Kevin O'Connell leads with optimism through adversity
For the first time in O'Connell's tenure the Vikings are hitting a pot hole without their quarterback. His response is to remain upbeat
By Matthew Coller
EAGAN — Between the 2021 and 2022, so many things went right for Kevin O’Connell that it was worth wondering if he had struck a secret deal with the NFL’s script writers.
In his second year as offensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Rams, his team won the Super Bowl. Along the way, Matthew Stafford won a playoff game in Tampa Bay on a deep bomb after Tom Brady had spent the entire afternoon pulling a miraculous comeback. If living to tell about a 24-point Brady comeback wasn’t enough, the San Francisco 49ers dropped an easy interception that may have sealed the NFC Championship game and then in the Super Bowl Stafford threw a no-look pass that led to the game-winning drive.
That’s enough to feel pretty blessed. And then he was named head coach of the Vikings, destroyed the Packers in his first game and went on to win eight games in which his team trailed in the fourth quarter and pulled off the largest comeback in NFL history against the Indianapolis Colts.
When the Vikings didn’t pull off another Houdini victory in the playoffs, everyone was stunned, including the head coach, who had walked on a cloud that entire season, somehow avoiding every typical thing that has befallen the Vikings in years past. Even his kicker made all the clutch kicks.
Heading into this season, the main narrative spun by prognosticators was that the Vikings would come crashing back to earth after having won all their one-score games. Nobody angers the forces of regression and gets away with it, they declared.
Well, they were right. To open the season the Vikings went 1-4 with fumble-laden one-score losses. In the fourth L, the referees picked up a flag that negated a fourth-down conversion and gave the Kansas City Chiefs a narrow victory.
O’Connell reached deep into his positivity bag for silver linings. He used the 2021 Rams’ mid-season three-game losing streak en route to the Super Bowl as an example that teams can overcome a big ole bump along the road. He pointed out the small negative point differential despite all the random turnover luck. He repeated the phrase, “I believe in this group,” in nearly every press conference.
“I think you guys know this about me now: I’m going to remain positive through and through,” O’Connell said after the loss to the Chiefs.
As if he hadn’t already paid his debt to the devil in the form of fumble bounces through the first five weeks, the hardest bad-luck hit was yet to come. After an impressive victory against the San Francisco 49ers, his team was ahead two touchdowns and standing in the red zone with a chance to put the dagger in the Packers when quarterback Kirk Cousins tore his Achilles, ending his season.
The Vikings went from being a potential buyer at the trade deadline and a serious threat in the NFC to a team swapping late-round picks for a journeyman quarterback with hopes that he can start on two weeks notice.
The NFL has a way of breaking head coaches with stuff like this. Mike Zimmer took body blows like few others, overcoming multiple season-ending injuries to his quarterbacks and star running backs before finally succumbing to the one-score monster in 2021 and taking it out at the podium on poor backup QB Kellen Mond after a drubbing in Green Bay. If you look over at the Atlanta Falcons, they are one week removed from Arthur Smith calling the media “toxic” for criticizing his quarterback and then benching his quarterback. This week Smith slammed legendary QB Kurt Warner in the media for watching his team’s tape and talking about it. The examples are endless. Denny Green’s “they are who we thought they were,” or Jim Mora shouting, “PLAYOFFS? WE CAN’T EVEN WIN A GAME!” come to mind.
O’Connell’s outlook makes him less likely to land on the list of lunatic head coach behavior. In the Lambeau Field visitors locker room, he let the team know that their QB was going to be out the remainder of the season and declared: “The love in this locker room will supersede anything out there. I love this team. And away we f—in go.”
Following a whirlwind 72 hours, O’Connell reflected on Wednesday about his philosophy when it comes to bullishness when it comes to remaining positive.
“I’ve always kind of looked at any time adversity hits, whether individually or collectively to a team, really in any facet of life, I’ve just always viewed it as an opportunity for growth,” O’Connell said. “I challenge our team all the time when adversity hits, the number one goal should be having a priority to be the best version of yourself.”
He used the example of the team’s mentality during the comeback game against the Colts last season.
“All gains are gains… coming back from 33-0 in a game, all completions matter, all plays matter, regardless of how big they may be, and I think that’s a great example of when you dig yourself in a hole sometimes, you have to be willing to do some things at the best of your capabilities,” O’Connell said.
One thing the business world has long known is that there is a trickle-down effect when it comes to leadership and behavior of those underneath a leader. For example, it has been found in studies that if you have a friend who quits smoking, you are more likely to quit smoking. Harvard Business Journal discovered that lower level managers performed better if the upper management was more effective. The NFL’s structure is not that different. O’Connell’s lower level management are his locker room leaders, who have adopted his forever-optimistic disposition.
“[O’Connell] always says that the best part of your team comes out when s— gets tough,” right tackle and captain Brian O’Neill said. “The positivity never waivered. Whether we are 0-3, 1-4, 4-4, [coaches] have been the same guys every day and it makes it easy to play for a coach and team like that that believes in you. We never felt any panic on their side. It’s much appreciated.”
The concern with anyone who is overly positive is that they are ignoring problems to the point of delusion. Center Garrett Bradbury pointed out that O’Connell’s form of optimism isn’t burying his head in the sand, rather aiming for a consistent message rather than riding the roller coaster of an NFL season.
“I love the way he goes about it,” Bradbury said. “It’s a long season, there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs no matter who you are. During the good times it’s awesome because the celebrations are a little bit better and then through the rough times it’s a good reminder that it’s a long season and we are in it for the long game and one week isn’t going to define us. Yes, we started 0-3 and it could have felt like the world was caving in but that positivity helped steer us out of that. He let is know that, yeah, it didn’t go how we wanted but still a long season and we can bounce back and turn the thing around.”
The climb for the Vikings will not be an easy one. After Cousins’ injury, DraftKings made the Vikings a 3.5 point underdog to the middling Falcons and dropped the over-under mark to 7.5 wins and put the Super Bowl at +15000 (just behind the Texans).
O’Connell’s message to the coaching staff through Cousins’ injury has been similar to the slow start: That the reaction to troubled waters is the most important part.
“KO has been speaking a lot about response, response, response, especially with how the turnovers started at the beginning of the year,” special teams coordinator Matt Daniels said. “The defense has to find a way to respond, the special teams has to find a way to respond. This team has bought in and believed in that. As a result we are seeing the momentum add up and guys are staying to play together and there’s a belief that we can win every game.”
Defensive coordinator Brian Flores, whose unit will now face more pressure as the point production is bound to slide without QB1, said that keeping focused on the day-to-day of coaching and not getting caught up in whatever hard times they are coming upon is key.
“He talks about the way we respond to that adversity and how we have to continually come in here every day and work and prepare and improve and not really be results based,” Flores said. “As coordinators and position coaches it’s our job to reinforce that message…there’s highs, there’s lows, he does a good job of staying even and that calm demeanor has allowed us to fight through that adversity.”
The fight begins in Atlanta on Sunday. The Vikings have a chance to win against the Falcons’ backup quarterback and justify their head coach’s mindset. From there, they will not see a team over .500 until Cincinnati on December 17, which opens the door for a surprise run at the postseason.
The Vikings will look to rookie quarterback Jaren Hall, who got the same belief from his ex-QB head coach this week that Cousins seemed to benefit from over the last two seasons.
“Jaren is ready for this moment,” O’Connell said. “We have a lot of confidence in him.”
Regardless of all the bullshit O'Connell is a good coach. I think Flores is a good coach too. We traded away four or five good players who are currently starting in he NFL. Who would have thought we would be better on defense this year than last. A remarkable turnaround in my view.