The Minnesota Vikings picked up a massive upset victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football in Week 7, and a big reason why was because of T.J. Hockenson, who hauled in 11 passes for 86 yards on the night. Hockenson was involved in an interesting moment early on in the game where Kevin O'Connell told him to fake an injury, which prompted a hilarious roast from Joe Buck.
Midway through the second quarter, Cam Akers ripped off a 30-yard screen to put the Vikings on the 49ers two-yard line. The Vikings were having trouble getting their offense up to the ball quick enough, though, which prompted O'Connell to frantically tell Hockenson to go down with an injury to buy the Vikings some time. Buck quickly saw this while commentating the game, and immediately called O'Connell out.
Joe Buck chose violence. pic.twitter.com/NP9aHfTf7C
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) October 24, 2023
O'Connell isn't the first guy to employ this strategy, but he got caught in broad daylight telling Hockenson to go down here when ESPN cameras panned to him as the Vikings tried to avoid a delay of game or having to burn a timeout. In the end, it worked, but Buck didn't let O'Connell get away here without ribbing him for the decision.
At the end of the day, this didn't really help the Vikings out much, as they were stuffed at the Niners goal line and ended up settling for a field goal. A win is a win, though, and Kevin O'Connell was ready to do anything to get this win, even if it came at the cost of getting flamed by Joe Buck for telling Hockenson to fake an injury.
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