Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell refines offense ahead of first game against old friend Sean McVay

There was no shortage of corrections on Kevin O’Connell’s mind Monday, a day after he felt the Vikings offense wasn’t good enough at certain points in a 31-29 loss to Detroit.

And the Vikings coach gets no extra time to right the ship with a four-day turnaround before Thursday night’s kickoff against the Rams in Los Angeles, where he’ll face his former team and longtime friend, Rams coach Sean McVay, for the first time since accepting the Vikings job in 2022.

O’Connell, who was the Rams offensive coordinator for two seasons, has credited McVay’s leadership for molding much of the way he leads the Vikings, who suffered their first loss of the season Sunday.

On Monday, O’Connell remained bothered by the offense’s pre-snap penalties, which hit four against the Lions: receiver Jordan Addison was flagged twice for covering up an eligible receiver on the line and aligning over the line of scrimmage; center Garrett Bradbury had a false start; and the final illegal formation while hurrying to spike the ball pushed the Vikings out of kicker Will Reichard’s range.

“Just flat out things that can’t happen,” O’Connell said. “I don’t know if our guys were pressing. We wanted to win that game, for sure. I mean, you could feel it in the lead into it. There was no hiding from the fact that we knew it was a divisional opponent at home, really good football team. I felt like our guys were prepared, but there was some things execution-wise of just the simple things before the ball ever gets snapped.”

The Vikings offense, which ranks sixth in scoring and 13th in yardage, entered the week leading the NFL with the fewest pre-snap penalties (three).

O’Connell also noted some critical errors at the end of the game.

Late in the fourth quarter, when the Vikings led 29-28 with a chance to run out the clock, running back Aaron Jones left yards by choosing the wrong path. Jones, who otherwise had a great day with 116 yards from scrimmage, bounced a run outside. O’Connell said Monday there was “some space” for Jones to cut back inside.

Jones gained 1 yard, setting up the third-and-4 play in which quarterback Sam Darnold overthrew receiver Justin Jefferson. That, too, had a malfunction as Addison was in Darnold’s throwing lane. O’Connell alluded to Addison, who was stymied by a Lions cornerback, not finishing his route. The Vikings punted and the Lions marched down the field to win.

“We got to maximize the space a little bit better,” O’Connell said, “whether that’s our pre-snap formation or just finishing the concept the way we need to finish it. We do not want to have those two players kind of stacked there.”

For the third straight year, the Vikings offense is in position to be a top-10 group in yardage thanks, in part, to a playbook inspired by the Rams’ Super Bowl-winning season of 2021 and former L.A. coaches in O’Connell and offensive coordinator Wes Phillips.

O’Connell said Monday that McVay was also a direct inspiration for the culture he’s tried to establish with the Vikings, which has led to high marks in the NFL players union’s annual survey for free agents.

“He’s one of my closest friends in this league,” O’Connell said of McVay. “An incredible impact on not only my coaching career, but just me as a human. I have so much respect for him, how he runs that organization, his leadership, his football intellect.”

McVay, the 38-year-old wunderkind, is managing an aging, 2-4 team. But McVay has said they’ll get leading receiver Cooper Kupp back from an ankle injury.

“Not surprised” about O’Connell’s success, McVay told L.A. reporters on Monday. “He’s done a great job his first two years with the variety of situations that have presented themselves. … Made a tremendous influence and impact here.”

O’Connell said he draws from his Rams experiences all the time, such as allowing Vikings assistant coaches to call plays in the preseason.

“That’s one of the things that probably made me feel so prepared for this job was [McVay’s] willingness to allow me to be a part of things,” O’Connell said, “that maybe at other places, offensive coordinators aren’t a part of. I got to see a lot, learn a lot, ask a lot of questions, probably one too many for his liking.”

“The process of that organization,” he added, “the culture, the people, the player ownership-led kind of driving force behind that bar being raised during my time there to eventually win in the last game we got to play together at SoFi [Stadium] and the Super Bowl was a culmination of a lot of things that I always look back on.

“That’s a huge part of my experience that led me to this opportunity.”