Post by Purple Pain on Jan 14, 2023 9:03:11 GMT -6
Goessling - It's time for Kirk Cousins' final exam: the NFL playoffs
In Kevin O'Connell's first season, Cousins said he has more responsibility in the offense than in any of his first 10 years in the league. Can the quarterback direct the Vikings to playoff success?
In Kevin O'Connell's first season, Cousins said he has more responsibility in the offense than in any of his first 10 years in the league. Can the quarterback direct the Vikings to playoff success?
The empowerment Cousins has felt during Kevin O'Connell's first season as Vikings coach turns into a critical on-field trust in the 40 seconds between snaps, where the two men direct a scheme that's only grown more complex for the quarterback in the five years since they last worked together in Washington. Cousins said he has more responsibility at the line of scrimmage this year than in any of his first 10 in the NFL, adding, "It's felt like I'm cramming for a final exam every single week of the season."
O'Connell made Cousins one of his first phone calls after he became the Vikings coach in February, letting the quarterback know how much the offense would demand of him and how strongly he believed Cousins could handle it. While Cousins threw more interceptions (14) and had a lower quarterback rating (92.5) than in any of his eight seasons as a full-time starter, he threw for the second-most yards of his career, led a league-high eight game-winning drives and reached his fourth Pro Bowl. The Vikings open the playoffs Sunday against the Giants after winning their first NFC North title with Cousins at quarterback.
"It's given us a real edge to be able to prepare in a way where he's got total ownership," O'Connell said, "but then, his ability to adapt and adjust right along with me as the play-caller has been huge."
Years of defensive coordinators and offensive play-callers making their schemes tougher to solve have turned the 40 seconds between snaps into a frantic cryptology effort, with quarterbacks playing the role of both encoder and decoder.
From 0:40 to 0:15 on the play clock, O'Connell can talk to Cousins, who sometimes cups his hands over his ears to block out the crowd noise threatening to drown out O'Connell's next play call. Backup QB Nick Mullens said some third-down calls, with adjustments built in for pressure packages, are 15 to 20 words long; wide receiver Justin Jefferson said the lengthiest calls take 10 seconds to deliver.
Many calls in the Vikings' scheme are actually two plays in one, with directions for Cousins to "can" the first play to get the offense out of a bad situation or into a better one.
O'Connell gave a theoretical example of a medium-length Vikings play call: "Z Short Fleece Rt Taco 74 Barracuda Switch Y Bench Burst, can to 50 Smash H Riot [another pass play]."
Wide receiver Adam Thielen provided another: "Let's just say, 'Gun Weak Right Ace 17 Wanda,can to F Coco Bow.' " He added: "We do have some code words where he can 'can' it to a code word. But there's times where it's a full play call, canned to a full play call. So there's a lot of words in there. And in this offense, if you say one word wrong, it changes the entire concept of the play. So those details are unbelievable."
Cousins sometimes cups his hands over his ears to block out the crowd noise so he can hear Kevin O’Connell’s play calls.
Cousins sometimes cups his hands over his ears to block out the crowd noise so he can hear Kevin O’Connell’s play calls.
O'Connell's voice cuts out at 0:15. Cousins heads to the line, often using motions or hard counts that might change the offense's leverage or bait a defender into giving up his disguise. Cousins surveys the defense one last time, making any last-second calls to alter the Vikings' protection scheme or the details of a play, and shouts, "Turbo, set" to call for the snap.
How often does Cousins change something from O'Connell's initial play call by the time the ball is snapped? "I would probably say close to 70 percent," O'Connell said.
"It could be a run to a run, a run to a pass, changing directions. But yeah, it's a lot," he added. "You watch the higher-level offenses, and you just hear it — 'Can! Can! Kill! Kill!' — just all the ways you try to have a plan for the best possible play versus the look you get."
Cousins speaks warmly of how O'Connell has backed him as the team's leader, while O'Connell praises the quarterback's careful attention to his role as an on-field lieutenant. Both are fathers in their mid-30s whose families are close. They meet for two hours the day before each Vikings game to go through O'Connell's call sheet, but their game-plan discussions often start earlier in the week, over 10 p.m. texts once their kids are asleep.
"We've scored on plays this year that either Kirk suggested, or a big third-down conversion he had ultimate ownership of," O'Connell said. "I think the big thing for him this year is, his ownership has just grown by leaps and bounds, with his comfort and what we're asking of him."
O'Connell made Cousins one of his first phone calls after he became the Vikings coach in February, letting the quarterback know how much the offense would demand of him and how strongly he believed Cousins could handle it. While Cousins threw more interceptions (14) and had a lower quarterback rating (92.5) than in any of his eight seasons as a full-time starter, he threw for the second-most yards of his career, led a league-high eight game-winning drives and reached his fourth Pro Bowl. The Vikings open the playoffs Sunday against the Giants after winning their first NFC North title with Cousins at quarterback.
"It's given us a real edge to be able to prepare in a way where he's got total ownership," O'Connell said, "but then, his ability to adapt and adjust right along with me as the play-caller has been huge."
Years of defensive coordinators and offensive play-callers making their schemes tougher to solve have turned the 40 seconds between snaps into a frantic cryptology effort, with quarterbacks playing the role of both encoder and decoder.
From 0:40 to 0:15 on the play clock, O'Connell can talk to Cousins, who sometimes cups his hands over his ears to block out the crowd noise threatening to drown out O'Connell's next play call. Backup QB Nick Mullens said some third-down calls, with adjustments built in for pressure packages, are 15 to 20 words long; wide receiver Justin Jefferson said the lengthiest calls take 10 seconds to deliver.
Many calls in the Vikings' scheme are actually two plays in one, with directions for Cousins to "can" the first play to get the offense out of a bad situation or into a better one.
O'Connell gave a theoretical example of a medium-length Vikings play call: "Z Short Fleece Rt Taco 74 Barracuda Switch Y Bench Burst, can to 50 Smash H Riot [another pass play]."
Wide receiver Adam Thielen provided another: "Let's just say, 'Gun Weak Right Ace 17 Wanda,can to F Coco Bow.' " He added: "We do have some code words where he can 'can' it to a code word. But there's times where it's a full play call, canned to a full play call. So there's a lot of words in there. And in this offense, if you say one word wrong, it changes the entire concept of the play. So those details are unbelievable."
Cousins sometimes cups his hands over his ears to block out the crowd noise so he can hear Kevin O’Connell’s play calls.
Cousins sometimes cups his hands over his ears to block out the crowd noise so he can hear Kevin O’Connell’s play calls.
O'Connell's voice cuts out at 0:15. Cousins heads to the line, often using motions or hard counts that might change the offense's leverage or bait a defender into giving up his disguise. Cousins surveys the defense one last time, making any last-second calls to alter the Vikings' protection scheme or the details of a play, and shouts, "Turbo, set" to call for the snap.
How often does Cousins change something from O'Connell's initial play call by the time the ball is snapped? "I would probably say close to 70 percent," O'Connell said.
"It could be a run to a run, a run to a pass, changing directions. But yeah, it's a lot," he added. "You watch the higher-level offenses, and you just hear it — 'Can! Can! Kill! Kill!' — just all the ways you try to have a plan for the best possible play versus the look you get."
Cousins speaks warmly of how O'Connell has backed him as the team's leader, while O'Connell praises the quarterback's careful attention to his role as an on-field lieutenant. Both are fathers in their mid-30s whose families are close. They meet for two hours the day before each Vikings game to go through O'Connell's call sheet, but their game-plan discussions often start earlier in the week, over 10 p.m. texts once their kids are asleep.
"We've scored on plays this year that either Kirk suggested, or a big third-down conversion he had ultimate ownership of," O'Connell said. "I think the big thing for him this year is, his ownership has just grown by leaps and bounds, with his comfort and what we're asking of him."
... and neither is this Chris guy.