Kevin O’Connell Must Raise His Game To Lift the Vikings
Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images
You would be hard-pressed to find anyone with a straight face to admit that they predicted the Minnesota Vikings would be 5-1 after completing their toughest stretch in the schedule. That fact is a silver lining taste to a buzzkill game that — had the Vikings operated better within the margins — could have resulted with continued perfection despite imperfections.
What do we mean by that? Look at the Kansas City Chiefs, who have become the archetype of operating within the margins to consistently win ugly, close games. The Chiefs are 4-0 in one-score games and won the last two weeks despite Patrick Mahomes not throwing a touchdown.
Most teams would struggle to win if their quarterback had a subpar game, but the Chiefs have been a model of success with their game plans, in-game adjustments, and coaching instincts, which all allow the team to work within the margins effectively. It helps to have a future Hall of Fame coach in Andy Reid and quarterback in Mahomes at their disposal. But even those no-doubt HOFers need to rely on their execution and grit at times and show that winning can come in many forms.
A ton of credit needs to go to the Vikings organization, as the Wilf ownership has constructed one of the best infrastructures in the NFL. They have state-of-the art facilities and resources for players to go with a strong leadership group of executives and coaches. The NFL Players Association did a player survey of team report cards and the Vikings received A grades for all but two areas out of 11 categories.
The sheer amount of organizational competence has continued the Vikings’ legacy of staying competitive, no matter what. The franchise has had only six “train wreck” seasons (terming as four wins or less) in its 63-year existence, keeping fans uniquely engaged, which reflects in their status as one of the more underrated traveling fan bases in the league.
The Vikings have accelerated their transition from the Kirk Cousins Era that defined Kwesi’s “competitive rebuild” philosophy seamlessly into enjoying the fruits of that rebuild. This team is exceeding expectations and is third in the league in point differential (+61), which is commonly viewed as a basic but supported metric to evaluate the quality of a team.
That strong infrastructure offers the foundation for success, but players still have to execute on the field, where the margins are thin between wins and losses, and any team can claim victory on any given Sunday. The 2024 Vikings are proving to be one of the best teams in the league, but there are opportunities the team can address to take this to a championship-caliber level. Game flow management and situational play calling are two big factors, among others.
To be blunt: the team played a sloppy game against a Super Bowl contender in the Detroit Lions. The most disheartening part of that is the fact the Vikings had two weeks to prepare for this game coming off a bye, yet played undisciplined football. They committed eight penalties for 59 yards, including several holding calls that stalled out drives.
The Vikings are 24th in penalties per game (7.5) and had a critical illegal formation infraction with two seconds left in the game after a 20-yard completion to Jalen Nailor. The five-yard, pre-snap penalty turned what would have been a possible 68-yard field goal attempt into a potential 73-yarder. Even Will Reichard (probably) can’t do that. Instead, O’Connell chose to go for a Hail Mary attempt, where Darnold was sacked to end the game.
“I was thinking about sending [Reichard] anyway,” O’Connell said. “When the penalty marked it back, I think it would have been about a 73-yard field goal. At that point, just outside his range. But yeah, I absolutely, hopefully, would have given him a swing [from 68 yards]… It would have been phenomenal to see (Reichard) get a swing.”
Reichard is perfect on the season (12 FGs, 18 PATs) and kicked a 57-yard field goal in the first quarter that had plenty of distance to spare. The penalty, within this vacuum of time, cost an opportunity for a difficult, record-breaking, but possible chance to win the game. These are those hair-splitting margins that determine winners and losers.
Once again, the Vikings turned the ball over against the Lions, keeping them at just one game (Week 3 vs. the Houston Texans) where they didn’t give the ball away. They are tied for fifth-worst in giveaways per game (1.7) and are regularly shooting themselves in the foot by creating shorter fields for opposing teams. They’re not just giving away the football, they’re giving away the momentum of games.
These are more obvious examples of how these small margins impact the game, but there are also indirect cases. The Vikings burned all three of their timeouts with 5:34 left in the first quarter, which doesn’t leave much room for error when trying to maximize points within the flow of game and time clock management before halftime.
The Lions got 1st & 10 at the Vikings’ 11 at the two-minute warning, and Minnesota’s lack of timeouts let them chew up 1:24 of clock before scoring, leaving Minnesota 26 seconds for a response score. They were only able to get two plays off before the half.
The Ed Ingram experiment needs to end, as there have been near misses with Darnold almost getting hurt when Ingram has been in pass protection:
Unideal rep for Ed Ingram, as we await a decision on Week 2 of Dalton Risner watch. https://t.co/6wrOmGW1sQ
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) October 22, 2024
Ingram ranks fourth-worst amongst all offensive linemen with at least 300 snaps in PFF total blocking grade (48.3) and third-worst in pass-blocking (35.8). He sticks out like a sore thumb and Dalton Risner is scheduled to return from injury soon. Risner won’t solve the interior offensive line completely, but he’s a marginal upgrade as he is a stronger pass protector, even if his run-blocking isn’t good. But given that the offensive line as a unit is fourth in the NFL at PFF run-blocking grade (75.1), they should be able to hide some of Risner’s deficiencies while upgrading in pass-blocking.
The start of the season is impressive, with a ton of encouraging indicators that the team is on the precipice of opening a window to compete at a prime level for several years to come. The team has locked up Justin Jefferson and Christian Darrisaw long-term, added core free agents on multi-year contracts, have the sixth-most salary cap space in 2025 to add more talent, and most importantly, drafted J.J. McCarthy, who figures to be the franchise quarterback on a rookie-scale contract for four more years after this season.
The Vikings are 5-1 playing against good teams and blowing them out when they play “cleaner” games. They have the infrastructure and talent pool in place but may want to leverage the trade deadline to address some personnel concerns with both the interior offensive and defensive lines. If the team can improve and better operate within the margins more consistently, the chances of Sunday’s loss becoming a win is not that farfetched in the least bit that will breed a growing confidence about this season becoming something special.
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