the team\u2019s go-ahead drive<\/a>. Both he and Aaron Jones scored on short touchdown runs.<\/p>\n\u201cWe weren\u2019t really hitting any big ones,\u201d O\u2019Neill said, \u201cbut we just kept calling them and calling them and calling them. And, like, that\u2019s pretty cool. Eventually, they\u2019re going to pop. And they did.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connell arrived in Minnesota with considerable offensive acclaim. He had helped reorient the Los Angeles Rams\u2019 offense around the strengths of Matthew Stafford. His work played a major role in the Rams\u2019 Super Bowl LVI title.<\/p>\n
Speak with his former players and colleagues, and they will laud O\u2019Connell\u2019s innate ability to identify coverages in real time and formulate a concise plan of attack amid the noise of competition.<\/p>\n
With this backdrop came high expectations. He would design an offense around superstar receiver Justin Jefferson. He would create a beneficial environment, centered on positivity, around veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins. And O\u2019Connell validated many of those beliefs. That, paired with his real-time piloting of Josh Dobbs\u2019 extraordinary Vikings debut in 2023, earned him a particular reputation.<\/p>\n
Sam Darnold\u2019s bounce-back 2024 season provided punctuation. The Vikings won 14 regular-season games, and O\u2019Connell was named the NFL Coach of the Year.<\/p>\n
Maintaining the prestige of an offensive mastermind means building atop what has already been accomplished. That becomes harder when the quarterback position shifts from a trustworthy veteran to a raw second-year player.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connell entered the 2025 season intending to streamline the task for J.J. McCarthy. That attempt, and McCarthy\u2019s own issues with accuracy and reliability, didn\u2019t jibe with the desire to target Jefferson and light up the scoreboard.<\/p>\n
Eventually, O\u2019Connell altered the recipe to a simpler blend. The Vikings utilized heavy personnel on early downs to stay efficient, and they schemed third-down concepts angled toward the sidelines. Those choices won.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou learn it doesn\u2019t matter what the stat box looks like,\u201d O\u2019Connell said in the lead-up to Sunday\u2019s game. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what the EPA (expected points added) looks like. You need to know those things to know how teams may view what you\u2019re successful at. But none of those things matter. Winning is the only thing that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
The offseason signing of Kyler Murray gave the Vikings and O\u2019Connell a chance to revert to their flashier plans. But they haven\u2019t really gotten the opportunity.<\/p>\n
Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon darted into the backfield to torpedo a run play on the first snap. Later, linebacker Edgerrin Cooper flew around linemen and snatched Vikings running backs on two separate snaps. Minnesota\u2019s offense trudged forward with conviction.<\/p>\n
Rather than placing all of the responsibility on Wentz\u2019s shoulders, the Vikings incorporated 21 or 22 personnel on almost 40 percent of their offensive snaps, the highest percentage of any game in O\u2019Connell\u2019s tenure. The heavy-package runs worked like jabs in a boxing ring. The Vikings chipped away at the Packers long enough to spring Mason at a critical juncture in the game.<\/p>\n
With that said, perhaps the most underrated benefit of this strategy could surface next week.<\/p>\n
Trot out onto the field with big bodies, and the Chicago Bears will have good reason to expect a rush around the edge. Start messing with opponents\u2019 expectations effectively, and the Vikings can create mismatches on the field. Find success, and an NFL coach just might force his way into the elite tier of the coaching inner circle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EAGAN, Minn. \u2014 Reach the inner circle, and you earn an opportunity to establish a name. Sean McVay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1001395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[7,233,259,2529,6,234],"class_list":["post-1001394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-vikings","tag-football","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-minnesotavikings","tag-nfl","tag-vikings"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117274643217707537","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1001394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1001395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1001394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1001394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1001394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}