Kevin O’Connell’s first two seasons as head coach of the Minnesota Vikings have provided plenty of evidence he has the franchise on the right track. The Vikings are 20-11 under O’Connell, including a 13-win season and an NFC North title in 2022; he has instilled a positive culture for a team that seemed miserable before his arrival; and he has often gotten the most out of (now injured) quarterback Kirk Cousins.
So it’s ridiculous to suggest O’Connell’s job should be in jeopardy after the Vikings fell to 7-7 on Saturday afternoon with a 27-24 overtime loss in Cincinnati. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a conversation to be had about the job O’Connell did, especially as the Vikings’ playcaller, against the Bengals.
To put it bluntly, O’Connell had a miserable day at the office and that helped cost his team a second consecutive victory that would have put the Vikings two games above .500 with three games remaining in the regular season.
The biggest topic following a loss in which the Vikings surrendered a 14-point lead was O’Connell calling for consecutive (failed) tush pushes on third and fourth down with the ball at the Bengals’ 42-yard line in overtime. But there were other play calls that seemed odd on a day in which the Vikings had success running the ball and were starting backup quarterback Nick Mullens.
Mullens is the Vikings’ fourth quarterback to start this season, joining Cousins, rookie Jaren Hall and veteran journeyman Josh Dobbs. That’s a franchise record for a single season and puts a coach in a tough situation. But look around the NFL and you’ll find several teams that have had to turn to their backup. This includes the Bengals, who lost starter Joe Burrow last month and have had to turn to former Viking bench-warmer Jake Browning.
O’Connell decided to lift Dobbs in the fourth quarter of a 3-0 victory last Sunday at Las Vegas and insert Mullens, who was on injured reserve because of a back injury when Cousins suffered a torn Achilles’ in late October. Mullens would be able to run the offense more like Cousins did and that seemed like a better fit.
The problem was O’Connell too often coached Saturday’s game as if he had Cousins under center and not a mistake-prone veteran who has been a backup for most of his career. What was especially frustrating was that O’Connell’s scripted plays on the Vikings’ first drive provided a masterclass in how to call a game for Mullens.
Ty Chandler, finally getting an opportunity to be the featured running back because Alexander Mattison was injured, carried seven times for 30 yards; Mullens completed all three of his passes for 42 yards; and Mullens also scrambled twice for 3 yards on a 12-play drive that gave the Vikings a 7-3 lead and was capped by a Chandler 1-yard touchdown run.
Mullens did a great job managing that drive because he is the type of quarterback who only should be asked to manage the game. But O’Connell’s inability to accept driving in the right lane was too great to stick with what had worked.
Two of the main lowlights came in the second quarter with the Vikings in position to increase their four-point lead. Faced with a third-and-9 at the Bengals’ 14, Mullens tried to force a pass to Justin Jefferson in the end zone. It was picked off by Mike Hilton at the 1. A run by Chandler would have, at worst, set up a Greg Joseph field goal attempt from inside the 10.
That miscue should have been all O’Connell needed to decide to call a run play on the Vikings’ ensuing drive with the ball at the Bengals’ 16. But on second-and-1, Mullens was lined up in shotgun and was sacked for a 6-yard loss. Now it really was time (third-and-7 at the Bengals 22) to hand the ball to Chandler.
Right? Nope.
Mullens, again lined up in the shotgun, was pressured and, as he was falling to the turf, decided to try to throw the ball. Only the weak pass hit defensive tackle BJ Hill and landed in his hands. This was a terrible decision by Mullens, but it was an even worse call by O’Connell.
This doesn’t include Mullens’ pass for Jefferson in the fourth quarter after the Bengals had tied the score at 17. Linebacker Germaine Pratt jumped the route and returned the interception 41 yards for a Pick Six. It was wiped out by an offside penalty on Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson, but it was a reminder of Mullens’ tendency to play with fire.
Mullens’ box score was fine — he completed 26 of 33 passes for 303 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions — but some of his decisions make fellow Southern Miss alum Brett Favre look like a conservative QB. Mullens entered Saturday with 27 career touchdown passes and 23 interceptions in 25 games and 17 starts.
Turning Mullens loose has the potential for disastrous results, especially when Chandler rushes for 132 yards on 23 carries, and yet O’Connell just couldn’t help himself.
O’Connell is the same guy who brought the Vikings back from an 0-3 and 1-4 start and the play caller who put Dobbs on the field less than a week after being acquired and helped him lead the Vikings over the Falcons. So there is plenty of good.
But O’Connell has looked like a playcalling work in progress himself more than once this season and one can only hope he is learning from his mistakes, or his desire to be aggressive when the situation calls for him to ease off the gas pedal.
The Vikings will play the Lions and Packers at U.S. Bank Stadium before closing the regular season at Detroit and they remain very much in the playoff mix. O’Connell said Saturday that no decision has been made on who will start at quarterback against the Lions.
“We’ll evaluate it, but (Mullens) did a lot of good things today,” O’Connell said. “I liked the feel of both our run game and pass game. How it was working together. We’ll take a look at it, watch the film and make a decision moving forward. Nick Mullens played how I expected him to play.”
That might have been true, but O’Connell also failed to manage Mullens properly in a game the Vikings led by two touchdowns entering the fourth quarter. The blown lead, the disappointing loss and what needs to be done going forward served as a learning lesson. And we don’t mean for Mullens.
Judd Zulgad is co-host of the Purple Daily Podcast and Mackey & Judd podcast at www.skornorth.com.
