3 biggest Vikings scapegoats from Minnesota’s loss to the Eagles

Kevin O’Connell – Head Coach

After a masterful offensive showing against a tough Green Bay defense in Week 1, the Vikings followed that up with a seven-point outing against Philadelphia in Week 2.

New Minnesota head coach Kevin O’Connell is the man calling the plays for the offense, so after such a poor outing it was to nobody’s surprise that he received a lot of blame as well. A team with as much firepower as the Vikings scoring only seven points is not a great look for anyone.

The biggest thing to instill confidence in O’Connell is that this was only his second game as an NFL head coach. Expecting a new head coach to be perfect so early on in their career is setting yourself up for heartbreak, as that is likely not the case. O’Connell is still learning and still evolving, and it was apparent in the game against the Packers that his scheme can work for Minnesota.

The Vikings face off against the Detroit Lions in their next matchup, a team that used to essentially be an easy win, but now has revived themselves into a real threat. The Lions’ offense has been potent to start the 2022 season, but their defense has been severely lacking, as they are allowing 32.5 ppg through the first two weeks.

If Minnesota is unable to put up points against a porous Detroit defense, then the alarms can start to sound, but for now, we can only see the loss to Philadelphia as growing pains for O’Connell.