Two 5-Star Players Officially Ruled Out Of Season…
RT Brian O’Neill, RB Alexander Mattison, and WR Jalen Nailor are officially out of the Vikings’ Saturday game against the Bengals in Cincinnati. O’Neill and Mattison have sprained ankles. Nailor is still under the protocol for concussions.
WR Justin Jefferson and backup OL Chris Reed have been listed as questionable. Jefferson is expected to play after suffering a chest injury on Sunday against the Raiders. Barring any sort of setback in pregame warmups, he should be good to go.
O’Connell said that all three of O’Neill, Mattison, and Nailor are trending in the right direction towards potentially being available for next Sunday’s big NFC North showdown with the Lions on Christmas Eve. Still, they’ll sit for this week and look to get healthy as soon as possible.
David Quessenberry will start his second game of the season in O’Neill’s absence. In his previous appearances against the Eagles and Falcons, the veteran started the Atlanta game and participated in 75 offensive snaps while playing left tackle. After O’Neill was injured, he played the final 42 snaps at RT against the Raiders.
And with Mattison out, Ty Chandler will be the Vikings’ lead running back in this game against the Bengals. Fullback C.J. Ham also figures to see plenty of snaps in the backfield, with Kene Nwangwu likely mixing in as the RB2.
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Vikings Urged to ‘Fire Everybody’ for Failed 4th-Down Play in OT
It didn’t take long for the overreactions to roll in following the Minnesota Vikings‘ overtime loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday, December 16.
Barstool Sports creator Dave Portnoy was the first to suggest that the team should “fire everybody,” most likely beginning with head coach Kevin O’Connell, following Minnesota’s defeat due to a botched fourth-down conversion attempt.
“You have to fire everybody if you’re the Vikings for this,” Portnoy posted on X.
Kevin O’Connell Explains Decision to Run QB Nick Mullens on Vikings’ Final 2 Offensive Plays
The play in question came on the Vikings’ first and only drive of overtime after the team forced the Bengals to punt in the extra period.
Minnesota ran its version of the “brotherly shove” or the “tush push,” a play popularized by the Philadelphia Eagles over the course of this season, on third down from the Cincinnati 42-yard line. The Bengals’ defense stopped Vikings quarterback Nick Mullens in his tracks, forcing a fourth-down play with less than one yard to gain.
O’Connell decided to continue running the same play on fourth down, which Cincinnati also stuffed, forcing a turnover on downs. This kept the offense on the field. After the game, O’Connell gave a press conference where he outlined his reasoning.
“Really looking at about 4-5 inches there,” O’Connell said. “Don’t really want to have to turn around and extend the ball and hand off. I trust our guys in that moment to execute.”
In this particular case, O’Connell’s trust was misplaced. However, not all of the blame necessarily falls to Mullens or the Minnesota offensive line. O’Connell chose wide receiver Brandon Powell as the “pusher” behind Mullens on the play rather than a bigger player such as fullback CJ Ham. The strategy wasn’t effective.
“O’Connell said Brandon Powell was the ‘pusher’ because he decided to use 11 personnel (3WR/1RB/1TE) in an effort to keep the Bengals out of a goal-line type of front,” ESPN’s Kevin Seifert reported.
Inquiries from the media also centered on O’Connell’s decision not to call a timeout to give himself more time for a review after the third-down play. According to O’Connell, the referee informed him that the football’s location had been verified and that the crew had already completed a review.