Winning a Super Bowl bolsters a coordinator's legacy and earning power. Win it all, and you immediately become a head coaching candidate, perhaps the next Bill Belichick or Kevin O'Connell.
For Ed Donatell, Vikings defensive coordinator: Would a title be enough to keep his job?
It's likely Vikings defensive coordinator Ed Donatell is coaching for his job on Sunday, but his comments Thursday were relaxed and confident.
January 13, 2023 at 12:36PM
This postseason will work a little differently than that for defensive coordinator Ed Donatell. If the Vikings win the championship, he will have marginally improved his chances of keeping his job.
E_ _'onatell — the D's will be withheld until he earns them back — holds a vital position on a team that won 13 games. It is a measure of the Vikings' thrilling yet pockmarked season that they enter the playoffs with a coordinator needing to perform miracles to remain employed.
Which is why Donatell's weekly news conference, held on Thursday morning, sounded so odd. Donatell is usually cautious. While previewing the Vikings' playoff game against the New York Giants on Sunday, he seemed chipper. Almost cocky.
"It's our time to shine,'' he said.
He also said: "I think you'll like the way we play,'' as if he were selling a cheap suit.
The Vikings' defense finished the season ranked 31st overall, 31st against the pass and 20th against the run.
Donatell noted that the Vikings have improved situationally late in the season. They rank 12th in preventing third-down conversions. They are tied for eighth in turnovers forced, and many of those turnovers have led directly to victories.
"We've been put in a lot of big moments, and it's hardened us,'' he said.
Last time they faced the Giants, the Vikings' defense resembled unrefrigerated margarine.
Daniel Jones passed for 334 yards, only the second time this season he reached 300. Richie James, a reserve receiver, set season bests with eight catches and 90 receiving yards. Isaiah Hodgins set season bests with eight catches for 89 yards and scored a touchdown.
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Running back Saquon Barkley averaged 6 yards a carry, produced 133 yards from scrimmage and scored. The Giants outgained a superior Vikings offense, 445 yards to 353, and the Vikings needed 17 fourth-quarter points, including a 61-yard last-second field goal by Greg Joseph, to win, 27-24.
Monday, Vikings linebacker Eric Kendricks, typically pleasant in conversation, was asked about his team's defensive statistics in two different ways. His expression changed and he twice said something like, "If we hold the other team to fewer points than we score, we win,'' then turned away.
Kendricks is emblematic of this defense. He is one of many intelligent and accomplished veteran players on a unit that remains in the midst of statistical collapse.
The Vikings ranked first in the league in yards allowed in 2017. Their yearly rankings since then: fourth, 14th, 27th, 30th and 31st.
Mike Zimmer was fired, in part, because he was responsible for the defense. Donatell's defense was worse, at least in terms of gross (and grotesque) yardage.
How does a team with Harrison Smith, Patrick Peterson, Za'Darius Smith, Kendricks, Danielle Hunter, Dalvin Tomlinson and Harrison Phillips get routinely shredded?
There is more than one answer.
They were asked to adjust to not only a new defensive coordinator but a new scheme, the 3-4.
Many of the Vikings' best defenders have dealt with significant injuries and are slower than they were in their prime.
The new regime spent their top two draft picks on defensive backs, Lewis Cine and Andrew Booth, who have not contributed because of injuries.
Donatell has generally played a passive defense, which has led to easy yards for opponents.
Donatell has two things going for him: His defense isn't much worse than last year's, and his defense has made winning plays, often near the goal line.
Earlier this season, I asked Harrison Smith if yardage statistics mattered when his team was winning. "Yeah,'' he said with a smile. "For vanity.''
This defense hasn't been much of a vanity project for Donatell. Maybe he's cheerful because he knows that, come Sunday night, he will either have added a playoff victory to his résumé, or he won't have to spend the rest of this winter in Minnesota.
Mike Conley was in Minneapolis, where he sounded the Gjallarhorn at the Vikings game, on Sunday during the robbery.
