Experience is always the best teacher. For as grim as the rest of the season may look for the Minnesota Vikings after losing Kirk Cousins to an Achilles injury, Kevin O’Connell has been in this situation before — arguably in an even more dire position. As Sean McVay’s offensive coordinator in 2020, O’Connell’s Los Angeles Rams were 9-6 entering a win-and-in Week 17 matchup against the 8-7 Arizona Cardinals. If the Rams lost to their divisional foe, Arizona would take the sixth and final playoff spot. LA lost their starting quarterback, Jared Goff, to an injury the week prior. Therefore, O’Connell and McVay turned to former undrafted signal caller John Wolford in his first career NFL start.
The Rams were also without Cooper Kupp in this win-or-go-home contest. It wasn’t exactly how you’d draw it up for a game of this magnitude. However, it sure sounds familiar to the obstacle that this Vikings team currently faces.
It’s worth mentioning that injury misfortune struck the Cardinals on their first drive, when Kyler Murray exited the game. On LA’s opening drive, Wolford threw an interception on his first pass attempt, and Cardinals backup quarterback Chris Streveler took advantage by responding with a touchdown pass to Jonathan Ward.
Now it’s really starting to sound like Week 9’s matchup between the Vikings and Atlanta Falcons, with both teams thrusting their backup quarterbacks into action.
Despite throwing an interception on his first attempt, Wolford settled in and kept the Rams’ offense functional. Although the LA’s offense failed to reach the end zone all game, they figured out a way to win in the most anti-McVay way possible. They leaned on their defense, running the ball effectively via schemed runs for Wolford, and playing ball control.
It wasn’t pretty by any stretch of the imagination. Wolford’s stat line properly paints the picture:
- 22/38 (57.9 completion percentage)
- 231 yards
- 0 touchdowns
- 1 interception
- 64.7 passer rating
- 6 carries
- 56 yards
After beating the Cardinals in 2020 to punch their ticket to the postseason, the Rams were sent to the Pacific Northwest to play their NFC West pal Seattle Seahawks in the Wild Card round. Oddly enough, McVay and O’Connell gave the nod to Wolford for a second-straight week — even though LA’s medical staff cleared Goff to play.
But Wolford suffered a serious neck injury in the first quarter at Seattle. Goff reassumed the QB1 role and helped lead the Rams to a 30-20 victory, sending them to the divisional round and Lambeau Field to play the Green Bay Packers the following week.
When offensive head coaches face unfavorable circumstances like the present-day Vikings or the 2020 Week 17 Rams, sometimes the beauty is in the ugliness. Regardless of how appealing it may or may not be to the folks tuning in from their living rooms, all that matters is that you figure out a way to win, style points be damned.
Luckily for Minnesota, they have a head coach who is quite familiar with coming out on top in these exact type of predicaments.
If the 2020 Week 17 Rams taught us anything about what’s possibly in store for the Vikings with Jaren Hall on Sunday, it’s that O’Connell and his staff will maximize Hall’s strengths while trying to limit how significantly his weaknesses are exposed. What could that look like offensively? It wouldn’t be a surprise to see O’Connell dip back into the zone-read game that he and McVay utilized for Wolford once upon a time. After all, Hall demonstrated throughout his career at BYU that he has some scoot to his game.
Like the 2020 Week 17 Rams, the Vikings will have no choice but to lean on Brian Flores and his defense on Sunday against the Falcons. With the way NFC Defensive Player of the Month Danielle Hunter is playing, the expectation should be for him to continue putting his fingerprints all over the game. Minnesota needs it now more than ever so far this season.
O’Connell’s ability to manufacture a functional offense that stays on schedule by utilizing Hall both from the pocket and in the zone-read game will be critical. The occasional punt or two is more than okay as long as the Vikings can pick up a few first downs along the way and play the field position game.
Even though an NFL version of Minnesota vs. Iowa is the furthest thing from appealing football, circumstances dictate that being able to consistently pin Atlanta’s offense deep in their own territory should be viewed as a major success. That way, Hall and the offense can take advantage of shorter fields and have a better chance of coming away with points — as long as Flores and the defense generate the necessary stops. That’s precisely how P.J. Fleck and the Gophers found a way to bring the Floyd of Rosedale home from Iowa City a few weeks ago.
It doesn’t need to be pretty on Sunday with Hall leading the way against the Falcons. And O’Connell knows how to win ugly with a signal caller who’s making his first career start. That should help alleviate some of the anxiety that Skoldiers might be feeling after the gut punch of losing Cousins for the rest of the season.
