. Played a little man here and there. Played a one-high here and there. They gave us opportunities to win some one-on-one battles and to get open. The drive continues if we are getting those types of coverages and we're able to go up against those matchups. We always feel confident in ourselves to win those types of battles.
Justin (Jefferson), the dig route that Sam (Darnold) hits Jordan (Addison) on, you've obviously been on the receiving end of that. What is it that makes Sam (Darnold) so effective with that particular throw?
I feel like he can read and understand the coverages. Especially when we call it during those times. Majority of those times, we are getting Cover 2. It's just him anticipating where Jordan (Addison) is going to be before he even comes out the break, and him just leading him. It was great execution by everybody. It was a great job by him by extending the play and getting it into the endzone.
Was today offense by committee? Seemed like everyone had a little hand in this one.
Yeah, for sure. Everybody had a little hand in this one. Just getting plays here and there. No defense is just going to give us anything. Every single play, every single drive, we got to come and execute our plays. We don't know who the ball is going to go to. It really doesn't matter. As long as we're going out there and extending those drives and putting points on the board, that's all that really matters.
This team is 8-2, how does that feel?
Feels great. Feels phenomenal. Didn't feel like this three years ago, two years ago? Something like that. It's great to be on this side of things. Like I said, we definitely have room to improve and things to do better on. We're 8-2 right now which is great, but going into these next few games and, of course, leading into the playoffs, we got to change a little bit of things around.
If you do that, and you guys put it all together, then how good do you guys think you could be?
Wonderful. If our defense is doing great and forcing turnovers and getting us the ball back, we're getting the ball back and scoring off those turnovers, and the whole entire game just dominate, I feel like a lot of people wouldn't be able to compete with the different guys we had on this team. We are waiting for that day when we all put it together.
