David Levine
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Joined: 7/14/2007
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Outstanding article on Dobbs at The Athletic today. Hits a lot of the talking points we've all seen, but a lot more depth.
Josh Dobbs lifts Vikings in thrilling victory over Falcons mere days after arrival
Hall participated in all of the first-team reps in practice. He met frequently with quarterbacks coach Chris O’Hara. Minnesota believed he could manage the operation, and Hall was off to a promising start before his head bounced off the turf on a tackle by Falcons cornerback Jeff Okudah on the second drive of the game.
Dobbs observed the hit and initially worried for his new teammate. Realizing the severity, he stood and began to throw. He circled up with the Vikings offensive linemen to go over their five most oft-used cadences. He practiced snaps with Bradbury for the first time. He reviewed some of the Vikings’ priority play calls with O’Hara.
Time blurred, and before he knew it, he was on the field, shrugging off tacklers, escaping pockets and listening to Kevin O’Connell map out plays in his ear. Through the crackling microphones, O’Connell described how Dobbs needed to drop back, where the primary reads were going to be, which routes would be happening on the left and which routes receivers would be running on the right. In fact, Dobbs said, the coach was using language that Dobbs had become accustomed to in previous systems to translate into what was necessary Sunday.
“It’s like if you were taking AP Spanish all year and you showed up and on Wednesday somebody said you had an AP French exam on Sunday,” Dobbs said. “Somebody is going to talk to you in Spanish and translate it to the French. That’s kinda what was going on out there.”
*****
No matter what was happening around him — safeties, fumbles, defensive breakdowns — Dobbs wasn’t shaken. He had been sacked before. He had turned the ball over before. He had been traded before. He had also engineered game-winning drives before, including one that will live forever in Tennessee lore when he completed a 43-yard Hail Mary to Jauan Jennings to win at Georgia in 2016.
Facing a fourth-and-7 Sunday, with the pocket collapsing, Dobbs teleported his way through the bodies and scampered for a first down. And then, in the red zone, with O’Connell feeding him information in his helmet about the Falcons’ tendency to play Cover 4 in the red zone, Dobbs shifted his eyes to the right, then found wide receiver Brandon Powell in the end zone for the go-ahead score.
Powell spiked the football in celebration. O’Connell fist-pumped aggressively, then spiked his headset in glee. Dobbs flexed, screamed, absorbed the energy of it all.
“I know he’s very, very smart,” O’Connell said. “But I can tell you that what he was able to do in five days time was as impressive of what I’ve seen a quarterback do to come here against that defense and find a way.”
*****
O’Connell could barely speak at his news conference. His voice sounded like it was made of gravel, strained to the limits by his on-the-fly, in-game install sessions as Dobbs moved from one play to the next.
“As you can hear, I (used) this quite a bit,” he said, pointing to his throat.
He talked about Dobbs. About the command, about the athleticism, about the efficiency. A local reporter then asked a question about what O’Connell thought it meant to Dobbs to perform like this nearly 30 minutes from where he grew up.
“This may surprise you,” O’Connell interjected, “but I just met him a few days ago and I didn’t even know that. You just gave me something to talk to our new quarterback about.”
“He’s from Alpharetta High,” the reporter responded.
“Well, there you go,” O’Connell said.
https://theathletic.com/5035267/2023/11/06/josh-dobbs-vikings-falcons/
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