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Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell can find a silver lining despite his team’s disappointing start to the 2023 season.
“Although the results these first two weeks have not gone our way, I do think that there’s some encouraging things about our team right now from a standpoint of certain aspects of how we’re playing,” O’Connell said Friday, according to Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk.
“Whether it be Kirk (Cousins’) performance last night, the way our pass game continues to keep us in football games despite a lot of things that negatively affect us as far as turning the football over with the fumbling issue. Our team’s fight to be an onside kick away from having a chance to win that game in a very, very tough place to go win on a short week.
Minnesota suffered a 34-28 defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday Night Football, just four days after the team was upset by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home in Week 1.
The Vikings turned the ball over four times versus the Eagles. They now have a minus-6 turnover differential in 2023, easily the worst in the NFL. Minnesota has suffered six fumbles this year.
“There is, no doubt, some major, major areas of improvement from a standpoint of ball security,” O’Connell added. “You just can’t be minus-6 after two games in the turnover differential. It goes against everything we do believe with our football philosophy.
“We’re already in the process of finding new and, hopefully, more results-based ways of getting back to the basics of drilling and techniques and fundamentals of every rep we take to make sure ball security becomes a premium.
The Vikings didn’t suffer their second loss last season until Week 11. They finished the campaign first in the NFC North with a 13-4 record.
Cousins has completed 72.7% of his passes for 708 yards and six touchdowns against just one interception in 2023. Reigning Offensive Player of the Year Justin Jefferson already has 309 yards on 20 receptions but has yet to catch a touchdown.
The Vikings have struggled to move the ball on the ground after releasing four-time Pro Bowl running back Dalvin Cook during the offseason. They’ve amassed only 69 rushing yards (2.7 per carry) through two games in 2023.
