Vikings’ Joshua Dobbs: ‘I grew up watching the Falcons play ball’

“What’s up, everybody? My name is Josh Dobbs. I’m the quarterback for Minnesota. I wanted to introduce myself to everyone. Tremendous game - it was a team effort. I know, obviously, the circumstance I was put in was a little abnormal for a Sunday in the NFL. I hope Jaren [Hall] is ok. I hope K.J. Osborn is ok. I’ll be excited to hear from them and make sure they’re in good spirits, but a tremendous team win. The offense was able to respond. I know things were a little muddy to start, but once we were able to get in a rhythm, we were able to go down the field and play really good football. The guys around me from the offensive line to the receivers to the running backs did a tremendous job making plays all day, especially in big situations and big third down - obviously in the red zone and in the two-minute drill. Defense did a tremendous job of having our back as we were getting our feet wet. Then once we got rolling, man, just creating turnovers and giving us the ball with good field position. We were able to execute from there. Special teams was 100% on field goals, so it was a great team effort and team win. I’m excited to be here in Minnesota, man. I’m excited to see what the future holds for us.”

On connection with Brandon Powell before the game-winning touchdown pass:

“I think I threw a couple to him in pregame warmups, so we were able to get on a little rhythm in pregame warmups. I think I missed him on a throw because the route he was running in my head was different from the route he was running in this offense. I said, ‘Yeah, that’s why I threw it like that,’ because in the game when something happens, I’m going to throw it and want to see where you’re going to be to make sure we’re on the same page. Just being able to react, man - the communication was awesome. Obviously, given the circumstances - not having any reps out there - the way they were able to respond and communicate to me how I can be better, I was able to communicate what I was seeing. From there, we were just able to go out and play good team football. That’s what it takes every Sunday to piece together wins in the NFL. If we keep doing that, man, we’ll hit our stride and be all right.”

On getting first-team reps before playing for a new team:

“Yeah, last year in Tennessee - we had, per se, a couple of first-team reps. We played on a Thursday. We played on Saturday then a Thursday game, so a quick turnaround late in the season - second to last week in the season. I didn’t get a ton of reps, but we at least got two walkthroughs and a chance to communicate and get on the same page. This one was kind of like learn as you go, hair on fire, hold onto your seat, but guys were able to respond. Obviously, being in a similar situation allowed me to not be too prideful and communicate when I don’t know what’s going on, but also tell the coaches what I need to be successful. They were able to respond, so it was a team effort. I think, obviously, my teammates, but also the coaches just putting together extra time and hours – obviously, when you’re getting a rookie ready to play, a lot of time goes into that. Also, a guy you just traded for – getting him ready to play. Hopefully he doesn’t play, but also, just in case he does play, putting the extra time and effort into it when you’re already putting hours into it goes a long way. I appreciate the support I had all week to prepare me to be able to make the most of the situation.”

On his mindset when QB Jaren Hall was hurt:

“I’ve been in similar situations. My first thought was, “Jaren, get up. I hope he’s ok.” Then it was, “Hey, if you’re playing, you have to go out there and play.” The team still expects you to go out and win and play good football. In this league, there’s never an excuse for your circumstance. I learned that from coach [Mike Tomlin]. Usually, people don’t care about your circumstance. They just want to see you succeed in the circumstance you’re given. I’ve been in similar situations backing up Ben [Roethlisberger] where he goes down, but he gets up, and you go, “Oh, ok, you’re good.” He walks it off for a second. You’re warming up, but he comes back out there. When they said it was your ball, my job was to go out there and play good football - the same football I’ve been playing all year.”

On how he gets ready in the moment to play with new teammates:

“Yeah, communicate, right? Talk to the guys who are probably going to be getting the ball – running back, get a couple of snaps from the center, go through cadence. The biggest thing we don’t want to do - I put one ball on the ground - is give up cheap penalties, cheap yards, give up field position because of something we can control. When we’re able to get the snap, get the play started, we want to be able to make sure we don’t get any delay of games and the logistic of play is running smooth. From there, once you get one completion, it’s getting the first first down. Then from there, you’ve got this, just go play ball. There’s a lot that goes on during that situation, but as the guy who’s thrust into that position, the mindset is to stay calm through it all. The team is looking toward you. Whether it’s the offense, the defense, the special teams - whoever it is, they’re looking at you and looking at how you take in the situation. Even when things don’t go your way, you still have to respond, be a good teammate, be a good quarterback and play good football. I was able to do that today.”

On his approach with an opportunity for a game-winning drive:

“Yeah, my communication – whether it’s a good play or bad play - is it’s all about the next play, so take it one play at a time. That’s all I was doing – just making sure I knew what play was coming to the headset and knew where to start my eyes and went from there. It’s all about the next play. That’s what I told the (offensive) line. They looked at me and said, " What and opportunity to go out and be great.” It was great to have that response from them where we were stepping up to the circumstances that we were given. It was a team effort, a team mindset, a team mentality that we had the ball and didn’t care about the circumstance. We were going to go down and put that ball in the end zone and bring a win back to Minnesota.”

On his communication with coach Kevin O’Connell:

“If you could hear the headset, there was a lot going on. There was a lot of jumbled stuff as I’m communicating and he’s communicating. We had a lot going on. It was great that Kevin played quarterback, so he obviously knows what I’m going through, so he’s able to communicate effectively like, ‘Hey, this what you’re looking at. This is what you have on this side of the page. This is what you have on that side of the page.’ He’s able to talk in lingos that I come from to be able to simplify it for me. Then from there, obviously, it was just about going out and playing. I thought the communication was awesome starting with Chris (O’Hara) on the sideline, then with Kevin, then to me on the field. The communication was awesome. It put me in a position to succeed.”

On O’Connell simplifying play calls:

“For sure, yeah, it’s like if you we’re taking Spanish all year, and you showed up, and on Wednesday someone told you that your were taking AP Spanish, but you have an AP French exam on Sunday that you have to go execute, but someone is going to talk to you in Spanish and translate it to the French. That’s kind of what was going on out there. There was a lot of communication, but I’m able to process a lot of information and be able to react on it and not let it handcuff myself and my play, so it was good. It was good to be able to hear what he was saying as I’m processing what the defense is giving me, then go out and just play good football.”

On the first down scramble on the game-winning drive:

“Yeah, they popped a two-man on us. They had great coverage in the back end. Obviously, you saw it all day, I’m able to use my feet as a weapon. For a second, I thought I was going to score once I got the first down, but I thought that was probably smart to step out of bounds and save a timeout and everything. That was a ‘got to have it’ situation. Whatever it takes to get the first down, whether it’s throwing it short or a guy laying out. Whether it’s a contested catch down the field or at the end of the day using your feet to make something happen, that’s what you have to do in those situations to keep the chains moving and give the team a chance to win.”

On what his thoughts were once the game ended:

“Relieve, that’s probably the biggest thing, just relieve we got the win. Relieve we were able to overcome our first couple of drives and get the team win—that’s the biggest thing. A couple of players were dapping me up, celebrating, I said just give me these five seconds just to make sure they don’t get in field goal range or throw a hail mary because we’ve seen crazy things happen on Sundays, but then excitement. Excitement to get the team win, excitement to get a win given the circumstances and excitement for the future. So, I’m excited to see how we build off this, got a home game next week in Minnesota, so we’ll enjoy it, but it’s cheers until the next one.”

On how many players’ names he knew:

“Oh, don’t get me started, probably if we had to pull up a roster and had to go names, I would be a bad teammate today. I knew Alex [Alexander Mattison], I knew a lot of first names--Alex, Brandon [Powell], I know a lot of nicknames per se, but name names, that’s for this week, that’s the assignment for this week.”

On where he previously knew quarterbacks coach Chris O’Hara :

“I had him in Tennessee last year, he was the QB coach there, so I spent a lot of time with him obviously on a short week.”

On whether he knew WR Brandon Powell’s last name before joining the team:

“I did because he went to Florida, so I got a little beef with him because he’s a Florida guy and a Tennessee guy, but I told him I like him today, today we’re on the same side, so it’s all good.”

On whether he studied the touchdown play where he threw to WR Brandon Powell:

“That play was in the playbook, it was in our red zone install for this week, that was my first time repping the play, like how it was in the game plan. I told the coaches—I said, they’re asking me my comfort level with everything and the playbook and how I felt with before the game leading up to if something were to happen, I said ‘Anything on this call sheet that we solved this week, I got it. I can run it, I got it, whether it’s no-huddle, whether it’s tempo, whether it’s our game plan call—whatever it is I got it.’ Then they started pulling stuff from OTA one and two, I might be a little handcuffed out there but if you put it on the call sheet, I got it. Those were one of our red zone plays where we take advantage of the looks the defense was giving and he did a great job getting open for me.”

On whether he had time to purchase tickets for friends and family:

“I did, I did. I’m from Alpharetta just 30 minutes up the road from here—depends on the day with Atlanta traffic, but not too far, so I got my family in town, they were back home. My parents—I went to dinner with them last night—I said, ‘it’s weird we’re not waking up at our house in Arizona, we woke up at our house and came down to visit you.’ I do have a lot of people in town from old coaches to my family, it was great. I don’t know where they were, I saw my parents in the crowd, but I’m not sure where everyone else was, but obviously being back home, like being on this field I grew up watching the Falcons play ball, and in the Mike Vick era and the Matt Ryan area, to be here on this field and have a game like that means a lot to me. I’m going to enjoy it but it’s onto the next one once Tuesday hits and we’re right back to work.”

On how many tickets he purchased for his family: “Not too many, I told them luckily I got financial advisors in town and friends in town that have some strings they can pull, so they didn’t hurt my pockets too much.”

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