As Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold led his game-winning drive on Sunday in Seattle, he couldn’t hear the voice of coach Kevin O’Connell in his helmet.
That’s because O’Connell’s communications device stopped working at the worst possible time.
“Yeah, my headset went out,” O’Connell said. “We had a great MVP performance from our sideline to get that. I got a new battery pack but yeah my headset went out completely which I thought was curious in that moment but Sam scrambled on the play before. So I was able to talk to him coming off the sideline, get that play called, and by the time the next snap was up, I had a new pack on. So dealing with adversity.”
O’Connell didn’t explain what he meant by “curious” that his headset went out at such a key moment, but there have long been whispers in the NFL that road teams conveniently seem to have issues with their headsets just when it would benefit the home team.
O’Connell credited Darnold with improvising when the communication cut out mid-call.
“I was trying to get him a call and my headset, the last thing he heard was the formation,” O’Connell said. “So his ability to get a played called, and I’ve got to be honest with you, I don’t know what he particularly called. I just know that when I saw him have space and go run like he did, I was relieved. I know what that play call is, QB run left. What it seemed like.”
Darnold said when he can’t hear a call he just has to call a play of his own.
“Just didn’t get the call for whatever reason. Just called a play and did my best to make it work,” Darnold said.
It did work, and the Vikings’ comeback was extra special given the extra adversity they faced.
