Vikings’ Kevin O’Connell delivers 5-word statement after MNF loss to Rams

After the disastrous 27-9 a loss to Sam Darnold and the Minnesota Vikings wrap up Wild Card Weekendhead coach Kevin O’Connell left the media with something to chew on ahead of the upcoming offseason. Although the Vikings would rather defeat Los Angeles Rams and moving on to the next round, that was not the outcome, and O’Connell gave a a modest message heading into the 2025 season, according to ESPN’s Kevin Seifert on X.

“Emotional Kevin O’Connell: ‘Let’s get back to work,'” Seifert wrote.

This was a tough loss for a number of reasons. The Vikings were a A win in Week 18 is a long way from clinching the No. 1 seed and they don’t even have to play in the Wild Card. However, the cookie didn’t break down like that, which made this Wild Card matchup between the Vikings and the Rams.

Given all the distractions the Rams had to endure surrounding the Los Angeles fire — including the need move the game itself — both teams were facing some kind of adversity heading into Monday night.

And while the Vikings shocked many with their impressive 14-3 regular season, O’Connell kept it short in his postgame press conference.

With emotions running high after back-to-back losses, the Vikings head coach realizes this is still a talented football team.

From Weeks 9-17, Minnesota proved they have talent on their roster to match theirs nine-game winning streak.

And with rookie quarterback JJ McCarthy looking to make his NFL debut in 2025 after suffering season-ending injury in the preseason finaleThe Vikings could look even better in 2025.

It all depends on how the team chooses to react to this defeat. Sure, it stinks to lose in the playoffs, but it would be even worse if the team showed up this week in 2024 only to have their success blown in 2025 by a poor Wild Card performance.

At the end of each season, only one team can say they have achieved their goal of winning the Super Bowl. The other 31 teams go back to the drawing board to figure out what went wrong in their seasons.

Some teams are further from achieving their goal than others, but with the Vikings finishing the regular season 14-3 under the backup quarterback, the sky’s the limit when they hand the keys to McCarthy.

Well, that is if this team can do what O’Connell said and get back to work instead of dwelling on what could have been.