Coachspeak: What Leslie Frazier said after the game

Here's the postgame press conference with Vikings coach Leslie Frazier after his team dropped a 44-31 decision to the Packers on Sunday night at Mall of America Field.

Frazier: Obviously a very disappointing loss to an NFC North opponent, tough loss for us. Couldn't find a way to get off the field on 3rd down and really came back to haunt us. I think we were 2-for-8 on offense on 3rd down, so a combination of not being able to get off the field on defense, not being able to sustain drives on offense against a group that can score points. Just a disappointing night in that way. Liked the way our offense finished off the half, that was an impressive 2-minute drive. We weren't able to come back out on defense at the beginning of the 2nd half and get a stop and give our offense a chance to get something going. Just allowing them to convert 3rd downs hurt us tremendously and it cost us at the end of that ballgame. Tough loss in a lot of ways, a lot of ways.

Q: How did Green Bay's long touchdown drive after Cordarrelle Patterson's kick return touchdown affect you?

A: It affects the momentum. You gain some momentum and you're not able to get something going. Even then it's the first quarter of the game so you want to settle down, figure out a way as the game goes on, knowing that the game is not going to be won in the 1st quarter, but we were never able to get the issues corrected on third down. It keeps you from building on the momentum you had with the opening kickoff but it shouldn't be something that should keep you from having success over the course of the day if you can get it corrected and we weren't able to get it corrected.

Q: How do you feel Christian Ponder looked?

A: He had some moments. He did some good things, for example that two-minute drive, that was good and then there were some other times where he ran our offense pretty good. There were times where he wasn't as comfortable as you'd like to see him in the pocket but he did some positive things as well.

Q: Do you know who will start next week?

Q: What can you do to fix your 3rd down defense?

A: I thought we had some momentum last week. We did much better on 3rd down, I thought we could build on that. But it's been an issue. There is not much more we can do personnel wise. These are the guys that we have so we've got to figure out schematically what can we do to be better. It's hard to play good defense if you're not doing better on 3rd down than what we are right now. We were doing some good things in the 1st half against the run game but couldn't get off the field on 3rd down to end some drives. So we've got to figure out some things to help the guys that are on the field to make some plays. We've got to make some plays. That 3rd-and-16, we got a guy free for a sack and couldn't get him on the ground and the quarterback makes a play.

Q: With Green Bay missing three wide receivers, did tonight show what a good quarterback can do for an offense?

A: He definitely made some throws. It looked like we had pretty decent coverage and he made some very good throws, in some tight quarters.

Q: What can you say about Cordarelle and his performance tonight, including his record-breaking kickoff return?

Q: Are you worried about this team staying together and keeping them motivated?

A: Tonight was tough. They worked hard this week to prepare for this game and got off to a great start with the kickoff and to not play better in third-down situations on defense, it hurts you but I don't know if hurts us to the point where guys give in. It just seems like we have strong enough character and strong enough leadership on this team that the guys will come back and prepare well for this next ballgame. We do need to give them some hope and do some things better than what we're doing but we've just got to find a way to give them some hope for all the work they are putting in.

Q: What do you think you have to do to improve defensively?

A: I don't how many times I can say that third down is an issue. If we can get some third down stops and make that percentage a whole lot better than it was tonight, I think that will definitely improve our defense. You can't let people put together the kind of drives that they put together tonight no matter who the quarterback is. You just don't have a chance if people are able to put together 15-play drives, 10-play drives on a consistent basis and score touchdowns and not field goals. It's hard.

Q: Do you see the defense getting worn down at the end of games because the offense isn't able to sustain drives?

Q: Did you think about going for a 2-point conversion to try and it get it down to a 2 possession game?