The Minnesota Vikings had no business winning Sunday’s game in Atlanta.
Not with starting quarterback Kirk Cousins out for the season because of an Achilles’ injury. Not with star wide receiver Justin Jefferson already sidelined by a hamstring injury, and standout left tackle Christian Darrisaw joining him as a surprise inactive after suffering a groin injury last week. Not with rookie quarterback Jaren Hall being lost in the first quarter because of a concussion, and wide receiver K.J. Osborn leaving after a hard hit in the second quarter.
And especially not with Joshua Dobbs, acquired on Tuesday in a deadline deal with Arizona, having to take over at quarterback. It was Dobbs whose arm and legs guided the Vikings down the field before connecting with Brandon Powell on a 6-yard touchdown pass to lift Minnesota to a 31-28 victory over the Falcons.
Afterward, head coach Kevin O’Connell gave game balls to everyone involved in the Vikings’ fourth consecutive victory. Hopefully, O’Connell included himself as one of the recipients because no one played a bigger role in this improbable victory.
In his first season as Vikings coach, O’Connell received praise for leading the Vikings to a 13-win season in which they set an NFL record by going 11-0 in one-possession games and Cousins tied a league mark by engineering eight fourth-quarter comebacks.
This was impressive but it could not be overlooked that many bounces went the Vikings’ way and there was only a small amount of real adversity. O’Connell deserved credit but what would he do when adversity hit his locker room?
It didn’t take long to find out.
This season has been filled with turmoil for O’Connell’s team. From training camp “hold-ins” by defensive end Danielle Hunter and tight end T.J. Hockenson, to an 0-3 start in which the Vikings couldn’t hold onto the football, to Jefferson and Cousins’ injuries, O’Connell had a team that very easily could have packed it in and waited for the offseason to arrive.
Not only didn’t that happen, but the Vikings haven’t lost since Jefferson was injured in an Oct. 8 loss to Kansas City that dropped Minnesota to 1-4. All of those losses came by one score.
But if these Vikings had provided clues that they could overcome adversity, that point was driven home Sunday as O’Connell played an enormous role in showing what he has built since taking over for Mike Zimmer.
Culture is a word that is continually thrown around in sports but it often means little. It’s a lot easier to talk about building a culture than it is to show it has been done. But the Vikings put on a display of their culture Sunday by showing their resilience and character on numerous occasions.
“There’s so much about it,” O’Connell said, “when you think about all of the things you talk about every single day in your organization. That people matter, that culture matters, that building the type of football team we want to have, what’s inside of each and every guy in that locker room and the feelings they have towards one another, these are the days that kind of cement why you believe what you believe as a coach.
“I’ll quite honestly remember this one for a really long time, mainly for those guys. The adversity, the response, all of the things that we’ve spent a lot of time talking about. The guy that eventually played quarterback for us hasn’t heard a lot of those speeches by me but he’s got that in his makeup, clearly.”
That would be Dobbs, who was guided every step of the way by O’Connell from the sideline. Dobbs had started eight games for the 1-7 Cardinals this season, but didn’t take a snap in practice last week for the Vikings and didn’t know the names of many of his teammates.
Dobbs wasn’t perfect — he lost two of the three fumbles he committed — but he was good enough to throw for 158 yards and two touchdowns and scramble for 66 yards on seven carries with a touchdown. This included a 22-yard game-saving run to the Falcons’ 12 on a fouth-and-7 with 39 seconds remaining and the Vikings down by four points.
When the Vikings’ offense struggled, and Dobbs’ lost the ball, coordinator Brian Flores’ defense delivered with big stops. Dobbs was sacked and fumbled on a ball that was returned to the Vikings’ 1 by Atlanta in the second quarter. The Falcons were held to a field goal. The same thing happened early in the third quarter, only the Falcons got the ball at the Vikings 30. Atlanta ended up losing 6 yards and with another field goal.
The Vikings, meanwhile, forced a fumble and Byron Murphy Jr. intercepted a Taylor Heinicke on back-to-back possessions in the second half, enabling the Vikings to turn an eight-point deficit into a three-point lead.
There were plenty who deserved credit for this win — Dobbs was hoisted onto the shoulders of Harrison Phillips as teammates who had been strangers only a few days earlier celebrated — but no one deserved as much credit as O’Connell.
And the questions about how well O’Connell could navigate his team through choppy waters? They’ve been answered.
Judd Zulgad is co-host of the Purple Daily Podcast and Mackey & Judd podcast at www.skornorth.com.