Kevin O’Connell on Vikings “Very Disappointing Performance” vs. Falcons & Injury Updates

Kevin O’Connell on Vikings “Very Disappointing Performance” vs. Falcons & Injury Updates

get to injuries here in a second, but uh obviously um very disappointing uh performance tonight. Um really just starts with uh obviously our ability to take our week of preparation even on a short week and and show up and play a lot better in all three phases. Got to coach better. Uh specifically me. um our team will uh handle the adversity that is now right at our you know right at our feet and we’ve got to go back to work and um improve immediately. Um there’s some things just overall um you know we’ve got to stop doing uh many many things sometimes very noticeable sometimes um things throughout plays that uh you know the negative plays are um stacking up against us and and it seems like right now we take one step forward to take two steps back and that’s across the board you know specifically on our offense I thought the defense battled they held them to one of five in the red zone and really kept us in the football game um and just did not do enough clearly offensively. Um and anytime you you know lose the turnover battle, have more penalties, um you’re you’re going to have a hard time winning a football game, uh no matter what you try to do. And um I thought our guys stuck stuck with it, hung together, um showed uh you know, showed the type of team togetherness they have. But in the end, um we’ve got to start executing at a little higher level, and that’s as an entire group. Um and that’s me included. So, uh, we will go back to work and attempt to, uh, you know, have a really good post say postgame tomorrow, uh, where we all look inward first and and try to improve, find the little things here and there throughout the game. Even if even if somebody played fantastic and I’m sure there’s going to be some performances where guys did play well, are you um, playing to a standard uh, that we talk about? And, um, that’s all of us, coaching staff included. So, uh, we’ve got to clean up our operation and clean up our our, uh, you know, procedure as well as our execution, and that’s going to be a theme that we will continue to focus on. I thought our fans were phenomenal. Um, which which obviously makes it sting even more uh, knowing that uh, we had that kind of atmosphere and that and that kind of uh, support from our fan base and obviously there were some injuries. Um, that is never going to be an excuse. We put together a roster we feel confident in uh guys stepping in um across the board and and performing. So, uh want to update you guys on the injuries before I take questions. Ryan Kelly did uh you know have a concussion. He was ruled out. Uh school also had a concussion. He was ruled out. Grard did have the oblique um but returned and and and battled and and played his heart played his heart out um fighting through that. Aaron Jones will be evaluated for a hamstring. Don’t know um what that uh you know what that looks like as of right now, but we’ll keep you guys updated. And then Gabe Murphy had a uh his left knee MCL will be evaluated. So um came in a little banged up and and added a few names, but uh takes our entire football team needs to be ready to go top to bottom. Um guys that get elevated, all those things. That’s such is life in the NFL. Uh back to work we go. Uh you can’t be a one and0 team if you’re going to uh allow an 0 and one um to change anything about your mindset towards your individual or collective group effort of trying to strive to become the best football team we can this year. Long journey ahead. Kevin, what was your message after the game to JJ? Yeah, I just you know it was one of those it was one of those games where um you know once again only 46 plays. we just, you know, we we’ve got to find a way as a group. Uh it’s going to be um easy to try to put the microscope on JJ. And there’s certainly um some plays, some throws, some things that I’m sure he would love to, you know, get another op at. But I thought he also um when we did move it, you know, I thought he made some throws and I thought he showed his athleticism and and just as a group we did not execute to our standard and it kind of moved um from from guy to guy at times and you know either a mental mental lapse or you know physical laps but either way um the negatives start to mount and uh you’re just not doing enough to give yourself a chance to actually win the football game. Kevin, first and goal to two, the the delay of game. Yeah, you know, we uh you know, we changed personnels. They they told me they saw um somebody step off our sideline from very much further back than and once we had made our substitution, that’s why they held it. I got to go back and see it. Obviously, I’m looking down at the uh the area around the goal line. Um but my expectation was you know at some point during that end of clock sequence there he would when they had had an opportunity to sub he would uh step away and uh you know he just didn’t and we uh we subbed you know we subbed uh you know and got the play in before the the headset communication went out. Thought we’d get the playoff and and potentially get a runoff there. Then we get moved back we take a sack and um that sequence was essentially over. So, uh, when we get, especially in a game like this, you know, that’s a that’s a critical, um, critical time to put the ball in the end zone and see if we can turn the momentum and allow our defense to play with a little bit of momentum, which they were never able to do. Any momentum they had was, um, able to overcome uh, you know, our sluggish performance on offense. And you’ve got to play complimentary football. That’s the way we’re going to build our game plans. That’s the way we’re going to build ourselves as a team. And it’s going to take all three phases for 60 minutes when you’re playing um against anybody in the NFL. I thought Atlanta, you got to give them a lot of credit. They came in, Raheem had his guys ready to go and and and they beat us. Kevin, some of the sacks and pressures where they had guys coming in unblocked. What was the theme of why those things happened when they had so many free runners? Yeah, I think uh you know, there was there was definitely um you know, there was definitely some times where some guys got beat in some one-on-one situations. Got to got to go back and see um exactly Ben kind of what happened there, but you know, you felt it um certainly in the first half there and then you know Ryan goes down in the second quarter, school goes down in the third. You’ve got some guys stepping in and and uh you know trying to play you’re trying to help as much as you possibly can from a schematic standpoint um with help here and there um spec specifically on the edges. Um and then we had a miscue um kind of a uh you know on the on the fumble was a little bit of a mental error there and we’ve got to get that cleaned up because that was critical you know moment in the game where we got um we got some good field position and we had a chance to once again try to capture the momentum in the game and we just didn’t do it. Had a chance at speedy at one point on a third and short. thought it would be our best chance to try to get a one-on-one uh for one of our guys down the field and you know just you know overshot it a little bit and so there was just could we make that one play had close to a 20- yard run um and get flagged for a holding call that set you back so it just seemed to me uh Ben that it was you know it’s the sacks come from a lack of execution sometimes on that down sometimes it’s on a previous down um but 46 snaps and I believe we 49 last week. We just got to have more plays. We got to possess the football. We we’ve we’ve got to find a way um to stay on the field longer because it’s an important part of how we need to play as a team, especially against a team like that. On that sequence you mentioned with Speedy, uh I think the ball’s around 30, 28, something like that. Uh fourth down, do you think about that or is it Yeah, we had, you know, we fumbled a snap early on when I was pretty aggressive there with that fourth down early. Um it was inside of a half a yard and it looked like the ball came, you know, JJ might have bobbled the ball a little bit and then um we didn’t get that. Gave the defense a short field. They held him to three. Um so definitely thought about it, but you know was hoping to get that one more timely stop to try to have you know anywhere from seven seven six seven minutes left to try to then uh you know activate the ability to go try to you know at least put the ball in the end zone and then see what happens there. whether you’re in a sequence, you know, kind of like our opponent last week where maybe it’s the onside, maybe it’s there’s enough time depending on how much timeouts we have left um to uh to ultimately try to see if we can get back in the football game. And then at the end, obviously um I made the decision, you know, we we were kind of in a freeway situation, let them score um and and knew it was going to take two scores and two two-point conversions, but at least we would have the ball with some time and unfortunately just didn’t do anything with it. Kevin, how much of the lack of rhythm offensively um is some way in some way to be expected with a quarterback in his first two games versus how much do you feel as if it’s just been more lack of execution maybe? Yeah, I think you know that’s one of the things that you know we we are are definitely going to talk about you know as a coaching staff cuz like first half last week you know when you’re talking about okay you’re on the road maybe there’s some you know first time on the road and things like that communication can be tested and I thought we improved as this game went on specifically in the second half last week. Uh, but to me, being at home, um, having your snap count, having your cadence, um, you’ve got to eliminate any and all pre- snap penalties. Um, some of the straining penalties, like a holding call when a guy’s in there, I think Walt was in there on his first snap, um, and just trying to strain. And those are those things are going to happen. um the the execution plays that are catastrophic are the ones um that we’ve got to find a way, you know, to eliminate because against any team in the NFL, if you do some of the things we did tonight, you’re going to make it really hard on yourself. No, even if your guys are fighting and scratching for 60 minutes, it was not an effort thing um in any three in any one of the three phases. Um it’s just we’ve got to find out, you know, how we continue to strive to the standard of execution that’s required. Um, you know, like I said, even if a guy had a clean sheet for the whole night, but had a catastrophic error, specifically around a young quarterback, too. Um, that’s where we’ve got to try to find to elevate elevate that bar and, uh, you know, make have the cleanest possible execution around him. That’s why we put together the group we hope to put around him. Obviously, when you’ve got your backup center coming in the game and then your third tackle, you know, you know, playing a significant amount of snaps, it’s going to be hard. But that’s I mean there’s probably 10 teams that went through similar things today around the NFL. So you can’t I don’t look at that as as you know you obviously adjust and you try to help any way you can. Um but to me the you know the type of roster and team I I believe we have and I know we have the expectation is we’re going to do what’s required to win a football game and then we’re going to compete down to the very end. Didn’t think we did that tonight. um specifically on offense from an execution standpoint um all around that huddle and and we’ve got to take a look at it. Guys got to try to find um you know look look at themselves very much so like can I am I doing everything on every single snap all 46 of the snaps. Um am I doing everything to to do my job and be a trusted guy in that huddle? And once we get to that point with the type of guys we have um get as healthy as we can. I’ve got all the confidence in the world uh that we are going to, you know, move the football and score points. This is going to be a process, you know, for uh our our team and our young quarterback’s going to, you know, make some plays. He’s going to, you know, make some unbelievable throws, which a couple a couple of those throws there that got us down to the two I thought were big time plays. And then other times he’s going to, you know, have an attempt and just miss something a little long and, you know, we’ll go back and try to fix it. But sometimes the fundamentals are going to be right, the techniques are going to be right, and he’s just he’s learning on the fly right now. And there’s the way you overcome that is by uh the full group’s execution level being to a certain standard uh that we can go try to compete and win with. On the uh the fumble that JJ picked up around the goal line there, was looked like he was trying to get a pitch off to Jordan Mason. What happened on that play? Yeah, it was a uh was kind of a play pass. He just dropped the ball. Um it was kind of a uh you know a play we’ve you know been practicing for a while. He just happened to drop the ball on the play. Um which is which is tough because you you uh you end up in a situation there where you know we might have had you know Justin uh potentially there with them kind of selling out to stop that play. Good sell by the guys up front. We just dropped the ball and and then we’re you know we’re we’re trying to find a way to get the ball in the end zone from there. you know, he was able to pick it up and at least get it thrown away. And then we had the sequence with the delay and then the sack and then we were third and I believe goal from the maybe the 14 yardd line. So, um that right there in the nut in a nutshell is what the night kind of was. And there’s nobody that’s going to fix those things besides our coaches and players. Um and you know, we’ve got the we’ve got the greatest group ever in that locker room. Uh, I have nothing but confidence in in our staff and and myself to, you know, work with these guys and make sure we continually constantly chase improvement and it’s early in the season. We’re a one-on-one football team that’s going to try to win a game this week against a good team coming in and we certainly want to uh make sure we play a lot better at home. That’s for darn sure. Last two, Kevin, those first two runs, you know, lot seem to be a lot of mistakes, a lot of bad angles and missed tackles. What did you see from the sideline? Yeah, I thought, you know, our our defense scra, you know, they they uh you know, tried to scratch and claw and play their hearts out. But I did think tackling, you know, against a, you know, a good group. They’ve got some good guys when they got the ball in their hands. Um, you know, we had some some players there. Um, I thought Flo, you know, was doing everything he could to try to limit some of those runs and doing some things tactically and we just missed some tackles early on in the game and they were able to kind of sustain some drives from it. Um, I thought it improved as the night went on and and then they just fatigued, you know, they were just we left them out there on the field far too much, I thought. [Applause] [Music]

Minnesota Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell addressed the media after the team’s Week 2 loss to the Atlanta Falcons at U.S. Bank Stadium during the 2025 NFL regular season.

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