{"id":75110,"date":"2023-12-27T02:05:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-27T02:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/?p=75110"},"modified":"2023-12-27T02:05:00","modified_gmt":"2023-12-27T02:05:00","slug":"kevin-oconnell-reveals-costly-decision-to-bench-starter-in-loss-to-lions-kieu-linh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/kevin-oconnell-reveals-costly-decision-to-bench-starter-in-loss-to-lions-kieu-linh\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin O\u2019Connell Reveals Costly Decision to Bench Starter in Loss to Lions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Minnesota Vikings starting cornerback Akayleb Evans went missing late in the team\u2019s Week 16 loss to the Detroit Lions \u2014 and it proved costly.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/GettyImages-1845749040-e1702663629789.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" alt=\"Kevin O'Connell\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Already without No. 1 cornerback Byron Murphy Jr., the Vikings thrust undrafted rookie Jaylin Williams, who hadn\u2019t played a single snap this season, into the game with five minutes left after a poor performance from Evans.<\/p>\n<p>Williams committed a costly illegal contact penalty on third-and-7 that gave the Lions an extra set of downs and forced Minnesota to use its final timeout on the following series.<\/p>\n<p>The defense made the stop and allowed the offense a chance to win the game with 2 minutes, 24 seconds left. But had Williams not committed the penalty, the Vikings would have been afforded more time and a timeout for insurance on their final drive that ended with an interception by Nick Mullens.<\/p>\n<p>In his postgame news conference, head coach Kevin O\u2019Connell was asked why Williams was on the field for the Lions\u2019 final drive and revealed that Evans was benched.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe at that point Akayleb Evans was out of the football game,\u201d O\u2019Connell said, per the Star Tribune\u2019s Andrew Krammer.<\/p>\n<p>Krammer asked to clarify: \u201cBecause of injury?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe he was taken out,\u201d O\u2019Connell replied.<\/p>\n<h2>Vikings Bench Akayleb Evans After Poor Tackling<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/GettyImages-1880203643-e1703618058649.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=782\" alt=\"Jameson Williams, Akayleb Evans\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The reason for benching Evans was evident from the Vikings\u2019 perspective.<\/p>\n<p>While Evans kept the Lions receivers largely in front of him, allowing five-of-six targets to be caught for 52 yards gained, he struggled to tackle tremendously.<\/p>\n<p>On fourth-and-1 in the third quarter, Lions rookie running back Jahmyr Gibbs juked Evans out of his cleats earlier in the game, a move that led to an 18-yard gain and a go-ahead touchdown by Detroit.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I can\u2019t stop watching this <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1dVP6G800x\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/1dVP6G800x<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; FFTony (@ItsJustFantasy_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ItsJustFantasy_\/status\/1739382212674424905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">December 25, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Later in the third quarter, Jared Goff hit Amon-Ra St. Brown on an out route to the sidelines had Evans kept inside leverage on Brown. Instead, he tagged the Lions receiver who cut back inside to gain extra yards after the catch.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/TSV__1\/status\/1739018704929935666<\/p>\n<p>A 2022 fourth-round pick, Evans has played the most snaps at outside corner (601) this season, but it appears the coaching staff had seen enough on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Evans finished the game with a 46.7 overall grade by Pro Football Focus (PFF) in one of his worst performances of the season.<\/p>\n<p>The Vikings have yet to state why Evans was benched.<\/p>\n<h2>Vikings\u2019 Mekhi Blackmon, a Fringe Top-10 CB, Left With Shoulder Injury<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/GettyImages-1672234725.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=782\" alt=\"Mekhi Blackmon\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Vikings cornerback room could be stressed this week with Murphy recovering from an ankle injury and third-round rookie Mekhi Blackmon exiting the game with a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Booth Jr. played well in relief for Blackmon, posting the highest PFF grade (72.3) by any Vikings player with five or more snaps. Evans\u2019 spot isn\u2019t likely in jeopardy considering the other options, but if Blackmon can\u2019t go on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota could be in trouble.<\/p>\n<p>Through 14 weeks, Blackmon is the 11th-highest-graded cornerback by Pro Football Focus, although he\u2019s been more of a rotational player so far this season. He\u2019s posted a 78.6 defensive grade through 15 weeks across 398 snaps.<\/p>\n<p>If Blackmon and Murphy can\u2019t go, the Vikings\u2019 top outside corners would be Evans and Booth with Williams in relief, with a combination of safeties rotating at the slot.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minnesota Vikings starting cornerback Akayleb Evans went missing late in the team\u2019s Week 16 loss to the Detroit Lions \u2014 and it proved costly. Already without No&#8230;. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}