Brian Murphy: Kevin O'Connell is kicking the Minnesota Vikings' hornet's nest of fate
Regime changes in the NFL grant the new bosses certain latitude as they repair the broken schemes and shattered morale their banished predecessors left behind.
Kevin O’Connell’s honeymoon will last as long as the Vikings rookie head coach’s record retains a zero under the L column. Or until quarterback Kirk Cousins starts checking down again on third-and-12.
Forgive O’Connell for blind spots when it comes to the tortured psychology and self-flagellation of Minnesota sports fans. The fatalism that is baked in for multiple generations whose cobwebbed memories of the Twins’ 1987 and ’91 World Series championships are fresh as Vanilla Ice.
Let’s give O’Connell a Mulligan for slicing a drive into the hornet’s nest of Vikings history by publicly bear-hugging kicker Greg Joseph for his accuracy and confidence in training camp.
“Right now, when he’s kicking, it feels like you don’t even need to watch the ball; it’s going in from 50-plus,” O’Connell gushed.
Is this an iceberg which I see before me?
“He’s in a good spot right now, and I’ve challenged him: Can you consistently work on your craft? That consistency at that position is ultimately what this whole league is striving for.”
Joseph botched a potential game-winning kick last year in a Week 2 loss at Arizona, but finished 36 of 40 (90 percent) and helped prevent former coach Mike Zimmer from kicking yet another kicker to the curb.
So far, says KOC, everything is A-OK.
“Some of our special teams coaches, when he’s kicking, they don’t want to look at him, they don’t want to talk to him, because he’s kind of in the zone right now,” O’Connell said.
Or, as Carl Spackler said to Bishop Pickering as biblical rains pelted Bushwood Country Club, “I’d keep playing. I don’t think the heavy stuff’s gonna come down for quite a while.”
Tempting fate is bold for such a novice in the annals of Purple Misery.
Like telling Mikey, “It’s been three days, you should call that girl.”
Declaring New Jersey an idyllic place to land a zeppelin.
Or labeling Danielle Hunter’s autopsy a “tweak.”
I have no reason to believe Joseph will flame out when the stakes are highest. Just the smoldering ash heap of failed performances by Minnesota kickers who were clutch right up until the moment they weren’t.
Gary Anderson.
Blair Walsh.
Daniel Carlson.
Dan Bailey.
A miss list tattooed over the scar tissue Vikings fans have built up the last quarter century. So forgive them for cynically rolling their eyes whenever a new kicker is draped in savior’s robes by someone who wasn’t at the Metrodome against the Falcons when Anderson missed his only kick that season in the 1998 NFC championship game.
Scraping permafrost from their face at TCF Bank Stadium when Walsh went wide left from 27 yards during the arctic wild card loss to Seattle.
Watching 0-for-3 Carlson melt down at Lambeau Week 2 in 2018.
Or enduring Bailey’s 68-percent pratfall in 2020 after he signed a $10 million contract.
To be sure, Zimmer was a porcupine when it came to embracing Walsh, Carlson and Bailey. They were disposable parts based on his temperament and the Vikings’ immediate needs.
Perhaps O’Connell’s bouquet tossing to Joseph is another calculated way to distinguish himself from the guy who was fired and tarred as a locker room ogre.
Or O’Connell just loves kickers. Those 53-man afterthoughts who can so easily decide one game or one season while defining their boss’s legacy and dictating the collective mood of millions of devoted followers.
I hope Joseph knows what he’s getting in to now that O’Connell has framed such lofty expectations for an exhausted fan base that only wants a little consistency out of the position.
Is that asking too much? Like a Twins postseason victory?
This is such a fragile and confounding market. Conditioned for the worst. Accepting of mediocrity. Or too insecure to buy in lest their hopes and dreams be smashed.
No surprise those directional flags on the uprights are bright red when it comes to watching kickers in purple.
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