The little mistakes amounted to a major blunder for the Minnesota Vikings, who had their five-game unbeaten streak snapped by the Detroit Lions in a 31-29 loss on October 20.
At midfield with the final seconds of the game ticking away, the Vikings spiked the ball and seemingly set up rookie dynamo kicker Will Reichard to have a chance to clinch the game with a 68-yard try that O’Connell was optimistic of.
However, the Vikings only had six players on the line of scrimmage, resulting in a five-yard penalty that put them out of Reichard’s range. The Lions sacked Sam Darnold on an attempt at a Hail Mary on the following play, but that final penalty was what dashed any realistic chance to win the game.
It was Minnesota’s eighth penalty of the game, seven of which were called on the offense. While it wasn’t the sole reason the Vikings lost, it was emblematic of the miscues Minnesota’s offense had throughout the game. The offense accounted for three holding calls (a fourth was offset by a defensive penalty), two illegal formations, a false start, and offsides.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell addressed his offense’s self-inflicted wounds, taking full accountability for the mistakes that contributed to the team’s first blemish of the season.
“That’s my job,” O’Connell said, “to fix those self-inflicteds… When you’re trying to win at the level we’re trying to win against anybody we play, we can’t do anything to help good football teams out. We just need to worry about all 11 guys executing the play, both pre and post-snap, with great detail, in all three phases. I’m gonna just keep pushing this team every single day.”
Kevin O’Connell Challenges Vikings After Lions Loss
GettyHead coach Kevin O’Connell of the Minnesota Vikings.
The Vikings were the lone undefeated team in the NFC coming out of the bye week but knew the challenge ahead facing the Lions, who are a favorite to return to the conference title game.
“Really good teams, you’re not just gonna steamroll through the game and have perfect plays on every play, but you better make sure it’s them that’s causing some of those things to happen, instead of some of the self-inflicted things,” O’Connell said. “What I want to see is those little things that really good teams do to give yourself the best chance to win football games like this.”
While O’Connell has argued that his team faced plenty of adversity despite trailing for less than four minutes entering their matchup against Detroit, he took the loss as an opportunity to challenge his players.
“Championship-caliber teams are gonna look inward at the first sign of adversity,” O’Connell said. “We were able to do that in-game, come back and get the lead, but I challenge everybody to look inward and see if we can do just a little bit more. Can we be a little bit cleaner across the board, because I have a ton of confidence in our team, our players, and how we work, to continue to grow and get better. It’s gonna be a long season.”
O’Connell Credits Sam Darnold Despite Week 7 Loss
Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold
Completing 22-of-27 pass attempts for 259 yards and a 103.5 passer rating, Darnold had a bounceback game after showing some struggles against the New York Jets in Week 5.
After Detroit scored 21 unanswered points in the second quarter to take an 11-point lead, Darnold connected with Justin Jefferson for a 25-yard touchdown to open the second half and show the Vikings would go toe-to-toe with the Lions’ top-ranked offense.
However, Darnold was intercepted by safety Brian Branch in the second quarter, which proved costly as the Lions scored a touchdown off the turnover to put Minnesota behind by two possessions in the final half.
“Sam made so many good decisions today, threw so many highly competitive throws to give our guys chances, touchdown to Justin included, and they got us on that one,” O’Connell said.
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