Monday, October 7th, 2024

Vikings need no excuses despite sloppy win

Craig Llewellyn

Editor

Vikings need no excuses despite sloppy win

Craig Llewellyn NFL

Minnesota head coach Kevin O’Connell has praised the way his Vikings team stuck to their task and beat the New York Jets to remain unbeaten five weeks into the new NFL campaign.

Speaking shortly after his team’s 23-17 win in the first of the 2024 London Games, O’Connell said there were multiple reasons for an unusually poor game on offense, but insisted that there was no need to reach for the explanations on a day when the defense and special teams balled out at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

“Absolutely a gritty win by our team,” the head coach told the assembled media. “There were so many moments in that game, so many things we talked about going into it, that materialised. I’ve especially got to give it up for our defense, ‘Flo’ [Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores] and those guys. We needed them today as it was not good enough, to our standard, on offense, and moments like this are where we lean into a lot of things that our organisation is built off of: dealing with adversity together, no flinch, all three sides figuring out a way to come together and win a football game.

“I told our team that there’s going to be days like this and, when there’s days like this, good football teams find a way to pick each other up, especially against a future Hall of Fame quarterback [Jets QB Aaron Rodgers] in tough circumstances. It was kind of a sloppy day all the way around, with a little spitting rain and all those things. [There were] a thousand excuses out there, but our team didn’t look for any of them. We kept playing. [Kicker] Will Reichard was phenomenal for us — when we needed three, he got it — and, like I said, our defense were just lights out from the standpoint of picking up our team when we needed them.”

Acknowledging that the Vikings could have done better in terms of the number of penalties they conceded, and were fortunate that the Jets could not complete a comeback that brought them within one score of the ‘home’ team, O’Connell also defended his decision to keep playing aggressive offense on a day when the weather may have made life difficult for the quarterbacks.

“The thing is that the coverage was pretty tight — they were getting up on us a little bit and kind of taking away some of the quicker throws,” he explained. “So we were trying to live in a world where we can maybe use that against them and get the ball downfield. I thought it was incredibly competitive, two or three really good wide receivers going against some good coverage players.

“We took some shots, and what happens is, when those are incomplete, a lot of times you’re either falling into 2nd-and-long or into a 3rd-and-long. Then you throw in a couple of pre-snap penalties and it’s going to be tough sledding, albeit a play or two away from looking differently. It just felt like we were backed up against ourselves a little bit in the second half. But that’s what the NFL is all about. We’ll go back and look at it and make sure, but there’s some definite play calls that maybe we can package differently, that maybe we can build to give our players more clarity. It’s how I kind of put it together with the offensive staff, but it’s a great time to do it over that bye week, so we can hit the refresh button and come back ready to roll.”

Despite the relatively poor offensive showing — Minnesota scored one touchdown to New York’s two on offense, but had Andrew Van Ginkel’s pick six to even the tally — O’Connell refused to be down on the quarterback who had brought the Vikings to London with an unblemished 4-0 record, even though it led to a nervy end for the Vikings.

“Sam [Darnold] has been lights out,” he stressed. “My confidence level, I think, was on full display no matter what kind of day it’s been, allowing Sam to push us down the field there with some big, big time throws. We had some plays that coverage kind of dictated, and maybe the ball had a chance to be completed, but with either pressure or just missing a throw here and there…

“Like I said, it starts with me. We’ve got to improve — even though we stayed aggressive with some calls, the execution wasn’t really where we needed it to be to try to put that football game away when we had that lead.”

“I think our defense and our special teams played out of their minds today but, as an offense, I think we’ve just got to find a way to continue to play consistent football,” Darnold echoed. “The pre-snap penalties, the communication, just has to continue to get better but, as a whole, I feel like we were able to make plays when we needed to. There were definitely opportunities there that I missed but again, there were a lot of opportunities out there to be had. We’ve just got to — myself personally now — just continue to take it one play at a time and, if I can do that, we’ll be good.”

With a banged-up Aaron Rodgers bringing the Jets back into the game, Darnold and the Vikings had the opportunity to put an upset well beyond their reach, but the quarterback wasn’t too frustrated at the way things turned out.

“We would have loved to have scored a touchdown on that last drive, but [I was pleased with] the way we were able to go down the field and continue to just play ball and not get caught up in the flow of the game,” he pointed out. “You know you’re going to go through the ebbs and flows of it, and for us to just be able to have a good drive, end it in a field goal and make them have to go the whole way and score a touchdown put a lot of pressure on them.”

Denying that the increasing rainfall was making the passing game difficult, Darnold was also comfortable having launched numerous long ball that failed to find their target.

“I’m always comfortable with the decisions that I make — you have to be as a quarterback,” he explained. “If you’re ever doubting yourself out there — which is something that I did early in my career — it can be a long day. So I think just having that confidence in myself to be able to let it rip whenever I see something or when I’m confident, I feel like I can just continue to stay patient that way. Wherever the coverage, wherever the defense, wherever they go and whatever guy is open, just throw it to him. It’s as easy as that. For me, it’s just continuing to see the field and just go through my reads and time my feet with my eyes. If I can do that and stay patient that way, we’ll be good.

“It’s a long season, and we’re just in the beginning, so we’ve just got to continue to take it one step at a time, and not get caught up in what people are saying about you. We weren’t listening to anything that people were saying before the season, so why would we start now?”

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