Kevin O’Connell didn’t mince words after the Los Angeles Chargers routed the Minnesota Vikings, 37-10, on Thursday night.
“Nothing much to say. We got outplayed. We got outcoached,” O’Connell said. “There are no excuses. Injuries, short week, whatever it is, that is not in any way, shape, or form our standard of what we want to put on the field. As I told our team, we’ve got an opportunity in front of us where we need to own this.
“This is not a bury-the-tape kind of time for our organization. This is a watch-it, view-it, own-it. Every coach, every player.”
Thursday’s game is pivotal for the Vikings. They play the Detroit Lions on the road in 10 days, a divisional matchup in the NFC North that has become a gauntlet. Carson Wentz played through immense pain but was ineffective, finishing 15 of 27 for 141 yards, a touchdown, and an interception.
Therefore, J.J. McCarthy will likely be under center in Detroit on Sunday.
“If J.J. is healthy, J.J. will play,” said O’Connell. “That’s been the case since the injury. That’s always been my mindset.”
If he’s healthy, McCarthy will enter the Lions’ den a year after losses in Detroit and at Los Angeles (in Arizona because of the wildfires) ended their season. The Vikings also lost to the Lions and then to the Rams in LA on a Thursday night in the regular season.
They must ensure that doesn’t happen in reverse order this season.
By happenstance, the Vikings played a Thursday night game at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on October 24 last season, and on October 23 this year.
October 24, 2024 🤝 October 23, 2025 pic.twitter.com/OFnRs1qZiW
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) October 23, 2025
Last year, Minnesota’s loss to the Rams became a harbinger for how their season would end. Detroit beat the Vikings 31-29 four days before, creating a blueprint that the Rams exploited in their 30-20 regular-season win.
However, the Vikings entered the soft spot in their schedule after that. They got away with wins over the Indianapolis Colts and the Jacksonville Jaguars despite playing poorly. Later in the season, the Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers couldn’t fully execute Detroit’s max-protect/dagger offense or replicate their pass-rush up the middle.
Still, everyone knows how last season ended. Detroit beat them in Week 18, and the Rams routed them in the first round of the playoffs. The Vikings lost to only two teams last year – the Lions and Rams – and lost to both in the same sequence. It’s a reminder that while history doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes.
Perhaps, then, it’s fitting that the Vikings head to Detroit with their season on the line after losing in LA on Thursday night.
McCarthy will likely start his first game since suffering a high ankle sprain in Week 2. Like his first start at Soldier Field, he’ll enter a hostile environment against a division foe. And like in his Week 1 win over the Chicago Bears, he’s going to have to salvage something.
He’ll feel the same pressure he did in his hometown, and he’ll have to deliver.
It almost seems preordained that Minnesota’s season hinges on McCarthy’s performance in Detroit. If McCarthy delivers on Kevin O’Connell and the organization’s belief in him, he can create hope in a place where Darnold and the Vikings dashed it last year. Lose, and it feels like the season is slipping away, like it did when the Lions beat them again in Week 18 last year.
The Vikings can’t burn the tape because they must learn from the past.
Winning in Detroit with McCarthy under center feels like a last-ditch effort to save the season. It will feel like the Vikings are up against the odds, as they were when they entered the fourth quarter in Chicago. It will feel like they did so much wrong early that they can’t recover.
If he makes his first start since spraining his ankle, McCarthy must convince everyone that there’s no place he’d rather be again. He must convince everyone he’s the quarterback who can cleanse the Vikings of their sordid history so we don’t have to watch the same movie again.