12-17-2018, 03:41 PM
The Vikings’ decision to fire offensive coordinator John DeFilippo — timed between the team’s third road loss in four weeks to a likely playoff team and a home matchup against Miami’s porous defense — created a favorable runway for Stefanski, who called plays for the first time in the NFL on Sunday.
Stefanski, who joined the Vikings on Brad Childress’ staff in 2006 and has been with the team since, seemed in line for the job after the New York Giants hired Pat Shurmur. The Vikings passed him over for DeFilippo, then blocked him from taking the Giants’ offensive coordinator job.
On the first day of what amounts to a three-game audition for the permanent job, Stefanski won praise from players for a cogent game plan that drew on his experiences with previous staffs.
“He saw what they did well. Maybe what they didn’t do so well. What he’d do when it was his turn,” tight end Kyle Rudolph said. “You saw that throughout the week with little changes. He didn’t come in and overhaul everything, but there were some things we did a little bit differently this week you could tell Kevin had been waiting for his opportunity to do this. I think he learned a lot of things last year from this offense — what Pat did with this offense that we got back to today and had success with.”
He put Cousins back under center more often, creating what Zimmer said were better fakes on play-action and allowing Dalvin Cook — who gained 136 yards on 19 carries — to hit the line of scrimmage with a full head of steam.
And as the Vikings raced out to a 21-0 first-quarter lead behind 97 rushing yards from Cook and Latavius Murray against the Dolphins’ 29th-ranked run defense, everything appeared aligned to vindicate the move.
http://www.startribune.com/relentless-vi...502883931/
Stefanski, who joined the Vikings on Brad Childress’ staff in 2006 and has been with the team since, seemed in line for the job after the New York Giants hired Pat Shurmur. The Vikings passed him over for DeFilippo, then blocked him from taking the Giants’ offensive coordinator job.
On the first day of what amounts to a three-game audition for the permanent job, Stefanski won praise from players for a cogent game plan that drew on his experiences with previous staffs.
“He saw what they did well. Maybe what they didn’t do so well. What he’d do when it was his turn,” tight end Kyle Rudolph said. “You saw that throughout the week with little changes. He didn’t come in and overhaul everything, but there were some things we did a little bit differently this week you could tell Kevin had been waiting for his opportunity to do this. I think he learned a lot of things last year from this offense — what Pat did with this offense that we got back to today and had success with.”
He put Cousins back under center more often, creating what Zimmer said were better fakes on play-action and allowing Dalvin Cook — who gained 136 yards on 19 carries — to hit the line of scrimmage with a full head of steam.
And as the Vikings raced out to a 21-0 first-quarter lead behind 97 rushing yards from Cook and Latavius Murray against the Dolphins’ 29th-ranked run defense, everything appeared aligned to vindicate the move.
http://www.startribune.com/relentless-vi...502883931/
