The Minnesota Vikings entered halftime against the New Orleans Saints riding high with a 24-3 lead. The Vikings’ offense was rolling on all cylinders with three touchdowns and were consistent.
The second half was a different story, as the Vikings only scored three points. Head coach Kevin O’Connell was asked about the play calling in the second half and he was honest and forthright about it.
“Yeah, I think it comes down to knowing the fact that you want to be aggressive, but you also want to walk out of the stadium still winning the turnover battle,” O’Connell said. “And I was that confident in our defense that if we didn’t give them anything and, you know, we played smart with the clock, that we could get it down to a situation where maybe we could get to 31 and get a touchdown on that play. We did and that would take us to 34. And then, you know, it gets pulled back and we don’t convert and we ended up punting and try to pull them deep there. But, you know, I’ve got to try to find that balance where I do believe in our guys and I do believe that I can stay aggressive for four quarters with our guys. And I’ll continue to work through that to make sure I’m giving them some premium ops. We had some chances there that maybe we didn’t make the play. But there were certainly few that I’d like to have back and knowing the situational management and milking the clock is one thing but staying aggressive is something we’ve got to do, as well.”
It’s a great sign to see your head coach be so open about an aspect of the team that didn’t end up perfect. You don’t want to see him give away state secrets, but being honest and owning up to something that didn’t go well is a great sign.
The Vikings have some time to get things back on track with Josh Dobbs at quarterback and they will hopefully be better against the Denver Broncos on Sunday night.
