One can only wonder what was really going through Kevin O'Connell's head at around 3:27 p.m. central time on Sunday afternoon. It was the very first play from scrimmage against the Chiefs, and the Vikings were looking to get off to a fast start. O'Connell called a play that resulted in a dump-off pass from Kirk Cousins to tight end Josh Oliver, who broke a tackle and picked up 15 yards.
Then disaster struck. As Oliver was being taken to the ground by multiple defenders, safety Justin Reid put his helmet on the football and jarred it loose. The fumble was scooped up by Bryan Cook for a turnover. It had happened again, just two minutes into the game.
This was the Vikings' eighth lost fumble of the season — six of them coming in first quarters — and their 12th total turnover. After losing six fumbles in the first two games of the season, the team made ball security a massive point of emphasis in practice. Then T.J. Hockenson had the ball stripped away on the first possession of a loss against the Chargers. Two weeks later, Oliver's fumble marked the Vikings' third consecutive game with a turnover on their opening series.
It's almost unbelievable at this point.
"I was trying to make a play and was doing too much," a distraught Oliver said. "Anytime you have the ball in your hands, you have the whole organization in your hands. And I let the Vikings down today."
This was the first lost fumble of Oliver's NFL career.
"Josh Oliver, if you ask me one player I think (wouldn't fumble) based upon size, strength..." O'Connell said. "He's had a huge start to his Vikings tenure here with blocking, physicality and really bringing a mindset to it. So nobody is more crushed than Josh over that play."
The Vikings' fumbles have come in all shapes and sizes. There have been strip-sacks and classic punch-outs. There was an offensive lineman knocking the ball out of his quarterback's hands, and a superstar receiver losing the ball for a touchback as he dove for the pylon. This was one where Oliver needed to recognize that there were defenders coming at him from all angles and cover the ball with both hands.
"You have to tuck in when you are in traffic and I didn’t do that today," Oliver said. "We work on it every day in practice and that’s on me. Can’t do that."
"I thought there could have been a little bit more of an offhand cover there in traffic and that's what we emphasize, what we're coaching," O'Connell added.
Five games into their season, the Vikings have lost the turnover battle five times. It was 3-0 against the Buccaneers and 4-1 against the Eagles. It was just 2-1 against the Chargers and Panthers. In this game, the only turnover by either team happened before ten seconds had ticked off the game clock.
Right away, that turnover shrunk the Vikings' margin for error. They trailed 7-0 and rallied to make it 13-13 at half, but the Chiefs got the ball first after the break and took the lead back. Maybe things would have been different if Oliver hadn't lost that football.
"Even if you just have one, even on the first play of the game, you look up there at the end and you just wonder, what if?" O'Connell said. "Knowing the kind of rhythm we had on offense there in the first half, to at least drive and potentially get points every time we had it."
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