Vikings 5-Star Player Has Being Reportedly Hospitalized On His Second Game For The Team…
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EAGAN, Minnesota – Head coach Kevin O’Connell announced on Monday that quarterback Nick Mullens will start for the Vikings for the second time on Sunday when Minnesota plays the Detroit Lions at U.S. Bank Stadium.
After the team’s overtime defeat to the Bengals on Saturday, 27-24, O’Connell addressed the media on Monday afternoon. The Vikings’ defeat at Cincinnati required a 29-yard game-winning field goal and 21 Bengals points in the fourth quarter.
For the fifth time in his six-year career, Mullens passed 300 yards passing while tossing two touchdown passes to rookie Jordan Addison. But the Vikings lost out on crucial points probably because of his two interceptions deep in Bengals territory. Mullens’ performance, according to O’Connell, is encouraging, but turnovers need to be stopped.
Mullens, Minnesota’s fourth different starting quarterback this season (a franchise record for one season), helped the Vikings offense total 424 yards, their third-highest total this year.
“I thought Nick did a lot of really good things in the football game on Saturday,” O’Connell stated. “Nick is aware that, in order to win the football game, we must also work to reduce and eventually eradicate those crucial mistakes that cost us the opportunity to score twice in the red zone. Nick will keep working toward that, but I believe that with another strong week of training and building on his impressive performance last Saturday, Nick will perform admirably for us this coming weekend.”
Here are three more takeaways from O’Connell’s session.
1. Recapping Chandler’s first start; Mattison’s status still day-to-day
Running back Ty Chandler became the team’s first 100-yard rusher of 2023, gaining 132 yards on 23 carries. He also added 25 receiving yards via three catches.
Chandler was a dynamic and downhill runner versus the Bengals. He took the game’s first carry for a gain of 9, setting a tone that lasted all afternoon. He scored his second-career touchdown, a 1-yard surge on the team’s first drive.
O’Connell said he remains impressed with the 2022 fifth-round pick. He noted Chandler was reliable as a pass catcher and in pass protection. Chandler also popped two runs of 20-plus yards and gained several chunk plays.
“We’ve been giving Ty more and more carries throughout the middle portion of the season, especially going back to losing Cam Akers for the entire season. I thought Ty had a huge role and impact on the game.” Ty will undoubtedly continue to play a prominent role in our offense, according to O’Connell. “I think Ty has done a lot of great things and will continue to do so and will hopefully be a huge reason why we are able to have success offensively down the stretch here.”
Chandler started on Saturday due to Alexander Mattison missing the game with an ankle injury. Mattison did not practice during the shortened week following the Raiders game.
“Mattison is going to continue progressing. He has been getting treatment around the clock to see if he can work himself to being available this week,” O’Connell said. “Alex is going to try to work himself back this week. We will see how he does throughout the week.”
2. More injury updates
The Vikings played without Mattison, right tackle Brian O’Neill and receiver Jalen Nailor.
O’Connell said O’Neill is “in the same category” as Mattison, positively progressing back from an ankle injury suffered at Las Vegas. Like Mattison, O’Connell also considers O’Neill day-to-day.
Swing tackle David Quessenberry made his second start of the season against the Bengals. According to Pro Football Focus, he filled in nicely, only allowing two pressures and no sacks.
O’Connell said he was still determining the practice availability for both Mattison and O’Neill. The team is scheduled to have a session Tuesday and then will submit injury reports for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
3. On the return of Jefferson
Justin Jefferson was back on the field for the Vikings after missing the second half of last week’s game at the Raiders. The star receiver was injured making a leaping catch, and the resulting hit kept him out of the game. He was evaluated at a local Las Vegas hospital before being cleared to fly home with the team.
On Sunday, Jefferson played 65 of 68 offensive snaps and finished with seven catches for 84 yards. O’Connell said Jefferson is still getting back into 100-percent game shape, but he thought he played well.
“As far as Justin, I did think Justin really responded to, got very limited work in the Vegas game and then came out and played just about the entire football game for us,” O’Connell stated. “He’s still working through getting back to game-like conditioning where he can truly be at 100 percent for every single snap, but I thought he made some huge plays, some great catches, some difficult catches and having him back on the field really dictated a lot of things that allowed Jordan [Addison] and T.J. [Hockenson] to have the ops that they inevitably had in the football game.”
Jefferson’s presence made Addison’s day more successful. Addison recorded two touchdowns and 111 yards from six grabs. Hockenson, on the other hand, caught 63 yards from six of his seven targets.