‘Carson did a nice job seeing it’ — Kevin O’Connell details final drive and how Jordan Addison’s game-winning touchdown came about
Kevin O’Connell was in his bag on Sunday, and it resulted in a win.
It took a little longer than most would have liked, but the Minnesota Vikings ended up getting the win over the Cleveland Browns 21-17.
It was a difficult game for the Vikings to navigate, as they were without three starters on the offensive line and left tackle Christian Darrisaw didn’t play in the second half as he continues his ramp-up process from a torn ACL.
Even with a multitude of injuries on both sides of the football, the Vikings still had a chance to win the game against the Browns on the final drive, and they did just that.
Kevin O’Connell talks play calling on final drive
Over the last few weeks, play calling has been at the forefront of criticisms of head coach Kevin O’Connell. He’s received far too much of it over the first few weeks of the season, especially after his masterclass against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
After the game, O’Connell was asked about his play calling on the final drive and gave a very thoughtful answer.
“A lot of those calls were, were really centered around going fast and trying to navigate having a few young bucks up front against one of the best fronts in football,” said O’Connell about the final drive. “So a lot of it is just trying to kind of navigate through that first and then try to get some one on one opportunities for some guys. We were able to move the ball against some single high looks and they were disguising a little bit, some split safety looks out of those single high looks. And Carson did a nice job seeing it.”
Play calling in the NFL is similar to playing a game of chess. The goal is to get checkmate (a touchdown in this case), but getting there is a difficult task. In the play above, you can see the Browns going with a single high look. Wentz saw it and immediately connected with Jefferson on a nice pass down the sideline. You have to take advantage of the defense when they give you the opportunities to take shots.
“When we got single high, we were able to get the ball downfield,” O’Connell continued. “Justin made a great play on the one-on-one outside, and then we kind of got down there [in scoring position]. We were trying to make sure we had a plan for [pressure], but at the same time, you have to have somewhere to go with it if they do try to play cloud [coverage], and Carson [Wentz] was ready for that. It was a coaching point we gave early on in the game that showed up in a gotta have it type situation.”
The other element at play was when the Browns tried to confuse the Vikings with different coverage looks, and the final play was a great example.
Denzel Ward is playing at the bottom of the screen in a cover-2 zone trying to bait Wentz to make the throw to Addison, thinking he couldn’t do it. Well, Wentz took the bait, but threw the ball at the right arc and velocity with good location to hit the holeshot and secure the win. Being able to take advantage of defenders, especially those as good as Ward is.
The Vikings were able to get it done, and it’s all thanks to the cohesiveness the offense had with the play-calling.