Inside The Vikings

Kevin O'Connell becomes fastest coach in Vikings history to 30 wins

O'Connell has gotten to 30 regular season wins quicker than any previous Vikings head coach.
Will Ragatz|
Oct 20, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell reacts to running back Aaron Jones (33) touchdown during the first quarter against the Detroit Lions at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Oct 20, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell reacts to running back Aaron Jones (33) touchdown during the first quarter against the Detroit Lions at U.S. Bank Stadium. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

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Minnesota Vikings

All Kevin O'Connell has done through his first three seasons as the Vikings' head coach is find ways to win regular season football games.

Sunday's 23-22 comeback win over the Cardinals at U.S. Bank Stadium was O'Connell's 30th career win in 46 games. That means he's reached the 30-win mark faster than any previous head coach in the history of the franchise.

That's pretty good company. Whenever you're ahead of Bud Grant on a list, you're doing something right.

O'Connell led the Vikings to a 13-4 record in 2022, albeit one that clearly wasn't sustainable due to their point differential. They took a step back last year amid key injuries to Justin Jefferson and Kirk Cousins, going 7-10 while starting four different quarterbacks. And this year, with Sam Darnold at the helm of the offense, the Vikings are 10-2 for the second time in three years.

Watch KOC's postgame locker room speech after Cardinals win

In the first 61 years of Vikings football, they had started 10-2 or better eight times. Four of those came between 1969 and 1975. The other four are the modern-day NFC title game appearances: 1998, 2000, 2009, 2017. O'Connell showed up a few years ago and has done it twice in three tries.

One-score wins are generally viewed as a shaky formula for continued success, but there might just be something to O'Connell's ability to pull them off. 33 of his 46 regular season games (71.7 percent) as the Vikings' head coach have been decided by eight points or fewer, which is the most in the NFL during that span. He's gone 24-9 in those games for a .727 winning percentage that trails only the Eagles and Chiefs. Somehow, his teams seem to be "situational masters" who rise to the moment.

Among Super Bowl-era coaches, only the legendary John Madden has a better winning percentage in one-score games.

Perhaps most impressively, O'Connell won three games last year that were started by emergency backup quarterbacks. This year, he's gone 10-2 with Darnold, who came into this season 21-35 as an NFL starter.

O'Connell is obviously still chasing his first playoff victory as a head coach, having lost in the first round to end that 2022 season. He'll get his chance at that in January. Because the more regular season games you win, the more opportunities you give yourself to do something special in the postseason.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI, who also covers the Twins, Timberwolves, Gophers, and other Minnesota teams. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.

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