Inside The Vikings

With Rams' Win Over Bengals, Kevin O'Connell Heads to the Vikings as a Super Bowl Champion

O'Connell's tenure as the Rams' offensive coordinator ended in the ultimate celebration.

Will Ragatz

The Los Angeles Rams held off the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday evening to win Super Bowl LVI by a score of 23-20. It was the franchise's second Super Bowl victory and first in LA.

The win was big for the legacies of several key contributors who were in search of their first ring, from Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford to Aaron Donald, Odell Beckham Jr., Jalen Ramsey, and Andrew Whitworth. Cooper Kupp completed one of the most dominant full seasons from a wide receiver in NFL history — and certainly the most statistically prolific — by winning Super Bowl MVP. The Rams got out to an early lead, fell behind in the third quarter, and then made a final push behind Stafford, Kupp, and Donald to secure a thrilling victory.

New Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell also played a major role in the outcome during his final game as McVay's right-hand man and the Rams' offensive coordinator. It wasn't the finest performance from the Los Angeles offense, which managed 313 yards of offense and 23 points, but it was enough. Now O'Connell will head to Minnesota — where he'll be introduced as the Vikings' new head coach this week — as a Super Bowl champion.

The Rams got out to an early 13-3 lead behind touchdown passes from Stafford to Beckham and Kupp. The play design on each one was excellent, which is a big area where O'Connell contributed to the offense during his time in LA. McVay calls the plays, but O'Connell was a huge part of the Rams' play design, game-planning, install sessions in meetings and practices, and so much more over the past two seasons.

He also is in constant communication with McVay and Stafford during games. And when the Rams needed to mount a comeback late in the game, O'Connell helped make it happen. The running game hadn't been working all night, so they switched it up and leaned on Stafford and Kupp to win the title.

From Albert Breer's MMQB breakdown:

Before the final drive, McVay and offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell huddled, to find more ways [to get Kupp involved].

“Sean and I had a discussion on the sideline and said, ‘We just gotta keep the ball in Matthew’s hands, and if they want to try to double Cooper, great. But we can move him around and try to feature him, and Matthew will make it right,'" O’Connell said.

Kupp touched the ball five times on the Rams' final drive, including his go-ahead touchdown catch, and drew two penalties. He got the ball on a jet sweep on fourth-and-1, taking it seven yards for a critical conversion. A couple minutes later, Stafford looked off Bengals safety Vonn Bell and hit Kupp on a highlight-reel no-look pass for 22 yards, getting the ball close to the red zone.

"He’s gotta do something with Vonn because Vonn’s really instinctive,” O’Connell told Breer. “So if he just throws that, he’s gotta move him and throw it all at once. It’s what makes Matthew Stafford so special — his ability to see the field but then that next-level part of playing quarterback is what won us a Super Bowl. And he’s done it all year long."

Finally, with the Rams at the 1-yard-line after Kupp drew a couple penalties, Stafford threw him a jump ball for the lead.

“We said to ourselves, We’re gonna put Cooper out there. It really would’ve been Odell in that spot, but we said, You know what? We’re gonna move Cooper out there, let him go one-on-one to go win a Super Bowl,” O’Connell said. “And I didn’t expect anything else from those guys.”

That drive encapsulated a lot of why Vikings fans should be excited about the O'Connell hire. The Rams found ways to move Kupp around and get him the ball even when the defense knew it was coming, and O'Connell will attempt to do the same with Justin Jefferson and the Vikings' other playmakers in 2022 and beyond. He'll bring some of LA's route concepts and play structures to Minnesota while also learning from what didn't work as well for the Rams and adding his own flavor.

O'Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah won't be able to instantly turn the Vikings into the Rams or Bengals. The Rams have a loaded roster constructed by great drafting and an all-in approach to recent trades for stars. They've got an aggressive quarterback known for late comebacks, one of the greatest defensive players of all time, and depth everywhere. The Bengals landed an incredible young quarterback at the top of the 2020 draft, which changes everything. The Vikings, meanwhile, have a polarizing, expensive quarterback and several major roster holes that need to be addressed.

But what O'Connell and Adofo-Mensah can do is bring new life to an organization that needed it, modernize the Vikings' offensive approach, and do everything possible to build up the roster over time.

If everything goes right, maybe O'Connell can get back to another Super Bowl in the coming years — this time, as a head coach.

Thanks for reading. Make sure to bookmark this site and check back daily for the latest Vikings news and analysis all offseason long. Also, follow me on Twitter and feel free to ask me any questions on there.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

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