J.J. McCarthy, Forcing Turnovers vs. Commanders, Cornerback Group | X’s and O’s with Kevin O’Connell

J.J. McCarthy, Forcing Turnovers vs. Commanders, Cornerback Group | X’s and O’s with Kevin O’Connell

Uh Kevin Oonnell, head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, joins us as he is want to do each and every Tuesday for X’s and O’s once again. Um multiple cameras here. We were at Toys for Tots last week. How about the kids at Toys for Tots last week? Wasn’t that cool? Yeah, it was awesome. What a cool What a cool event. I got to be honest though, it was kind of nice and to uh be in here kind of solo and felt felt like you in your early radio career where you were What do you mean? doing all jobs at once and it just was quiet and what do you mean? Very common here. And and I found being at Shields, philanthropically speaking, raising money for others, I was able to streamline streamline like where my heart’s coming from and like the heart of the station and the team and everything. So, it was phenomenal. I thought it was great. But it is great to have you guys back. It’s great to see you again, too. Now, we got uh we got that extra page camera there. you didn’t have Paige Jagger didn’t have to deal with it last uh last week, but um we want to welcome those uh watching on the new camera. And this is X’s and O’s on the KFAN as an everexpanding Minnesota Vikings audio network and uh with Kevin Okonnell. We’re going to begin here. I thought it was cool that you gave Jonathan Hargrave a uh make that Jayvon Hargrave a game ball after the Commander shutout. Uh big people making athletic plays. Yeah, I mean like that. and and with the force fumble and the fumble recovery and it’s by the sideline record ain’t great. Uh big, you know, big people, everybody continuing to give everything. I just thought that was a really cool moment when you get when you recognized it and gave him a game ball. Yeah, forcing turnovers has been um something we’ve talked a lot about and uh it coincided with us playing with a lead which obviously helps our defense be able to have maybe some more opportunities uh than when people can kind of hide the football throughout the game uh and not need to really put themselves in any, you know, sort of harm’s way. But thought that was a big part of the game and and I I’ll tell you what, from where you probably had a much better vantage point of the play than I did, far sideline. Um all of a sudden, you just see him flying over there and you think he’s just going to make the tackle and he comes up with the football. So I had to take a look at that one on tape the uh you know that night and uh what a play. and he’s really, you know, he he probably hasn’t gotten uh the type of recognition, you know, that he probably deserves, especially when you talk about since the by-week what he’s done, the consistency, what he’s done, and and given us some really really high quality snaps to go along with Red and and and obviously Ja and the rest of the group. Uh you and I were both about equidistance from the play. Took me about 5 seconds to figure out what happened. Big difference is I had binoculars and you didn’t. That’s right. And you were field level with a bunch of big people in front of you. That’s right. So, it um I I you know, it’s it’s with Hargrave and Jonathan Allen. It’s for people like me. Okay. I can watch the film. I can watch the All 22. I probably have access to answers that maybe some others don’t if I choose to ask. But it’s I’ve been a a Jayvon Harvey fan all of his career. Yeah. From his first year where he had a fumble recovery touchdown, I think with with Pittsburgh, he’s played in Super Bowls and everything. But it it’s apparent that you it’s abundantly apparent that the way defense is run here is different than than systems that he’s played in before. So I know from doing this as long as I have without, you know, properly explaining it because I don’t know how. Well, there’s going to be something different, you know, with the defensive tackle or the three technique. So then you you mesh that with stats and numbers and things like that and they’re different. Yep. But then you see moments like that and then you see when he is singled and it has a little 4-3 true 34 look to it and what he does it and likewise for Jonathan Allen who played with his hair on fire against his former team by the way. You understand what I’m saying there? Yeah. And I think what uh what every year Flo and his guys do a really good job of, but sometimes even after uh they’ve convinced these guys, hey, this system, it requires all 11 guys to uh not always just do the jobs of, you know, like in some defense is one man, one gap. You think about Yeah. the old, you know, Seattle cover three systems or even the system, you know, previously played uh at a high level for many years here. Um it was a little bit more of a uh you know go forward to beat the guy in front of you and with all of the different uh tricks of the trade and tools Flo presents on the edges with pressures and Van Ginkle and Grenard and and obviously Harry and Matelis and the and we’ve we’ve added the corner blitz, you know, at a pretty high clip as of late that’s been pretty impactful, right? Um, it requires some, you know, movement inside to make sure we’re gap sound, make sure we can, uh, eliminate the problem plays if people recognize some of the things we’re trying to do to them. And I think what we’ve seen out of Grave over the last few weeks is a real commitment to understanding when his snaps are that you’re he’s just going to turn get turned loose and play the way he always has or when he can use that elite burst, get off athleticism to maybe be a part of that movement, shutting off gaps and and causing some real problems for uh the offensive line, trying to target the front, trying to block the front. Yeah. Uh and then knowing that on either of those occasions, you’re going to fall into some chances to make some plays. And that’s what he’s done. Well, I I’m glad you mentioned that corner blitz portion of the equation. And I was going to save this for near the end, but Jay Ward out of LS LSU. I mean, like, did did you guys try him at corner a little bit, but he’s a safety? And then now, like in that Seattle game, you know, Rogers is out and it’s like, oh, Jackson Smith and Jigma. Hey, baptism by fire here. Yeah. So, it’s it doesn’t matter the route. He’s playing corner for you now and a special teams guy. And I have a nugget for you. Uh because you guys blitz Jay Ward. I mean I’d say sometimes, right? A lot of the time. Okay. A lot of the time. And was it the Baltimore or Chicago game where he almost got home? It was one of those two. Very close. So therefore, you know, on my game calling depth chart, I got Jay Ward. I got no interceptions. Found his last interception at LSU. Then in that game, he almost got a sack and you have Green Bay next. Yep. So I didn’t have, you know, like when when was his last sack? I went to LSU and looked didn’t have one. went to Colequick County High School in Georgia and looked didn’t have one. So I approached him after we landed in Apple. When’s your last sack? He said, I’ve never had one in my life at any level. So if Jay Ward or when Jay Ward gets a sack, that’s going to be the first sack of his life. How cool is that? Yeah, it’s going to be a big deal. I I uh I really love Jay Ward. I love, you know, one of the reasons why, you know, and I credit Dante and and Mike Hutchkins and and Flo for really trying to find ways of getting guys that have demonstrated uh a level of physicality and football making sense to him. And I’m not even just talking about the X’s and O’s. I’m talking about the physicality that it takes to be a a major contributor. you know, with how our defense is being attacked right now, the fact that people are trying to feature way more of their run game and control the ball, limit turnover chances than be putting it up in in harm’s way and potentially give us a chance to snatch some momentum in a game. So having Jay being able to give us some snaps, whether it is firing off the edge on a corner blitz, whether it is uh you know pairing a you know Jay and a safety maybe maybe in a a true overload pressure float. They can come up with any idea, but what they need and what they’ve really found in Jay is a is a a level of physicality tackling in the open field. He had a great play on a kind of a screen out to Debo Samuel, I believe, at one point. just kind of didn’t make the play, but just showed up and just basically blew up every blocker around the area, takes a village, and then the rest of the crew kind of came in and made the the play. Um, but Jay’s been a guy that, you know, quietly has been just ascending, getting better and better. The fact of the matter is we’ve had some really good safeties last year. Obviously with uh the group of three guys we had and then Theo stepping into that role. With Theo being out uh with some injuries as of late, it’s given Jay some opportunities at the safety spot, but they have found ways to get him on the field in addition to that. So I don’t know where you put him on your game calling depth chart. He could be corner. He could be a nickel. He could be a safety depending on how uh they deploy Jay Ward. And it’s been really cool to see and I think he’s only going to keep getting better and better um now and uh really proud of what Jay’s done this year. Uh extra well then Xram kind of has a job right now because if Jay gets a sack Sunday night yep and you beat the Cowboys and we’re giving out game balls. Yep. We could see that at Vikings.com and you give one to Jay. Remember it’s his first sack at any level of his life. I promise I will not forget. I think that’s now now he’s got to get sacked. Now you got to win the game. Uh Kevin Oonnell X’s and O’s. Uh KFA and it’s fantastic. Baby and Maro off the script for a second. Um nobody grades out perfectly and you know I don’t I’m not going to say that I break down 23s back backpedal and leverage and hips and the whole thing. All I know is when calling the games it’s there’s not a there are not a lot of bad things that are happening over him or with tackles, a lot of whiff tackles or stuff. So you know he he’s a veteran. A lot of people don’t know because Fabian’s relatively new here that he came into the league with Washington. Six of his seven interceptions were with them over four years and he jumped into a difficult spot here. Yep. And I think he’s handled it pretty well. He’s done great. He’s obviously with Jeff Auda going down and and us really brought Fabian here. Wanted to be a part. Had a lot of opportunities as one of those veteran kind of uh guys that can step in and play guys on the practice squad. had a lot of opportunities and Fabe wanted to come back here. He wanted to be back in our locker room. And uh when we were able to get him back here, I told him at some point in time, you know, you really got to look at yourself as a practice squad player, but you got to be ready to start. You got to be ready to play. And you’re here because of the poise you’re going to be able to play with, the experience that he’s he’s played a lot of snaps now. Yeah. over the last few years and and and he can contribute on special teams, but I look at Fabian Maro as as an extension of that group of starters that we have at the corner position. And you’re right, people, you know, take their shots on him. They try to maybe uh test him at different times and he’s shown up and made some huge plays on some third downs. Got called for a penalty the other day. Was more of a technique thing probably more so than anything, but he’s totally connected, physical. he still runs at a a very very high level and he can make plays on the football as well. And and you know I I bring all of this up because you said it uh with our pregame chat that that that we do or maybe in a press conference about the margin for error being razor thin. Yep. You said that at like a press conference a couple of weeks ago and and not saying it’s still not, you know, off the shut out of Washington, but nevertheless, through the losing and when the time of possession is reasonable in games, I think it’s fair to say that your defense has been has been quite good. I mean, during that four-game losing streak, they were 25% on third down, the defense. Yep. Game after game. And think about that Green Bay game before the uh before the deflection off Miles. I mean, how tight that thing was. So, I’ve just been really impressed with a lot of facets of that defense this year. Haven’t you? Yeah. And I think um you know, you look at the from a standpoint of the year-over-year growth of the scheme. Well, there’s also people studying, you know, year round basically because we do play a very different style to play against. So, people see the Vikings on the schedule and they really start going to work on, you know, how they’re going to want to play and attack. And really when I say attack, the what I’ve learned about how people play against our defense, it’s more about mitigating risk. It’s more about limiting your call sheet down, which is the the greatest intent that Flo and that group of coaches have is to try to trim your menu to to make you throw off speed pitches, not make you not allow you to do the things that you really want to do week in and week out as as offenses are are built in this league. And what’s happened at times is, you know, people have gotten really big, extra linemen, um, extra tight ends, and they’ve just tried to run downhill. And that’s when the complimentary nature of a team really shows its stripes because as an offense, like we did the other day, we were able to possess the football. We were able to move it uh, consistently, convert some third downs, and then we were really good in the red zone. Uh, all of a sudden, not only are you controlling the ball in the clock, but the teams that want to deploy that game plan, it makes those third downs massive. So, when you don’t get them against our defense, now you’ve got to worry about the next drive is going to be a little bit more, okay, we don’t get to choose anymore. We’ve got to expose ourselves to some risk here to try to get the football down the field to try to generate explosives. And when that happens, that’s when you end up with uh Harrison Smith interception, you know, Andrew Van Ginkle making a Van Ginkle play that we were all waiting for. And you see some of those plays kind of start to come to fruition, but it takes the other two phases doing their job. And that’s what Sunday against the commanders was all about. Uh Kevin Okcon, Alexis and O’s with uh with JJ McCarthy clearly taking a positive step, but that’s what it was. It was a positive step and you know reading and or hearing a lot of things about just a lot of different things. Um there this doesn’t mean I have to be right here. Uh but the a topic for me with JJ and I’m down on the field two hours and 15 minutes before every single game and he’s out there with Brosmer and with Groy and other people and they’re playing catch and stuff and warming up. McCarthy had a calm to him into the game had a calm in the game. Had a calm to him after the game in the press. There was just a surreal calm to him that that it seemed intentional and I thought it was fantastic. I’m not saying that that it’s going to lead to whatever in the Dallas game. We’re going game by game here, one game season like you’ll say, but did you notice that too during the course of the week and maybe in pregame with him? Yeah. Anytime throughout the week where you know I I did not notice that him and I we we had a lot of dialogue. We had a lot of conversations. What my goal for him going to the game was and there’s you’re right. I know what you I know where you were going previously where there’s been a lot of talk about uh you know what we did and how we’ve changed and uh all what we did well was we ran the football well and we had the you know our first 10 rushing attempts against Seattle Seahawks we had 10 yards. Our first 10 rushing attempts against the Commanders that number looked different. Second down looked different. Third and shorts looked different. Um, so that what that allowed is for the entire offense to se sequence up with what the plan was for the day to try to play in a certain style. But with JJ, what I’ve learned and and maybe it came from taking one week there for for Max to play against the Seahawks when he was in the protocol, but taking a step back and just, you know, after having a pretty good amount of work there over the last few weeks prior, man, if I just throw that completion right there, if on that, you know, second down, instead of trying to take three hitches and work the ball down the field, uh, I check the ball down, I put the ball in play, and we end up with a second and three into a a new set of downs or a third and manageable where it doesn’t feel like we’ve got to move heaven and earth at the quarterback position to uh to try to stay on the field and sustain drives. The whole game plan was about stacking positive plays and and a positive play could be a lot of different things and and we were able to do that as an offense all day long. But I I think the other thing for JJ is to u you know there’s a lot been made of fundamentals and technique and those things our job as coaches are to try to help players improve and we’ve uh you know we’ve navigated through the season of watching him show improvement uh in areas of fundamentals and technique but there’s another layer to it with JJ of uh in certain times of the season you would get a response of I thought this player was going to do that speaking about a defensive player or hey I played with Mike Sanderson are still at Michigan. He’s real instinctive. He might try to do that. Stop. Yeah. Just quiet your mind and let’s not overthink anything other than what is my job on the play. Wow. And making good decisions, putting the ball in play, allowing whether we were in 13 personnel, 22 with CJ Ham on the field or 11 or 12, uh, which you know, Vikings fans are accustomed to seeing, just every play there’s a positive outcome and you hold the cards to go finding that positive outcome. And it’s amazing just what the calmness you’re speaking of simply comes from stacking plays of doing your job and and putting the ball in play to to Minnesota Vikings players in space. Whether it’s a two-y gain or a 50ard gain, they’re all positive and they all have a negative effect on the defense and allows me uh to continue calling the game within the sequencing of of how we practiced on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday on into the game. That was outstanding. Uh, thank you for opening up like that on X’s and O’s. If you don’t mind, I’d like to also because after the Lions game, okay, you win and you get that alter ego thing in the locker room and somebody asked me about it a couple of days after and I’m like the nine bit sucks. Okay, if he wants to go with it the rest of his career, go ahead. I don’t like it. It’s not who he is from from the McCarthy that I’ve gotten to know. And I think that bubble burst too a little bit. You know what I mean? Where with time it’ll go away. But isn’t that just all part of having a quarterback that age who’s supremely talented? And there are just a lot of different things through which to work. Man, he’s 10 days younger than my daughter who lives out in Colorado. I kind of look at it at through that prism. So, I’m like, yeah, I don’t I don’t dig this because I don’t think that’s who that kid is. That’s who he was in the moment, but it doesn’t mean that’s who he is. I think the most if you’ve learned anything about me, I I think you would probably say I’m pretty normally the same guy just about every day. Um, regardless of circumstance, I I do believe Well, the whole building is since you got here. That’s why I love this job now more than I ever have. Well, I I just think that you know what uh you better have confidence and you better have a comfort in who you are to be in certain roles. And I think being the starting quarterback in an of an NFL team is one of those things. All I’ve asked JJ to do is just be authentically himself. That’s really all we’ve ever asked players playing that position. Whether you go back to uh Kirk Cousins in in 2022 and people said, “Man, you know, who is this guy?” It was just trying to allow these guys to be ultra comfortable uh in front of their teammates in the huddle, you know, on the grass, in the meeting room, whatever you want to say. Uh part of helping guys reach their truest potential is helping them be themselves every single day. And I think at times um guys try to you know and maybe it is the moment and if it’s authentic in the moment uh fire away. Let’s have at it. But uh we don’t need to exhaust any energy. Our jobs are hard enough already trying to be somebody else or trying to play to some sort of uh persona, whatever it may be. Let’s just go back to work, man. Let’s just go back to work and try to get better every single day. and and and when we do have moments like Sunday and we could take a step back like JJ and I were able to do and I told him I was proud of him. I was just proud of the way you from the moment you showed up on Wednesday all the way through flipping you that game ball afterwards. You know, it just felt like the guy uh that that uh that he can be for us and you felt like it’s repeatable. More importantly, it felt like it’s something uh that regardless of simplification of scheme and changing our stripes as an organization and all the things that it comes down to some very simple principles of the Minnesota Vikings and not just JJ. Uh we had a great day from our offensive line as well. We had a great day with the that was the most snaps that that group of five that we selected to be our offensive line either first round pick in the draft with Donovan who’s toughed out through an ankle injury to not be denied playing in the game to Christian Darasaw playing uh you know the the better part of that game till we started taking some starters out. Brian O’Neal was fantastic again. Um Ryan Kelly played by far you know what I thought his best game since he’s been a Minnesota Viking. And then Wil just continues to be an ultra consistent guy who’s getting better and better and working through uh you know his comfort level in our offense as well. But we had that group for the whole day the whole day and and if you didn’t notice Josh Oliver was blocking anybody and everybody on Sunday and the pancake count got up into the high single digits at one point. Impressive day from a lot of guys but our quarterback had a lot to do with it. Uh la lastly on the quarterback and the 1998 and 12 for 12 minutes masterful. I mean just I’ve seen a lot of them. Can’t say I’ve ever seen one of those. Um was JJ’s throw to Addison on third and eight right in front of you. One of his best of the season. And the reason I bring it up like that and I know you talked about it at your press conference yesterday. I just want to amplify it a little bit. good pocket, stepped up, went right hash to left sideline, which is a long throw. And and that just seemed to personify a quiet mind. Well, what it was was it was a great example of regardless of what the defense does, set your feet with great fundamentals and technique that um he is wildly capable of consistently doing with repeatable, efficient mechanics. But it was about, hey, Justin’s the primary on the play and he had his eyes in the right spot. The pocket was good, a great uh great everything that JJ can control, but then the decision making of not needing three hitches to decide Justin wasn’t open. It was a decisive decision which allowed his uh his body position and the ability to drive that football, like you said, not an easy throw, but the pocket fanned and he stepped. It was just beautiful. It it it it felt like uh it’s supposed to feel and and I thought that was a great example of him playing at a very high clip when we needed some third down conversions PA to not only have that drive but other you know starting fast early on in the game we didn’t have one on that first drive but it’s not like we just ran the ball every snap either he made some big throws and even the first one of the day to Ben Sims you say ho hom it’s an eight- yard gain um but that’s an example of him versus a pretty unique coverage look they’re dropping out a D lineman playing inverted too deep. Just throw completions, man. Good things are going to happen. All right. Um, wow. A couple of quickies to close here for the head coach. Donovan Jackson plays hurt, cares deeply. You guys hit on a good one with him. We talked about that. Yeah, I mean, holy cow. Uh, three TDs for your tight ends. Was that a product of just quickly loving the matchups into the game or a result of how things developed during the blowout? No, it was more it was more of game planning for uh for uh the week. We we really wanted to, you know, there was a there was a method to try to pair some of those groupings. We were doing some things out of those groupings besides Yeah. just getting big to run the ball, which we were able to do in the game, adding extra gaps and using some physicality with knowing we were going to have that group uh that offensive line group out there as well. Um, but then what it allowed us to do is we also threw the ball out of those groupings and um, in some cases spreading out the formations and trying to uh, make guys uncomfortable in different spots throughout that defense. All while uh, just trying to give, you know, JJ answers too. You you can’t ask him to throw completions and be willing to check the ball down and then not have those options available to him. And I think when you go back and watch through his tape throughout the season, you know, when he’s decisive, even when he is checking the ball down, uh, good things normally happen not only on that play, but the plays afterwards. U, he also stole some first downs for us with his legs. I thought that backed up third down was a critical critical play to kind of get it kickarted there from the end zone. Yeah. From when he when he got out right there. And there’s a learning op there. I mean, there’s a, you know, protection call on a third down. If he makes that, he probably throws another completion. We don’t. And he’s able to still make it right by using that athleticism to get out and steal us a new set of downs. All right. There there’s one at the end of your press conference yesterday. I have I have to get in. So before that, here’s the penultimate. What um what leads you to taking the ball when winning the toss? Yeah, I wanted to I I I think first and foremost um you know, we’re we’re learning a little bit more about with the fact that so many more kickoff returns are being put in play. Um you know, the days of the starting field position, especially I have a lot of confidence in Miles Price back there. I wasn’t thinking about that. If he gets a if he gets that ball past the 30 yardd line and in in the case to start the game the other day was the 39 yd line. Great return. Uh, great execution by our guys by Matt Daniels coaching that up and we have the ball at the 39 yard line. You get one first down PA, you’re at midfield and then the way Ryan Wright punted the ball. Even if you only get one, we’re allowing our defense to potentially start fast. But the ultimate decision for me on Sunday is, you know, awareness is key uh as a head coach. And I was very aware that we had not played well at home uh at least from a results standpoint since the Cincinnati game. Um, and I wanted to take the ball. I wanted to go score. I wanted to give Vikings fans a chance to, you know, not say, “Here we go again,” but say, “Okay, maybe today is going to be different.” And then, like I totally expected, they were fantastic. The defense takes the field, they get that fourth down stop, and then we go 98 for a touchdown. But the number one uh goal of the week was to start fast. From the time I met with the team on Wednesday and said, “Hey, here we want to be we want to win the turnover battle. I’m tired of talking about it. Let’s win the turnover battle and let’s start fast in the process of doing so. And if that means we end up getting a lead defense, I think you’re going to get some opportunities to take the ball away. The number one priority on offense is to protect the football because we know what those numbers look like when we do some of those things within the game that give us very very high likelihoods of winning. Okay. Lastly, because I didn’t really understand what you were saying during your press conference yesterday. A lot of people don’t. Well, well, I mean, if it’s Yeah, but I would ask you to the side if I didn’t understand. This just happens to be the side and everybody gets to see and hear because we got Sunday night football coming up, which means longer TV breaks. I mean, shoot, you can build a village in that huddle before they scatter and come back from the break. And that’s what I mean is you went down the road of I can’t remember who asked you about like Chamblas is running out and this guy’s running out and coming back and you were talking about like a TV timeout game with huddles and stuff like that like like what is that? The question was Washington Cliff Kingsbury since he’s been in the NFL they don’t huddle. So, if Vikings fans who were at the game or you were watching at home, you what we call a muddle huddle, a messy, they just basically stand at the line of scrimmage, they still sub as if they’re just going to huddle up, call a play, and then go. But what they they try to do is it makes it hard with the NFL rules of substitutions. You’ll see it in college sometimes a lot more. So, whether you go base, nickel, or dime, but you’re allowed to get a chance to match whatever they put in the game. So, if they wanted to go from 13 personnel, which is one back, three tight ends, and one receiver, uh, to 11 personnel, and bring in two receivers for two of those tight ends, uh, they the officials have to give, uh, Flo and the group a chance to then match that like a hockey change. And, and the it happened to us early in the year, if you remember, where they held the snap because there was a late sub by us um, at the Chargers maybe, or around there. It was I believe it was at a home game earlier in the year, but they held that and we ended up taking a delay on the play because the play clock means nothing to the officials. But what Flo and the group decided to do was, you know, as he kind of cycles through what personnel grouping he wanted to have on, let’s make sure we’re starting the process of substitutions, even if it ends up changing. and it kind of had a little bit of a, you know, a hockey line change feel to it much of the day. But every time that happens, it’s also causing the counter effect for Cliff and those guys of what is in the game. We don’t even know what’s in the game. The play clock’s going to or the coach the quarterback’s going to shut off at 15 seconds and now they’ve got to if there we were trying to basically take something that’s an advantage for them and turn it into an advantage for us. and I talked a lot about it, but my beef with the TV timeouts that I go to the league meetings and bring up with my good buddy Shawn McVey and Coach Tomlin on the competition committee every year is this. When we are in a TV timeout, we’re not allowed to have 14 guys out in the huddle. The defense can have as many players as they want in the huddle. So, I’m trying to figure out I’m trying to figure out what’s going to be on the field defensively. You can’t run a lot of plays with your 11 group against base defense. There’s just not a lot unless you want Jaylen Naylor blocking defensive ends and linebackers all day. There’s just not a lot of things you can do. So, you’re trying to deep you’re trying to weave through what’s on the field for them. And there’s some people upstairs trying to tell me. I’m trying to see with my own eyes. But then what happens is we come back from uh a commercial or two and we pop in that play clock ready for play. 25 seconds. Bam. And then they scatter and what’s in the game, what’s not. There’s about 18 seconds on the play clock. now you’ve got to get a play called within 3 seconds. So, I just they’re they’re very detailed about what we do in the offensive huddle. You can’t have 12 in the huddle ever. Um if you’re subbing, you really shouldn’t have um you know 12 guys in between the numbers. Uh but defensively during those TV timeouts, they can have the whole football team stand in the mascot, three coaches, and they’re all out there in the huddle. And as an offensive coach, not to ramble, uh that’s what I was trying to explain. There’s some unique gamesmanship to the strategy and it’s strategery with those running on to the numbers. Yep. And then running back. Yep. Oh, I’m starting to get it now. You’re awesome. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate it. Kevin Okonnell, head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. That’s X’s and O’s. Back after this.

Minnesota Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell talks with Voice of the Vikings and KFAN’s Paul Allen ahead of the Week 15 game vs. the Dallas Cowboys.

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