Kevin O’Connell Can’t Repeat His Darnold Missteps With JJ McCarthy
Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
It took just two opposing teams, a lack of coaching adjustments, and Sam Darnold turning into a pumpkin at the most critical time of the year to end the unexpected but promising 2024 Minnesota Vikings season.
What started as a transitional year with Darnold changed to one of exceeding expectations and becoming a legitimate playoff contender. But all that abruptly disappeared on the national stage with a 27-9 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the Wild Card round. The die was cast from the first play of the Rams’ opening drive — a tone-setting play 27-yard pass over the middle to Puka Nacua. From that point on, it was clear the Vikings did not use their first matchup as a learning experience.
Minnesota lost to two teams all season: the Rams and Detroit Lions, and lost to them twice in back-to-back weeks. Each set of failures emphasized a lack of preparation and adjustments by head coach Kevin O’Connell and defensive coordinator Brian Flores. O’Connell’s game scripts, which fished for explosive plays downfield, never clicked, and Flores kept getting burned on a blitz-heavy, zone coverage schemes that proved to be costly in their first matchups but even worse with their sequels. Their first two losses came with a minus-12 point differential, while the combined losses in Week 18 and the playoffs put them at minus-40.
In theory, there’s nothing wrong with sticking to the team’s strengths, but O’Connell and Flores had few wrinkles to keep teams off-balance.
“You watch their [Vikings] tape all year, where they have a lot of success is deep-developing routes. We had a plan for it. We knew that we were gonna have time to rush,” Rams edge rusher Michael Hoecht told the media. ”We knew this week that this was our opportunity to not get so much quick game. We had a really, really tight and really, really good rush plan. We just went out and executed.”
For most of the season, Darnold showed good pocket awareness and mobility and was able to execute O’Connell’s vision of an explosive attack. He led the league with 62 throws of 20-plus yards, according to Fantasy Pros. A necessary byproduct of that was having to hold onto the ball. Darnold’s average time to throw (3.08 seconds) was third in the NFL, but he was also third in generating big-time throws (34, per PFF), also third in the league.
Darnold and O’Connell paid a price for that, which was taking the second-most sacks in the NFL (57), including a playoff-record-tying nine in the the season finale. Those nine sacks lost a total of 82 yards for the Vikings offense, which lost momentum at every turn. As the second half progressed from an already-dire 24-3 starting point, the team looked defeated in an uninspiring fourth quarter that showcased a complete lack of urgency.
Instead of pivoting from his explosive approach that has worked most of the season, O’Connell continued to stick to his game plan, which resulted in six of Darnold’s nine sacks occurring after 4.4 seconds that ultimately ate precious clock. Adding salt to the wound was that eight of the sacks were on four-man rushes, which was enough to highlight the ineptitude of an offensive line that quietly a problem all year long.
No one is saying playing quarterback is easy, but Darnold absolutely short-circuited, missing open receivers and watching millions of dollars vanish before his eyes. O’Connell didn’t do him any favors, either, being unable to course-correct him with short and intermediate passes, screens, or max protection packages to get his quarterback back into the flow of the game.
KOC’s continued faith in Darnold and not properly reading the room enabled the Rams to pin their ears back and generate pressure a staggering 43 times, which according to PFF, was the most by any team in a single game this season. Sean McVay, who knows his former protege’s tendencies as well as anyone, caught O’Connell with his hand in the cookie jar.
“You’ve got to play to a certain standard,” O’Connell said. “And we didn’t do that.”
The Vikings organization and fans enter the offseason with more uncertainty as the team prepares for 25 players hitting free agency, accounting for 45.4% of their total snaps potentially heading out the door. While the Vikings have $70.5 million in salary cap space according to overthecap.com, sixth most in the league, there are a lot of moving parts, starting with their immediate future at quarterback.
One thing is (almost) for certain, the long-term future of the team at that position is with J.J. McCarthy and his rookie-scale contract. Franchise-tagging Darnold is still an option, but McCarthy’s salary will help the Vikings plug several holes despite their limited draft capital.
O’Connell did wonders to get the most out of Darnold, and that work might well earn him Coach of the Year. That work bodes well for McCarthy, but not if O’Connell can’t make needed adjustments when his quarterback doesn’t have his A-game. The coach just had two look-yourself-in-the-mirror moments and needs to balance sticking to his team’s strengths and developing adaptations to create less predictability in future seasons.
As McCarthy prepares to become the franchise quarterback sooner than later, learning from these missteps are the learning experiences that must propel O’Connell to evolve into the ultimate voice, visionary, and winner this franchise needs to lift the Lombardi Trophy.
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