The Minnesota Vikings finally tasted victory with a 21-13 road win over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday and that led to head coach Kevin O’Connell’s first victory speech of the season.
“This feeling is long overdue for this group. But all you guys keep doing is working. All you guys keep doing is going back to work, putting your head down and deciding what can I do to not only help this team grow but to make damn sure that i’m trying to uplift the guy next to me, make his job easier. What can I do to help bring along everything we want to accomplish? And we’ve had to do that without the results that quite honestly a lot of us expect. We’ve had to take our medicine and just keep going back to work,” O’Connell shouted.
“You have found a way to eliminate the noise, block it all out and make it about your brother. I told you Monday that this would be our greatest test of our way of doing things, where we are a family where culture matters and we chase victories every single week, not for ourselves but for each other. And that’s what you guys have done.”
He then complimented Harrison Smith and D.J. Wonnum for the tide-turning defensive touchdown, and the second touchdown pass from Kirk Cousins to Justin Jefferson that he described as “perfect execution.”
“It’s back to work on Monday. Back to work on Monday with a championship standard. Regardless of the result, we just go back to work. We get to host a home game next week, back at U.S. Bank. And it’s time we put on the show we’ve been waiting for for our fans at home and you guys are primed and ready to do it when we have a great week of practice and hit that ground running,” O’Connell said with passion.
“It’s all out in front of us. Just keep trusting in us, keep trusting in yourselves. The love in this locker room will supersede anything out there. Ignore it. I love this team and away we f****** go.”
A long overdue feeling. pic.twitter.com/frVht34dgb
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) October 2, 2023
Putting on the show will be a must because the Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and maybe Taylor Swift will be coming to town in what again feels like a must-win for the Vikings because falling to 1-4 could be a death knell for Minnesota’s playoff hopes.
