Kevin O'Connell Attacked the Bears with All the Pieces of the Vikings Offense

Justin Jefferson only had 2 catches for 27 yards on Sunday. But the Vikings have plenty of other playmakers on offense. And head coach Kevin O’Connell found ways to get them involved against the Bears. He also did a great job of taking advantage when Chicago gave extra attention to Jefferson.

This first play was more a function of O’Connell understanding how the Bears would respond to a certain formation and then drawing up a great play to attack it.

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Minnesota started in a 3x1 formation with Justin Jefferson and two in-line tight ends to one side and Jordan Addison to the other:

Then they motioned Jefferson to the other side of the field, creating a closed formation to the boundary (the two-tight-end side):

O’Connell said after the game that they “had some dialogue about that.” If the Bears “wanted to play tight down into the boundary right there, Sam [should] be ready.”

Sure enough, the Bears were aligned in cover-3 and were playing “tight down into the boundary” with cornerback Jaylon Johnson hanging close to the line of scrimmage:

So the Vikings attacked with a deep over by Jordan Addison from the other side of the field that would finish behind Johnson. Then they held him with a flat route from one of those tight ends:

Playing tight down into the boundary meant that instead of a cornerback sitting in his deep third ready to take away any vertical routes entering his zone, it would be linebackers and safeties with their backs turned to the quarterback trying to defend Addison’s route.

Darnold heeded his head coach’s advice and was ready to attack this coverage. He then delivered an absolutely perfect ball to Addison: