EAGAN, Minn. — The "competes" on tape scored praise from Head Coach Kevin O'Connell.

The coach thought Vikings players hung tough in the 19-17 home loss to the Bears in Week 11. But physicality isn't enough. O'Connell told local media members Monday at Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center that there's a good energy in the building despite the last-second divisional loss.

It actually resembled the only other "L" to the Bears in O'Connell's tenure – a 12-10 loss on Nov. 27, 2023, when journeyman QB Joshua Dobbs troubled the Vikings cause with a bevy of inaccurate passes.

In both instances, O'Connell recalled, Minnesota gave Chicago a "yellow brick road to win the game" but overcame adversity, only to let Bears kicker Cairo Santos hit field goals in the final seconds of each game.

"We improved a little bit from a pre-snap [standpoint] and only had two penalties [Sunday], but I still think there's room for improvement there," O'Connell noted. "And then, ultimately, our formula of winning the turnover battle continues to be a very important thing for our team. We've got to protect it, and we've got to try to force them. … I keep telling those guys they're going to come [and] they're going to come in bunches when they do. And it'll have a very positive effect on our team when that happens."

Here are four more takeaways from O'Connell's day-after-game press conference:

1. Mechanics workshop

O'Connell talked through the film review of McCarthy's mixed bag against the Bears.

Did he do the right footwork? Were his eyes in the correct location? Was he balanced and was his posture at the top of his drop back ideal? McCarthy's mechanics have been a regular conversation point. Frankly, that's on par for course for a QB who is basically a rookie – it's just acutely visible because of his role. And, truly, because there are spikes and lulls in his play, awesome or not, but not much consistency.

"There are some plays where he is making it hard on himself," O'Connell assessed. "I think that's probably the most frustrating part for him. It's talked about and repped and practiced at length. And then in those moments, you know, in his fifth start, it's just a variance to it that is causing his job to be more difficult than it needs to be. And he's wildly capable of making the throws that present themselves.

"There were some good throws in there, as well, some throws there late that even after what had been a frustrating day for him, his ability to still respond like he has a couple times now and move the team late to get a lead – he's made [up] of the right stuff," O'Connell continued. "We're going to go back to work and continue to find every avenue, every way to try to help build the consistency to his mechanics. And then I just, I firmly believe the accuracy will come from that. It's been tried and true and tested with other players and guys that have been on their journey before, and that's what we're going to keep working toward. And knowing he's got what it takes to do some of the things he's been able to do late in games and be at his best late in games, we just need to find a way to find that consistency early."

Navigating the pocket is a finer point that's an equal work in progress for McCarthy.

Caleb Williams (10 games), Trevor Lawrence (10) and Bo Nix (11) have suffered an NFL-high 12 passes batted down, according to Pro Football Focus. In about half as many games, eight of McCarthy's throws have been disturbed by outstretched arms. O'Connell pointed out Baltimore's defense, two weeks ago, had a few big guys in the middle designated to "block some shots" but he also referenced the young QB's pocket movement as a contributing factor, stating there were times he was moving "pretty aggressively" and churning up too much grass in a friendly part of the pocket (that landed McCarthy in some trouble).

2. About that kickoff return

Did O'Connell consider kicking out of bounds or through the end zone clinging to a 1-point lead with 50 seconds left Sunday? He didn't flat-out say "yes" or "no" but he shared a great amount of conviction in Minnesota's kickoff coverage unit, which allowed All-Pro returner Devin Duvernay to dash past midfield.

The play absolutely erased the momentum Minnesota plundered when McCarthy delivered a game-tying strike to Jordan Addison on the left side of the end zone and Will Reichard ushered in the lead with a PAT.

Chicago, subsequently, ran three times for 9 yards and then walked off the Vikings with a 48-yard field goal.

"Our kickoff coverage unit has been one of the premier units on our team all season long," O'Connell commented. "So, you know, in those moments, I think you've got to trust your guys to be at their best."

O'Connell noted his staff's familiarity with Chicago's return preferences and cited a kickoff early in the game to the same area. Prior to the 56-yard heartbreaker, the Bears averaged 26 yards on two runbacks.

Ultimately, when Minnesota needed its sharpest execution, "a couple young guys" abandoned their lanes on the backside, O'Connell said. That lapse in judgment fashioned the kind of daylight that youth football coaches joke their grandmas could run into without having their dentures knocked to the dirt.

"Will hit it to the perfect spot," O'Connell shared. "I think there's an element to it, too, where guys want to win so bad, they want to win that down so bad for the sake of the team that the discipline of 'What is my job on the play' [is lacking]. I think there's a lot of that going on with our team right now because this team has 'fight' (in them). They're an incredibly close-knit group and they want to go do the things that they think in their minds, in the moment, is the best thing for the play, by going to make the play myself.

"But [that's never the case when it comes] at the detriment of the scheme and the fit of how we see the all-11 playing out," O'Connell acknowledged. "And I think there's some of that going on throughout our team. It's a better problem to have than trying to find the fight and trying to find the guys that will play physical and hard for 60 minutes. We have that box checked in my opinion, right now, consistently, every single week. But it was a massive play and looking back on it, you'd love to know ahead of time that a unit that has done a phenomenal job all year for the most part covering kicks, we wouldn't get it done in that moment. But I also wouldn't necessarily want to send that message to that group who would probably earn the right to cover that kick.

"And when you're talking 10-, 12-, 15- yard difference between the 35 and what that could look like if we get one of those premier coverage snaps out of those guys that we've become accustomed to seeing, that could be the difference in that field goal even being attempted or not. But, clearly, a massive, massive play with how the game had gone up until that point," he added.

3. Not on the stat sheet

For the fourth time in five games with McCarthy at quarterback, record-setting WR Justin Jefferson converted less than 60 percent of his targets into receptions, well below his career average catch rate of 67%.

Jefferson finished Week 11, the same day he passed Torry Holt for the second-most receiving yards by a player in his first six NFL seasons, with five catches on nine targets for 61 yards (12.2 avg.) and a long gain of 27. His biggest impact, however, eluded the box score. It happened with 12:38 remaining in the game.

On a second-and-2 at the Bears 16, and the Vikings trailing by 13, Jefferson fired out of his stance and laid an impressive block on safety Kevin Byard III, who intercepted McCarthy earlier in the afternoon on a play where Jets was the intended receiver. The contact effectively removed Byard from the mix, created a lane for RB Jordan Mason to burst through and resulted in Minnesota's first touchdown of the game.

"That's Justin Jefferson," O'Connell said. "He's the reason why we score on the play. And he didn't catch it. He didn't walk the ball over the goal line himself, but he's certainly, in that moment – no matter what the perception of his frustration might be – that's the player that I know we're getting on every snap.

"He is willing to do whatever it takes to win a game, and it's evident with what he's putting on tape," O'Connell continued, before offering insights into his conversations with Jets. "[Speaking] with him, it's more so, Justin is our franchise player, he is a guy that has assumed such a role in this organization that he understands the value of his work preparation throughout the week, what he brings to our team from an energy standpoint, and I'll never fault him for the competitive drive he has to help his team win. And I think that's the biggest thing that comes out of it in my dialogue with him – and we talk a lot. And our relationship is as strong as ever because I lean on him in many, many ways, in regard to helping to shape and guide our football team, especially when you've got a young quarterback, and he knows a lot of the factors that can create throughout the ebbs and flows of the season. He's been phenomenal."

4. Concrete is still wet

Amidst his learning curve, O'Connell credited McCarthy for making "some really great protection calls" against a defense that was getting under other teams' skin with free runners in different zone pressures.

That checks out as pre-snap growth and suggests McCarthy can similarly develop his post-snap habits.

"Sometimes it's not even reads and progressions," O'Connell said. "It's simply just the fundamental foundation that we need to start seeing the concrete kind of dry a little bit on the work that's put in."

Much like McCarthy's feet and eyes and eyes and feet, the Vikings are too inconsistent right now to be a winning football team. They're still hunting for takeaways – the defense has produced two across its past seven games – trying to quash mistakes and improve on key downs (the offense has converted a paltry 24 percent of its third-down attempts since Week 10, the NFL's second-worst rate in that span behind Atlanta).

"There's no seeking comfort in saying that I'm proud of our guys' fight and their ability to continue to play the way they are from a physicality and an effort standpoint, and it becomes harder and harder as the results don't come your way to consistently do that," O'Connell said. "But what this team is made of, I know we're going to continue to do those things. Now we've got to just focus on the consistency factor of how do we play football in a way that gives us better chances to win games where it doesn't feel like it is so difficult at times or it's such a heavy lift to do so – because it's hard enough to win in the NFL as it is.

"We're going to keep attacking it," O'Connell added with emphasis, "and we're going to keep attacking it in a way that, hopefully, makes our fans proud of the way we're fighting like heck to go 1-0 every week."

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