Bill Belichick has largely supported the Minnesota Vikings through their surprising 4-0 start to the 2024 season but had one critique Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell addressed.
Belichick has maintained that the Vikings must prove they can play from behind — a pressure they have not dealt with often this season, trailing only 3 minutes, 26 seconds through the first month of the season.
Appearing on KFAN’s “#92-Noon” show with Paul Allen on October 1, O’Connell assured his former coach with the New England Patriots that his team would be ready.
“I would say this much, I think every game, when it starts out 0-0, you may not be playing from behind but you’re one play away from playing from behind. You’re one play away from not taking the opening kickoff. When you do get the football like we did, if you don’t go down and score that first drive, the momentum is now quickly on the other team’s side,” O’Connell said. “The reason we haven’t played from behind very much is we’re playing good football to start games.”
“It’s going to come at some point this year, where we’ve got to go chase down a win in the fourth quarter. We’ve got experience doing that. Our staff absolutely does,” O’Connell said, referring to the Vikings’ 2022 roster that went 11-1 in single-score games and led the league with eight fourth-quarter comebacks.
“We’ll be ready in that moment,” O’Connell added.
Kevin O’Connell Addresses Vikings Overcoming Adversity Every Week
GettyVikings coach Kevin O’Connell
While Belichick’s critique is valid, O’Connell argued that there are wins and losses in every moment of a football game that the Vikings have weathered — regardless of the scoreboard.
“I do believe when the momentum changed [against the Packers], I do believe that was an example of the feeling even though the scoreboard didn’t necessarily dictate that we were losing the game,” O’Connell said, referring to the Vikings’ 31-29 win over the Green Bay. “I do believe that feeling of what we had to find within ourselves as an offense… we had to find a response to adversity.
“That’s all what losing in a moment in an NFL game, whether it’s the momentum or the score, it’s finding a response in those moments and figuring it out together. Do you have what it takes to get this done in the moment? And that’s always going to be a collective effort.”
Sam Darnold is Winning in Must-Have Moments
GettyVikings quarterback Sam Darnold
While it was Kirk Cousins who led the Vikings to eight game-winning drives during the 2022 season, Sam Darnold has shown he can make plays when the Vikings need them late in the game.
In Week 2, the San Francisco 49ers opened the fourth quarter with a touchdown that set the score at 20-14 with 10 minutes left in the game. Darnold led the offense on a clock-chewing 14-play drive that ate nearly seven minutes of clock time and ended with a field goal to put Minnesota back up by two possessions.
Darnold converted three third-down passes on that drive, including a 26-yard strike to Jalen Nailor that put the Vikings comfortably in field goal position.
He led another scoring drive against the Packers in Week 4 with 10 minutes remaining, finding Justin Jefferson for a 27-yard connection that set up a crucial Will Reichard field goal and a 31-29 win.
Darnold is getting it done in the fourth quarter and, most notably in the red zone.
Eight of his NFL-leading 11 touchdowns have come inside the 20-yard line where there’s less space, requiring precise and deliberate throws he’s delivered with poise.
