Inside The Vikings

Kevin O'Connell Wishes He Would've Called a Spike Before Game-Ending INT

The Vikings chose not to stop the clock before the Cousins' deflected pass was picked off.
Will Ragatz|
Kevin O'Connell Wishes He Would've Called a Spike Before Game-Ending INT
Kevin O'Connell Wishes He Would've Called a Spike Before Game-Ending INT

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Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings' 28-24 loss to the Chargers on Sunday was sealed when Kirk Cousins' pass with 12 seconds left deflected off the hands of intended target T.J. Hockenson, off the hands of safety JT Woods, and into the hands of linebacker Kenneth Murray for an interception in the end zone.

Prior to the fateful play, the Vikings let more than 20 seconds tick off the clock after Hockenson's catch on fourth down kept them alive. Cousins then had trouble hearing head coach Kevin O'Connell in his headset.

Afterwards, O'Connell said he wishes he would've had Cousins spike the ball in that situation.

"We have elements in our offense to go fast, at the same rate of time that hopefully a clock play would be," O'Connell said. "With the crowd and the situation with the headsets, there was a little bit of confusion early on. By the time he was able to cleanly hear me and get everybody aligned, too much time had come off the clock. Looking back on it, just should've clocked it and taken the three snaps from there to try to punch the ball in the end zone."

In the moment, O'Connell's thought process was to try to keep the Chargers on their heels by going hurry-up so they couldn't make any defensive adjustments.

"With the way we're defended down there, if we can get a call that essentially gives us a chance to score before they can set their defensive plan, bring extra DBs and things into the game to defend some of our personnel, I wanted to try to get one off," he said. "At the very least, you're thinking it's an incomplete and you've got enough time, under our normal operation, to exhaust the rest of the downs if you need them. That's not what took place."

In hindsight, the Vikings would've been better off rushing up to the line and spiking the ball, giving themselves a little more time to get on the same page before having three chances to score the game-winning touchdown.

Then again, Cousins did manage to get the Vikings to a call that O'Connell liked, which included Justin Jefferson having a one-on-one opportunity split out wide to the left. Cousins instead tried to hit Hockenson and the ball took a couple unfortunate bounces.

"My expectations are always sky-high for our group, so I'm trying to steal one more play," O'Connell said. "But clearly, with that much time going off the clock ... if that ball does get thrown away, we're down against it to where we might never get the other (opportunities) anyway. Purely on me, trying to be too aggressive in that moment. Looking back on it, I wish I would've just had him clock it and not tried to steal one there."

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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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