‘Not good by me’ — Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell sets the record straight about controversial play call vs. Saints
The worst instincts of Kevin O’Connell’s play calling resurfaced on Sunday afternoon, and it nearly ended in disaster.
On Sunday afternoon, the Minnesota Vikings beat the New Orleans Saints 23-13 and it was a big step forward for the offense. Quarterback Kyler Murray played really well on Sunday afternoon, taking steps forward as the signal caller for the Vikings.
One of the big things with how the Vikings have been playing is with the adaptations head coach Kevin O’Connell has made. Murray has an aDOT of 7.0 per Pro Football Focus, which is significantly lower than what we’ve seen with Kirk Cousins, Sam Darnold, and even J.J. McCarthy. While the success has been intermittent, we’ve seen real growth, but it’s been far from perfect.
Kevin O’Connell addresses bad trick play
In the fourth quarter, the Vikings were doing a good job of attacking the Saints on the ground. On their field goal drive in the fourth quarter, the Vikings had run five straight times for 27 yards. Then, O’Connell pulled out one of the oddest trick plays he’s ever called: a double pass from Justin Jefferson back to Murray. It was eerily similar to that call he made against the New York Giants in the 2022 NFC Wild Card round.
The call itself felt odd, especially since they were up seven at the time. Even so, trick plays are usually called when coaches think they have an edge on the other team. It’s often trying to catch them overpursuing based on a tendency you see on film. Ultimately, as you see above, it was a near disaster, and O’Connell addressed the call he made.
“It was an aggressive play call, and, looking back on it, I didn’t particularly like the call, so I put that on me,” said O’Connell. “That was the way that play looked on the grass, which is the only thing that mattered, was not the intent of the actual you know play. It didn’t come to fruition the way we wanted. We had another opportunity coming off the sudden change to put the ball in the end zone on another kind of trick play variety [flea flicker to Gavin Bartholomew]. Just missed it a little long, but I would just leave it at that. Didn’t love the play call. Not good by me.]
This kind of thing has been a consistent element for O’Connell’s play calling. He gets out over his skis at times trying to create explosives and get too creative for his own good. He’s admitted to being a little too focus on how the winning looks instead of just getting the job done. This is an example of that in the worst way.
With O’Connell admitting that this wasn’t his finest call, the hope is these type of calls are going to be in the rearview mirror, especially since this was nearly a disaster.
