How have Kevin O'Connell's Vikings teams bounced back from bad losses?

The Vikings got embarrassed on Thursday night and will look to respond next Sunday.

Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell walks off the field after their 27-9 playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams at State Farm Stadium on Jan. 13, 2025, in Glendale. | Joseph Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Vikings got flat-out embarrassed in Thursday night's 37-10 loss to the Chargers. With just about nothing going right in any of the game's three phases, it was undoubtedly one of the worst performances of the Kevin O'Connell era (2022-present).

Now sitting at 3-4, Minnesota has to turn the page towards a massive game next Sunday in Detroit against the 5-2 Lions. With young quarterback J.J. McCarthy expected to make his return, the Vikings desperately need to find a way to pull off an upset at Ford Field if they're going to stay alive in the playoff race. If they fall to 3-5, they'd probably need to finish 7-2 to make the postseason.

As we look ahead towards that game, it's worth taking a look back to see how the Vikings have bounced back from previous bad losses (let's define that as losing by double-digits or more) under O'Connell.

2022

The Vikings didn't lose many games in O'Connell's inaugural season, but when they did, they lost big. And every time, they had an answer the following week, which is how they managed to go 13-4.

• After a 17-point loss to the Eagles in Week 2, they beat the Lions in Week 3.
• After a 37-point loss to the Cowboys in Week 11, they beat the Patriots in Week 12.
• After an 11-point loss to the Lions in Week 14, they pulled off the biggest comeback in NFL history to beat the Colts in Week 15.
• After a 16-point loss to the Packers in Week 17, they beat the Bears in Week 18.

The Vikings' season ended in a one-score loss to the Giants in the first round of the playoffs — a cruel bit of irony after they had gone 11-0 in one-score games in the regular season.

2023

O'Connell's second season was a much different story. The Vikings went 7-10, but the first eight of those losses came by just one score. They started and ended the year on losing streaks of at least three games.

• After a 23-point loss to the Packers in Week 17, the Vikings fell to the Lions to end the season.

2024

Last year, the Vikings returned to their winning ways. They did lose two in a row after a 5-0 start, but the first loss came by just two points.

• After a 10-point loss to the Rams in Week 8, the Vikings beat the Colts in Week 9 to start a nine-game winning streak.

Then, as everyone knows, a 14-2 start came crashing down. The Vikings were blown out by the Lions in the huge regular season finale and lost big again in the first round of the playoffs.

• After a 22-point loss to the Lions in Week 18, the Vikings lost by 18 to the Rams in the wild card round.

2025

This was the Vikings' second double-digit loss of the season. They bounced back pretty well from the first one.

• After a 16-point loss to the Falcons in Week 2, the Vikings beat the Bengals by 38 in Week 3.

Overall numbers

The Vikings have lost by double digits ten times under O'Connell. Two of those ended their season, so there was nothing to bounce back from the following week. Of the eight times where they did play a game the next week, they've gone 6-2.

How much that stat matters, when the current challenge is a road game against the dominant Lions, can be debated. But at the very least, it's a potential source of hope for Vikings fans who may be looking for one.

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