Ranking the Vikings' 5 worst performances of the Kevin O'Connell era

The first loss of O'Connell's head coaching career came in lopsided fashion. The Vikings quickly fell down 14-0 on a Jalen Hurts deep ball to Quez Watkins. Irv Smith Jr. dropped a potential 63-yard touchdown in the second quarter. The Vikings trailed 24-7 at halftime after getting out-gained 347 to 93, and that wound up as the final score. Kirk Cousins threw three second-half interceptions, all of which came inside the Eagles' 30. Two of them were caught in the end zone.

4. Week 11, 2022: Cowboys 40, Vikings 3

Even after Thursday, this is still the most lopsided final score that the Vikings have been on the wrong end of under O'Connell. One week after their unbelievable comeback win in Buffalo, the 8-1 Vikings came home to take on the Cowboys and got run out of their own building. Cousins was strip-sacked on the third play of the game, and things didn't get better from there on a day where Dallas won the yardage battle 458 to 183. The Vikings punted on seven straight possessions after their field goal that tied it at 3-3 in the first quarter.

Minnesota did manage to shake this off and win four of its next five games, including the biggest comeback in NFL history over the Colts in Week 15.

3. Week 18, 2024: Lions 31, Vikings 9

The 14-2 Vikings came into this game against the 14-2 Lions with the NFC North and the No. 1 seed in the conference on the line. Minnesota hung around for a while, but Detroit ultimately pulled away and won comfortably in front of a raucous Ford Field crowd. The Vikings actually won the turnover battle 2-0 in this game. But Sam Darnold, who had been so good all year, simply laid an egg, going 18 for 41 for 166 yards.

This game was very winnable, despite the final score. In the second and third quarter, the Vikings had six straight possession in field goal range, including four straight in the red zone. They ended in a turnover on downs at the Lions' 3, two short field goals, a turnover on downs at the Lions' 2, another field goal, and then a missed field goal. O'Connell didn't call runs down in the low red zone, and Darnold threw incompletion after incompletion. Eventually, the dam broke for the Vikings' defense as Jahmyr Gibbs scored his second, third, and fourth touchdowns to help the Lions pull away.

2. Week 8, 2025: Chargers 37, Vikings 10

The stakes of this one weren't nearly as high as that Lions game. But that Lions team was much better than this Chargers group. And what puts this one into second place is just the sheer extent to which the Vikings didn't show up in any of the three phases of the game. This was simply an embarrassing performance by O'Connell's team in primetime. Carson Wentz was awful and didn't get much help from a banged-up offensive line. Brian Flores' defense was steamrolled. Even the special teams stunk.

Maybe it's because it's fresh right now, but this truly felt like one of the two worst, bleakest performances by the Vikings over the past four years.

1. Wild card round, 2024: Rams 27, Vikings 9

This one has to remain in the top spot, given that it came in the playoffs. This was just an absolute gut punch for Vikings fans everywhere. Sure, they had lost the big game a week earlier in Detroit, but they still had a chance to go on the road (to Arizona, due to wildfires in LA), where they were slight favorites over the Rams. And then, just like that, a 14-3 season ended in lifeless fashion on a Monday night.

Darnold threw a pick and was sacked a whopping nine times. He lost a fumble that Jared Verse took to the house to make it a 17-3 game in the second quarter. By halftime, it was 24-3. The Rams didn't add on much in the second half, but they didn't have to. The Vikings' offensive line was simply demolished, and Darnold made it worse by holding onto the ball too long. In that sense, it felt a lot like Thursday night's game.

The Rams loss led the Vikings to go out and upgrade their offensive and defensive lines in the offseason. And yet, due to injuries and other factors, their issues in the trenches currently feel a lot like they did on that night in Arizona nine months ago.

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