EAGAN, Minn. — The Vikings will do their best to take advantage of an extra day this week.

Minnesota is slated to host Buffalo Nov. 9 for Monday Night Football, providing more time not only for game-planning but also recovery coming out of a physical game at Detroit.

Vikings Head Coach Kevin O'Connell said Monday afternoon that Kyler Murray was still experiencing soreness in his hamstring. Christian Darrisaw is dealing with shoulder soreness, as well, and Theo Jackson left the Week 8 game with a quad injury.

"We're still in the process of evaluating," O'Connell told Twin Cities media members. "We're going through a full eval of [Murray's hamstring] as we work through the day today. I'll be able to update you on that as we get into the work week, as well as C.D. and Theo. Really, it's some soreness there and figuring out exactly what's going on and then what their practice weeks look like."

O'Connell said it's "still early enough" to wait to determine Murray's availability for the upcoming game. Asked if he's still committed to Murray as the team's starter should he physically be ready to go, O'Connell said, "Yes."

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Regarding the head coach-quarterback relationship and responding to adversity both during and following a game, O'Connell responded with the following:

"It's one thing to be totally comfortable with the game plan, but there's nuances to it that you kind of learn sometimes on game day, the comfort level that you're trying to do things," O'Connell said. "He's in the gun a lot. We're marrying that up as creatively and as effectively as we can.

"I didn't think we ran the ball great yesterday. I thought we had some opportunities — the play called back, maybe on our longest run of the day, called back on a holding call," O'Connell continued. "I did think Kyler used his legs on some designed things to move the football. He also had a nice scramble there, kind of setting us up right there at midfield. And then we turned it over late in the half, which led to them getting three points.

"I think it's just continuing to build that rapport of the plans, the comfort level, continuing to implore some input from him on things he likes," he added.

O'Connell noted he did like the offense's performance late in the game, with Murray's 51-yard completion to Jordan Addison and short touchdown pass to T.J. Hockenson.

"That kind of response that we felt in the game. Now, it didn't ultimately lead to us keeping that lead, but that kind of response is what we need our whole team to have here this week, coming off our first loss of the season," O'Connell said.

Here are three other takeaways from his media session:

1. Jefferson an 'ultra-competitor'

O'Connell was asked about Justin Jefferson's demeanor and disposition a day removed from the receiver declining to speak with media members.

"Justin came in today and was great," O'Connell said. "Listen, Justin is the ultra-competitor, and I think it's been well-documented, just the leadership of Justin and how he's really grown and really sets the standard. Justin wanted to win the football game, and we wanted him to have a big impact on the football game.

"You go back and see just the amount of attention, especially on some of those known passing downs, where there's an immediate two defenders responsible to play man-to-man, double-team coverage on him," O'Connell continued. "That's when some other guys have to make some plays. T.J. made some plays against some of those looks. Though, we had a chance to score on one of them and we ended up going to the ground on that. But we've got to make people pay when they play those coverages with some of the other guys."

He added: "Those guys (Murray and Jefferson) continuing to work together and play together and feeling those things out, in addition to the on-schedule plays, I think [it will] show up off-schedule, as well."

2. Run game woes in Detroit

The Vikings had a couple decent runs against the Lions, but a 29-yarder by Jordan Mason was called back because of a holding penalty on Will Fries, and Minnesota overall didn't see much success on the ground. Take away Murray's four attempts for 35 yards, and the RB trio of Aaron Jones, Sr., Mason and DeeJay Dallas averaged just 3.3 yards per carry.

O'Connell noted the team has stayed committed to the run through the season's first half.

"Yesterday, we only had 50 snaps," he reminded. "You take into account some of those are get-back-on-track downs, some of the run-pass options where we were taking the pass opportunity when it presented itself. I thought there were some more opportunities to do so in the game, and we'll continue to build things where we can do that effectively.

"But we still want to run the football, and we still want to have the ability for our run game to not only set up the pass and the play-action and the movement game like it did on the first play of the game, but we also want to have the run game have an impact on that front," O'Connell added.

3. Penalties pattern?

The Vikings were flagged for five penalties Sunday in Detroit, bringing their season total to 39.

Minnesota has been overall disciplined and remains the least-penalized team in the league — but it is worth noting that 21 of the 39 total flags have been pre-snap missteps.

Three of the Vikings five penalties against the Lions were charged to the offensive line: a false start on Brian O'Neill, illegal formation on O'Neill and holding on Fries.

Though the penalty count wasn't astronomical by any means, they did prove costly. O'Connell was asked if there is a common denominator among the o-line fouls.

"No. I mean, for the most part, we were on the silent cadence. I think B.O. (O'Neill) had two where, one he flinched a little bit, and we can't have that. And then another time it was just a pure alignment thing where he lined up too deep and those things. B.O. will be the first one to tell you those things can't happen," O'Connell said. "As far as the holding call … it's coinciding with a big hit that instead of being first-and-10 in plus territory, you're going backwards 10 yards.

"We have been relatively good from a penalty standpoint, not necessarily from a negative [yardage] standpoint," he added. "We've got to play clean. We've got to not turn the football over, and we've got to have production on offense to compliment the way our defense has played."

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