Kevin O’Connell on the Defense’s Performance, Offense’s Final Play & Justin Jefferson’s Day

No, normally the head coach chooses his staff.

@Fernando Ortiz-Robles all depends on where we spend our money for the cap we need one pretty bad

Kevin was in a tough spot. He had to consider all of the ramifications of firing the DC during the season. The Vikings’ record was good, what if the new DC comes in and they start losing? Then the narrative would have been rookie mistake firing the DC mid-season, and Kevin wasn’t ready to be a HC. Then the defense would have had to learn a new DC’s scheme/philosophy mid-season with not much time to practice. I think he made the best choice trying to ride out the season with Donatell. Unfortunately, a first round playoff loss was the result…but did anyone truly believe we could have won the Super Bowl with this defense? I thought we could when I put on my purple-colored glasses. Let’s hope the Vikings can shore up their weak spots this off-season.

Softer than baby food. Be the hard-nosed coach we know you can be. This IS YOUR TEAM.

@MIKERUPTION Its more than a weak spot. The Vikings defense is absolutely atrocious. They gave up over 400 yards of offense in 8 of the last 10 games and three others before that. A real HC would have done something about it. That’s what it is to be a HC. Yeah its a tough spot, that’s your job.

Ooops….. Sorry are performers

@vibe4664  Way I heard it… after daddy’s identity crisis shes now your mommy! #emotionaldamage

Been a fan of this team for 50 years….feel exactly the same way…has to be hard for great players to have to try and perform in schemes that are obviously not working. Feel heartbroken for al of them….and all of us fans too. Next Year! Skol!

I mean to be honest it’s been tough to be die hard fan for any of these teams in the NFC North. All 4 of us have been through the grinder and back

@Leah Smith what credit do they deserve

U shouldn’t be proud . You’re proud of having one of the worst defenses in nfl history

@Brian Westerlund we have a crazy hard schedule next year, but will probably win the division still if we can get a defense

@Shaquille.Oatmeal we’re NOT beating the chiefs

We might be on the outside looking in next year if Rodgers decides to stay in GB and the Lions are just getting started. Also if Fields stays healthy and they get more pieces around him.

G man is your daddy

we don’t have the cap space or draft picks to do that this year unfortunately. We sold out for this year and it didn’t work.

You lost by a touchdown in a 13-5 season

@Ryc to an abysmally bad team- the Giants are practically an XFL team; the Vikings D is so bad it makes bad teams look like the Chiefs. We saw this all year- Mac Jones looked like Joe Montana against the Vikes.

Offense was worse than defense. Everyone needs to have higher standards for our offense with the personnel AND offensive “wonderboy” like KOC is suppose to be we repeatedly only put up 10pts or less in half’s. Not acceptable. Defense doesn’t have near the caliber of Ol players offense does the money shows it.

@Danny Yanglearna de engles before criticizing the player that got you here.

@Freddy Cubathen they’ll just draft another burner WR or go get obj to pair with jj to solve that problem. Not that difficult of a concept

@HamwalletFootball doesn’t work that way. If you actually listen to what O’Connell is saying, he mentions time of possession and not getting opportunities on offense because your defense is giving up long drives and can’t get off the field. You can’t score a bunch of points if your offense doesn’t have the ball

If Kirk didn’t have JJ Vikings wouldn’t have made it. Kirk sucks and we all know he is about his stats. No qb IQ, Period. The Defense have carried the team all season, just look at all the time spent on the field lol.

That’s on the GM and KOC, everybody with half a brain saw it was a problem, ESPECIALLY by the end of the year. I knew when the defense had that one decent game they would be too nice and say “look it’s getting better” and not make any major changes that we needed. Then we got torched again for 4 more straight weeks and rode it out til the playoffs and lose. Not gonna ride as hard for a team that can’t see the obvious problems and make adjustments.

A high school team could’ve beaten, the Vikings the way the defensive coach played the players.

Well liberalism is very strong today & hurting someone’s feelings or stating reality or stats hurts the emotional side so not surprised 🇺🇸📉📉📉

He’s has no balls

Facing any other team in the NFC and the result would’ve been ugly so all in all this was a good season

There’s more to come remember only O’Connells first year a lot of people didn’t have us even coming out of the division. Hoped for a better result but we were gonna lose to the championship caliber teams. I see that now very pleased to have this guy as our coach.

@Caleb Ellevold he’s a good coach for a good start.

It is what destroyed the chances of this team winning in playoffs.

Absolutely a waste of a year because they wouldn’t make the clearly obvious changes that were necessary. Should have just let someone else run play calling and try different schemes. Unreal

This was the first season with this new regime. A new coordinator and a new defense you hope it comes together at somepoint. You can’t bail on it after the second game. You have to ride out the season.

off-season. Am not sure we have the talent we think we do.

Problem is they are getting older and some are losing a step. I could easily see atleast 4 new starters on defense if not more.

Maybe Kwesi goes good cop, bad cop. Bring in some venom and edge on Defense. Defense is about effort and all out physicalness led by a fierce D coordinator.

@James DeRouen Sr.keep Shelly. PP2. Bynum. Hitman. Hunter. Even zedarius. Let go of hicks Sullivan Kendricks. Keep Tomlinson and Phillips.

We aren’t ‘rebudiling’. We have a top five offense. Only ‘rebuild’ is fire Ed.

I think the OP meant that most people thought that the Vikings were going to be in a competitive rebuild season.

I agree. When they did phenomenally well, they were criticized and said they were lucky. The media just seems to really be extremely hard on this team, all the time.

I don’t understand why everyone seems to not like the Vikings. I saw people loved that thibidoux did the griddy on the Vikings logo. I heard that some of the packers players were trash talking the Vikings for being one and done. This being from their couches at home, mind you. I can kind of understand the packers because of the rivalry, but it just seems that no one ever wants to give the Vikings any credit, and they take pleasure when the Vikings lose. I just don’t understand it.

Rebuilding?? What?? Also we were picked to win the division this year.

Should’ve gotten Fangio. You know who wanted Fangio???? Harbaugh!

Clearly, everyone in the Viking’s organization missed this basic observation. How much does it cost to share this thought with the Viking’s organization? Free, I’ll do it for less.

If there was a season to get the job done it was this one… and KOC not Atleast demoting Ed’s play calling at any point of the season was a disservice to the whole team 🤦🏻‍♂️

Donatell is terrible, but there are major problems with some of the talent on defensive side also.

@Rodney Stricker Yes, because you’re taking people that have played 3-4, and asking them to play 4-3. It was a recipe for disaster.

@it’s a vibe I love Charles Barkley!

The defensive coordinator needs to be called out in public after such a performance…that is unreal what happened with that.

@Jarrod Gerner I think he meant Ross Barkley. He must be a soccer fan trying to get into American Football.

Take it easy on that purple kool-aid. If he knew where we were weak (defense), he would have fixed it weeks ago. I call BS. He didn’t build anything, yet this is zimmer’s team.

Totally agree with you 👍 💯

Wasnt the last play, he had 3 options past the 1st down and checked down like a moron. Also we’re 8th in offense, not top 5

Truth hurts… how far can a team with the 31st rated defense go?

@Mr. Huskieshave no problem with Kirk checking it down to TJ there. TJ is a monster and can break a tackle or make a guy miss. It just didn’t happen. Still, that’s a higher percentage play than throwing it up for grabs.

@Mr. HuskiesFrom top 5 to 8th. Oh how far our offense has fallen..