Disappointment No. 2
Burning Timeouts in the Second Half
Kevin O'Connell has had a rough start to his second season as the Vikings' head coach. He's had some questionable play calling in the first few games, and in this one, his clock management, specifically the wasting of his timeouts in the second half, was a bitter pill to swallow.
Minnesota had some personnel issues that led to timeouts getting burnt early. Vikings center Garrett Bradbury got banged up on a play and couldn't decide if he wanted to come out or not and it drained the play clock. Instead of taking the penalty for delay of game, O'Connell used a timeout.
He then lost one on an ill-advised challenge. Hard to blame O'Connell for following his emotions and throwing the flag there, but there needs to be a coach in the booth watching that closely and advising him not to throw that flag, saving the timeout.
Minnesota then burnt another one when the Chiefs were going for it on fourth down. This may have been the most embarrassing one of them all.
After the Vikings used it, Kansas City came back out and attempted to draw Minnesota offsides. They had no intention of going for it in that situation and tricked the Vikings into burning their final timeout with just over nine minutes on the clock.
A team having no timeouts with over nine minutes left in the game is basically unheard of, and to see O'Connell put Minnesota in that rare situation was extremely disheartening.