Just when it looked like the heat index underneath Brandon Staley’s coaching seat was cranking up for the Los Angeles Chargers, Kevin O’Connell helped cool things off.
In the process, the Minnesota Vikings head coach helped turn up his own heat on his personal coaching seat in dropping to 0-3 overall. This time, due to porous clock management in the final 20 seconds of their Week 3 contest, O’Connell’s Vikings fell 28-24 to a previous winless Staley-led Chargers team.
The Blunder on Kevin O’Connell’s Hands
After gaining a crucial first down facing 4th-and-5, the Vikings ended up taking their time getting set up before this miscue was created by Kirk Cousins.
Kenneth Murray picks off Kirk Cousins in the endzone to seal the victory for the #Chargers!
pic.twitter.com/iFfoQDitN7— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) September 24, 2023
Still, that was nearly 10 seconds milked away, and there was no decision to spike the ball. Cousins ended up throwing a desperate attempt into the end zone only to see Kenneth Murray bail out his head coach and team.
But again, it’s the NFC North division champ from one season ago, O’Connell, who is now sitting at 0-3. He’s already dealing with skeptics who questioned him for trying to trade Pro Bowl running back Dalvin Cook before releasing him. And he’s been peppered with questions on why Cousins hasn’t had a contract extension.
Now, past Super Bowl winners came after the second-year Vikings coach hard after the game.
Fox NFL Sunday’s Michael Strahan and Jimmy Johnson Blast O’Connell: ‘Should Be Fired’
Immediately after watching the Chargers win their first game of 2023, the Super Bowl-winning duo of Michael Strahan and Jimmy Johnson didn’t mince words about their feelings toward O’Connell’s clock management.
Johnson, the two-time Super Bowl winner with the Dallas Cowboys, gave a coach’s critique of how O’Connell and the Vikings should’ve handled that final scenario.
Strahan, the Super Bowl 42 winner with the New York Giants, then said, “Kevin O’Connell should be fired as head coach.”
As for O’Connell himself, these were his postgame words:
“Very tough ending to a football game that we felt like was in our grasp again.”
Not even 21 games into his head coaching career, both analysts and NFL legends are already believing the Vikings should make a change. And now, O’Connell and the Vikes find themselves in a new hole they must dig themselves out of.
Which Teams Have Made It Out of a 0-3 Hole?
Yes, there’s still hope for the Vikings.
In NFL history, there have been five teams who have climbed out of a 0-3 situation to make the playoffs: The 1981 New York Jets, 1992 San Diego Chargers (started 0-4), 1995 Detroit Lions, 1998 Buffalo Bills, and the most recent one, the 2018 Houston Texans.
The key for O’Connell and Minnesota, though, is to create a five-game winning streak. All five of the aforementioned comeback teams went on to win five in a row. In the case of the Chargers and Lions teams, both went on to deliver seven consecutive victories.
However, the road out of this predicament doesn’t get any easier. After a road trip to Carolina, the Vikings will welcome the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs on Oct. 8.
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And their next home game after that is welcoming the undefeated San Francisco 49ers on Oct. 23. Then there are aspiring playoff teams, the New Orleans Saints, Green Bay Packers, and Detroit Lions, after that — the latter two teams the Vikes must see twice.
Staley entered U.S. Bank Stadium feeling the heat with his 0-2 start. That heat intensified with a 4th-and-1 decision by Kellen Moore to run it near their own 24 with under two minutes left. But now, the temperature underneath lowered for Staley … and increased under O’Connell.