EAGAN — For an offensive play caller the first rule of guiding a new quarterback who doesn’t know the offense through nearly an entire game: Do not panic.
Will you want to panic? Oh yes. When rookie quarterback Jaren Hall took a hard hit near the goal line during the second drive of the game, Minnesota Vikings’ head coach Kevin O’Connell had the same compulsion to freak out as everyone watching at home on TV.
“All the time, all the time,” O’Connell said on Monday when asked if he was fighting back the panic over his quarterback situation. “It’s just the natural reaction.”
But O’Connell is aware that if the head coach loses it then the team will follow and there is no chance they will survive losing the starting quarterback.
“My job in that moment is to eliminate the chaos,” O’Connell said. “It is going to be a very chaotic situation, no matter how you want it to go. So, my job in that moment is to provide as much clarity for not only our players but our staff.”
The clarity came in the form of headset communication between O’Connell and backup quarterback Josh Dobbs.
The head coach knew that he would have to do the equivalent of talking someone through landing a plane that they had never flown before. That meant being concise and understanding exactly the type of information that he could scream into Dobbs’ headset without flustering the new quarterback. O’Connell leaned on other times in his career where he’s needed to bring a QB along in the moment to give him an outline on what to say.
“I’ve kind of been down that road before at some previous stops, and I’ve kind of learned from those experiences,” the head coach said. “You’ll never be perfect, as far as what’s the right amount of information to clearly articulate what you want to say in 7-8 seconds, while also not overloading the player and forcing them to kind of freeze in the moment.”
O’Connell joked that Dobbs probably wanted him to be quiet sometimes but they had to use every stoppage to get on the same page. They went over things quickly during TV timeouts and while the defense was on the field and O’Connell got a feel for which parts of formations and plays that he was handling well and where he would need additional information. After a rocky start that included a safety and a strip sack, they began to get in a rhythm.
“There were some critical downs going back to watch, you don’t see all the details in the moment, but just watching him take some of the things I said, then put it into action, but then still just go play,” O’Connell said. “That was probably the best part about it.”
Along the way, Dobbs had his own personal headset cheering section. No matter how confident a quarterback might be, there is nothing to replicate the choppy waters of being thrown into the deep end without anywhere near the normal preparation and knowledge of the offense. So O’Connell tried to mix in encouraging words while giving his directives.
“The beauty of having the ability to talk to the quarterback, it is how you say things, it is how you deliver plays,” O’Connell said. “Those little coaching points here and there that might provide clarity but also maybe a little confidence. After every play hitting that headset, letting him know in real time, ‘that was unbelievable. Hey, great play right there. Outstanding. You’re balling.’”
One of the elements that made the communication possible was the game-planning that was done during the week. Had the Vikings’ staff tried to put together a Kirk Cousins-like set of plays and options within those plays, even a rocket scientist would have been swimming in information. Instead they carefully thought over what Jaren Hall or Dobbs would be able to take on before installing anything.
“The whole week of preparation was having real conversations about ‘this might be a great scheme, this might give us a great opportunity to generate an explosive, but can we call that play? Can we call it and get to the line and get a motion?’” O’Connell said. “We normally put together complete packages of things that kind of play off of one another. There were just some things I just wasn’t going to make whoever was in the game playing quarterback try to go accomplish on a single snap.”
There was also an emphasis on the huddle this week. Knowing that an inexperienced QB was going to start, O’Connell focused on the operation, trying to ensure that false starts and delays of game were not holding them back.
“I said so much of this game will be won pre-snap, meaning no penalties, regardless of all the excuses… I just told them point blank none of that would be a part of our story this weekend and those guys were phenomenal,” O’Connell said.
Within the tiny moments around the huddle coming together and breaking, the head coach used every second to say as much as he could into the QB’s ear.
“I’m always looking at where that play clock is, I know exactly what time is left when I get the call in,” O’Connell said. “Every moment we broke that huddle and the quarterback wasn’t talking to the guys in the huddle, that allowed me to make sure I wasn’t disrupting the flow of the huddle, but the second it was either forming or we’d broke the huddle, I was going to use that time to try to help.”
All of this is a fascinating operation that we have long taken for granted with Kirk Cousins under center. Everything O’Connell needed to do in order to make it work with Dobbs speaks to his experience and acumen for the position. However, none of it matters without the veteran quarterback taking in all of O’Connell’s words and turning them into big-time throws and a game-winning drive.
“His comprehension of information in real time with crowd noise and 10 other guys screaming at you in the huddle, there is a lot that goes into it and quite frankly that is what made it such a special day for really Josh and our whole team,” O’Connell said.
When the Vikings acquired Dobbs, a major part of the discussion was that he had done all of this before. But nothing will quite match up to what he did against the Falcons on Sunday.
Now, with O’Connell in his headset, Dobbs will be tasked with doing it again as the Vikings face the New Orleans Saints’ tough defense at US Bank Stadium this weekend.
At least this time around they can give him a little work in practice first rather than walking him through everything on the fly.
“We can shape a game plan around what he does best, which are a lot of really good things,” O’Connell said. “It’s going to be exciting for our coaching staff, and getting to spend a little more time with him, and him around his teammates, learning everybody’s names, and making sure he’s ready to go Sunday.”
ADDITIONAL NOTES
— O’Connell announced that Cam Akers has a ruptured Achilles and will be out for the season
— Jaren Hall and KJ Osborn are in the concussion protocol and Dobbs will start this week
— Christian Darrisaw and TJ Hockenson are expected to be limited in practice
— No word yet on Justin Jefferson’s status, though O’Connell said there will be an update on Wednesday. He is eligible to come off IR this week.
