With 3:20 to play in the fourth quarter, the Minnesota Vikings needed a touchdown drive to take their first lead over the Arizona Cardinals. The offense couldn’t get traction for most of the game, and the defense could not get off the field. The fatigued pattern of the day suggested this would end anti-climatically, in an all-too-predictable fashion.
Past Minnesota Vikings teams always had to brace for bad losses. Too often, under Brad Childress, Leslie Frazier, and even Mike Zimmer, whenever the Vikings put together a run or generated any momentum, it came under the guise of being pleasantly surprised.
Vikings teams have won big games and had winning seasons in the past. However, fans expected the team to lose in a situation like the one against the Cardinals last Sunday, but the team didn’t.
Under head coach Kevin O’Connell, the days of not holding players and coaching staff accountable to the standard set at the beginning of each year are over. There is an inherent expectation to win ball games, even if they win ugly.
Let’s take it back to the three-minute mark in the final quarter. U.S. Bank Stadium was holding its breath. Some fans headed for the doors to get a jump on the foot traffic exiting the stadium on a bitterly cold introduction to December.
On second-and-four from the Minnesota 36-yard line, Sam Darnold delivers a frozen rope to Jordan Addison with great anticipation on a post-concept down to the Arizona 38-yard line.
A couple of incompletions later, it’s fourth-and-five. That was when Minnesota’s narrative could have retaken precedence. The Vikings allowed a bad loss to sneak in at home late in the year, coming off three hard-earned road wins in the middle of the most competitive division races in football. It would have been too easy for the story to head in that direction.
Jefferson runs a curl while sitting in a soft spot of Arizona’s zone. Darnold, fantastic down the stretch, puts it on him. First down, Vikings, with plenty of time and only 21 yards to get into the end zone.
Two plays later, Darnold finds Aaron Jones for the score. Darnold’s pass puts them up 23-22 with 1:13 left in regulation. There were a couple of groans among fans, thinking the offense should have taken more time off the clock by running the ball again, considering the last timeout was still in O’Connell’s pocket. Following what Arizona has been doing all game with speed-outs and slot draggers to get into field goal range, it was going to be up to Minnesota’s defense to end the war of attrition.
Without flinching, Minnesota’s defensive unit didn’t allow Arizona to net a single yard on their potential game-winning drive, capped off by Shaq Griffin‘s interception on fourth down.
O’Connell’s brilliance has been finding ways to win within the 60 minutes the league grants Minnesota weekly. He’s 30-16 in his time with the Vikings; 33 were decided by one score, and he has a 24-9 record in those games.
The scale of stakes in the NFL swings abruptly. What looked like a bad loss that the team would surely regret quickly turned into a season-defining win. In doing so, the Vikings reinforced the sentiment that there is no flinching and no apologies for winning under Kevin O’Connell.
If you look at O’Connell’s first year, the team won 13 games in a season filled with electric finishes that foreshadowed the winning culture mentality of today.
Last year, after a puzzling start due to turnovers, the team relearned the same customs until injuries became too much of an obstacle for any roster to overcome. Now we see what’s possible when you fill the team facility with a high-intellect, goal-driven coaching staff. Defensive coordinator Brian Flores echoes many of O’Connell’s sentiments, establishing a culture players are eager to buy into.
Ask Vikings fans to name a scenario similar to last Sunday’s in which the team won under coaches prior to O’Connell’s arrival. They would be hard-pressed not to start with all the instances when the team failed to find a way to win or didn’t show up to play altogether.
Winning is a privilege, but the expectation to win is a burden. Unlike Vikings teams of the past, this team meets the standards of O’Connell’s culture. As a result, Minnesota is 10-2 on December 1.
