The win for the Minnesota Vikings over the Chicago Bears 30-27 in overtime was a hard fought victory that should have been much easier for the purple and gold.
Whether it was the offense driving down the field with consistency to attack a solid Bears defense or the Brian Flores' unit finding a way to stifle the Bears' offense, there was a lot of positive stuff from the Vikings. It wasn't all great, as the Bears scored 11 points in the final 25 seconds to send the game into overtime, but a crucial play with quarterback Sam Darnold injured for two plays was a major reason why the Vikings got the win.
Kevin O'Connell's creative playcalling saves the day
One of the biggest disparities among the fanbase is how they view head coach Kevin O'Connell as a play caller. Some see him as a very creative and talented playcaller while others think he stinks at the job. What's the reality? The answer always lies somewhere in the middle, but he is much closer to being a great play caller than a poor one.
There are multiple instances of O'Connell drawing up creative play calls, but one that he dialed up on third and 13 in the fourth quarter stands out above the rest.
The play ended up going for 14 yards and a first down, but it was two reasons why this ended up being so great: the design and Nick Mullens making the play coming off the bench, as Darnold injured his foot the play before.
Let's talk about the design first. The near side of the field is a drive concept, meaning the outside receiver runs a shallow crossing route and the slot receiver runs a dig route 10+ yards downfield. Being that the slot receiver here is Justin Jefferson, he carries a certain gravity with him.
The far side of the field is three receivers who have a very key responsibility on the play. All three of them need to sell the vertical routes by keeping their head over their toes. If they don't, the defense will start to crash forward, which could easily blow up the play.
Everything comes to fruition and Jones gets the ball a few yards downfield and has buildup speed to make this essentially a zone running play. Even more impressive is Mullens making this play look easy.
This is the kind of creativity that the Vikings get from O'Connell every week and he spoke about the play during his Monday press conference.
"I think it was a game where it felt like the ebbs and flows, we had some success on those third and longs. I thought, Nick [Mullens], for the second time year, there is other eligibles available to him than Aaron Jones. I thought the comfort of having a guy that can just go in there now two separate times on third down for his first play of the game I mean, that's it's pretty rare and you guys can tell by the plays that I call when he goes in, there's no ounce of ‘hey, let's just punt this thing away and move on.’ We're going to try to get the first down, and I didn't know at that time if Sam [Darnold] would come back in the game. So, I was locked into the mentality that we're going to go move the ball and get points and Nick was going to take us down the field. I thought it was great execution. You have to highlight those guys out in front. Trent [Sherfield Sr.] T.J. [Hockenson], Jordan [Addison] was just a great example of a tough spot, third-and-13, critical time in the game. They are not getting the ball. They're not catching their 100 yards that they both had. Trent comes in there and plays his role beautifully. The execution for something that we really just put in last week in the game week couldn't have been better. Then getting the ball to Aaron Jones in space is a big time plus I thought it was a big moment in the game."
O'Connell has been the gold standard for good play calling this season and this play exemplified just that.
