Kevin O'Connell hints at keeping Nick Mullens as Vikings' starting QB
Another round of musical quarterbacks does not appear to be on the schedule this week for the Minnesota Vikings. Instead, Nick Mullens will likely get another shot as the starting quarterback despite some harrowing moments in a 27-24 overtime loss to the Bengals on Saturday.
Asked if Mullens will be the starter on Christmas Eve against Detroit, head coach Kevin O'Connell intimated that Mullens will be under center for the critical Week 16 divisional game.
"Yeah, we'll evaluate it but he did a lot of good things today. I liked the feel of both our run game and pass game and how it was working together," O'Connell said in his postgame press conference.
"We'll take a look at it, watch the film and make a decision moving forward. But Nick Mullens played how I expected him to play. We still need to find a way to protect the football when it's in our hands on all downs and continue to strive for execution of the other ten guys around the quarterback, which I thought for the most part today was pretty solid."
Mullens completed 26-of-33 passes for 303 yards and two touchdowns. But he also threw a pair of interceptions and got away with a pick-six that was called back by an offsides penalty.
"I was just trying to get rid of the football," Mullens said when asked about throwing a pick to B.J. Hill while Hill was dragging him to the ground in the second quarter.
Mullens was also intercepted in the red zone when he threw inaccurately to the end zone and Bengals safety Mike Hilton scooped up the pass at the goal line to kill a scoring drive.
"I just gotta be careful, I gotta be disciplined. Obviously knowing we have points on the board so that's a mistake I'll regret," Mullens explained. You just can't turn the ball over in the red zone. You just can't."
Vikings quarterbacks have combined for 12 interceptions this season, five each from Kirk Cousins and Josh Dobbs and two from the arm of Mullens. The dozen picks are tied for the seventh most in the NFL this season.
Saturday was Mullens' first start in two years and he became the fourth starting quarterback for the Vikings this season. Cousins started the first eight games before suffering a ruptured Achilles Oct. 29 in Green Bay. Jaren Hall started Nov. 6 in Atlanta before a concussion paved the way for Dobbs to start the next four games.
The Vikings host the Lions on Sunday, Dec. 24 at 12 p.m. CT.
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Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.