Kevin O'Connell nearly asked his team to make NFL history
The Minnesota Vikings narrowly lost to the Detroit Lions by a score of 31-29 on Sunday afternoon but they fought valiantly to the end. It was the first time they had trailed since week one against the New York Giants and they found a way to come back and nearly got the win. Overall, the […]
The Minnesota Vikings narrowly lost to the Detroit Lions by a score of 31-29 on Sunday afternoon but they fought valiantly to the end. It was the first time they had trailed since week one against the New York Giants and they found a way to come back and nearly got the win.
Overall, the team battled and found a way to stay competitive despite their own shortcomings. Things got pretty bleak for a while but they had a chance to win at the end, where head coach Kevin O'Connell nearly asked his team to set an NFL record.
Kevin O'Connell nearly asked Will Reichard to kick a record field goal
On the final play of the game, the Vikings nearly had a chance to kick the game-winning field goal and O'Connell nearly sent out kicker Will Reichard for an NFL-record field goal attempt.
"Yeah, you know, my confidence in him is — I was thinking about sending him anyway when the penalty marked it back. I think it would've been about a 73-yard field goal at that point. Just outside his range. But, yeah, I would've absolutely hopefully gave him a swing there. That's a pretty significant gain, especially with the play we had on trying to make sure we could get as much as possible before a potential Hail Mary chance or last play kind of chance. But the goal was I thought we were pretty darn close. I got to take a look at it exactly. I didn't get a great explanation and it was pretty loud, as to what they actually called, but sounded like we were moving or not totally legal, which would've been phenomenal to see Will get a swing from what would've been, what, 68? Yeah."
That is a ton of confidence in Reichard who has never hit a field goal of 60+ yards in his career. At Alabama, his career-long was 52 yards and has one of 58 yards this season. It's well earned, as Reichard has made all 30 kicks he's attempted this season.
Would Reichard have hit the field goal from 68 yards? Who knows, but don't be surprised if O'Connell ends up asking him to hit one later this season.
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