#687: Kevin O'Connell's Weakness DISGUISED as Strength | Minnesota Vikings | NFL

Tim discusses a striking statistic regarding the Minnesota Vikings' offensive performance, particularly under Kevin O'Connell's leadership. He highlights the team's impressive completions and touchdowns on deep throws while also pointing out the potential weaknesses in O'Connell's offensive strategy.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
There is this Minnesota Vikings statistic that Vikings fans are
losing their mind about. And I took a look at
the statistic and it's hard not to but in a way,
I think it reveals a Minnesota Vikings weakness as much
as it promotes a strength from the Minnesota Vikings. So

(00:33):
that's what we're going to talk about today. I believe
that a Kavin O'Connell weakness was exposed as Minnesota Vikings
fans caught eye of this eye popping statistic. But first
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(02:02):
that I'm telling you about it really is eye popping
because the Minnesota Vikings are so far one way and
there aren't any other teams near the Minnesota Vikings standard
of excellence. However, it all depends on how you want
to see it, so I'm gonna share the screen with you.

(02:26):
I found this on x by someone that posted it.
The poster is Ian hartzitz Eh who and it says
completions and touchdowns on throws twenty plus yards downsfield in
twenty twenty three twenty twenty four, And it has a

(02:50):
line on one side called completions, a line on the
bottom called touchdowns, and the Minnesota Vikings have the most
amount of completions near seventy and the Vikings have the
most amount of touchdowns about seventeen or eighteen. And that

(03:11):
compares to the Packers completions of sixty and eight touchdowns.
The Eagles have sixteen touchdowns and forty five completions. The
Kansas City Chiefs have thirty completions and zero touchdowns. The

(03:34):
Buffalo Bills Josh Allen over fifty completions and zero touchdowns.
You would almost think that this would be a light
chart because of the amount of touchdowns for the Kansas

(03:56):
City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills with Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes.
So you look at this chart and it really is
extraordinarily crazy. Because we know that Kevin O'Connell likes to
throw the ball down the field, that is what he

(04:19):
likes to do. We know that Kevin O'Connell likes to
open up the offense and really let it loose, especially
because it was or is Sam Darnold's greatest strength. But
to see that Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes had no
touchdowns over twenty plus yards is mind blowing and I

(04:47):
really think that this does expose a Kevin O'Connell in
Vikings weakness that not everybody wants to admit or look at.
Thor Nystrom, a very influential and impactful voice for the

(05:08):
Vikings on podcasts Score North, he's on Purple Daily and
other ones like Fantasy Football Weekly, commented and responded JJ
because he's a big J. J. McCarthy guy, And when
you look at this statistic, in these numbers, it's hard

(05:29):
not to picture JJ McCarthy in this offense. But here's
where it becomes a problem. It became a problem last
year in the first round of the NFC Playoffs in
the wild card round when the Minnesota Vikings couldn't generate

(05:51):
any offense and Darnold was getting sacked because the Minnesota
Vikings were looking at making a big play down the field.
And this is where Kevin O'Connell could approve his offensive
game planning and his offensive play calls. You don't always

(06:12):
have to hit home runs, you don't always have to
throw the ball twenty plus yards down the field for
touchdowns and completions. It's nice to score, but sometimes what
you have to do is that you have to payper
cut a team to death and to wear out that
defensive line and wear out those cornerbacks. Because as much

(06:37):
as we all love the bomb, Cunningham to Moss Culpepper
to Moss Farve, to Sidney Rice, Keith Keenam to Stefan Diggs,
Kirk Cousins to Justin Jefferson, forty fifty sixty yard bombs
and when you see that bomb up in the air,
there's nothing cooler than rising about your couch anticipating the

(06:59):
catch from one of your best wide receivers in football.
Justin Jefferson, we all love the bomb. The bomb is
the most exciting play in football. The problem with the
bomb is that when you pay per cut a team

(07:20):
to death and score touchdowns that way, that way of
scoring is much more deflating and much more exhausting on
opposing defenses. To be on the field for I know,
twelve plays to try to stop an offense is much

(07:40):
more exhausting than being on the field for five to
six plays. It's not as deflating for a team to
throw a forty yard bomb twenty yard bomb and scoring
a touchdown. It's much more deflating to think that you're
gonna stop somebody. But They just kind of paper cut

(08:02):
you to death down the field. Five yard pass year,
six yard pass here, three yard pass their first down,
three yard run here, five yard pass here, four yard
run here, first down. And that is what the Kansas
City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills did really well last year,

(08:23):
even with two of the best quarterbacks in football. So
I look at what the Vikings did last year, and
the numbers are absolutely bonkers. To have the second best
team in the league have sixteen touchdowns, The Vikings had

(08:51):
eighteen touchdowns. Vikings had eighteen touchdowns, had seventy completions. The
Eagles had sixteen touchdowns and forty completions. So the Eagles
almost had the same amount of touchdowns as the Vikings,
but the Vikings almost doubled their completion percentage. And you

(09:11):
look at or completion total and you look at where
the Vikings are in the touchdown ratio. They're at eighteen.
And you look at where the Chiefs are together. The
Vikings had about between the completions and the touchdowns seventy

(09:37):
seventy eight eighty eight combined. The Chiefs had thirty completions
and zero touchdowns. It's not even close yet. I don't
think there's a world where you would take an offense
run by Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes and replaced that

(09:58):
with Kevin O'Connell and Sam Donald. Now, you do have
to be fair and look at things a little objectively.
Because Sam Donald's greatest strength was throwing the football down
the field. His greatest strength was finding Jefferson and Addison
and them boys deep because Donald had an arm and

(10:21):
he is best utilized throwing the football down the field. However,
it doesn't have to be this intense. You're literally calling
the bomb in every play, and the Vikings offense got
exposed in the playoffs when those plays that took a

(10:44):
long time to develop couldn't develop because Donald held out
to the football too long and was getting sacked. So
as much as Vikings fans want to point to this
graph and be so excited about it, I do believe
that it exposes real weaknesses about Kevin O'Connell's offensive game calling.

(11:11):
So that's the take for the day. Five star best
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yours truly Minnesota Tim. All Right, everyone, I hope you
have a good day, and thank you for choosing this

(11:33):
podcast for your Minnesota sports doc. We'll talk to you soon.