Football
Associated Press 19y

First game goes smoothly for Loney

MINNEAPOLIS -- Steve Loney sure didn't look like a guy who
was calling plays for the first time in his NFL coaching career.

In the Minnesota Vikings' 27-16 preseason victory over the
Kansas City Chiefs on Friday night, Loney deftly guided an offense
that operated smoothly and didn't get a single delay-of-game
penalty.

"There were very few hiccups," Loney said. "It was a good
start."

A good start indeed.

The Vikings were impressive on their opening drive, going 65
yards in 3 minutes, 8 seconds and finishing with a 33-yard
touchdown pass from Daunte Culpepper to Nate Burleson.

That was encouraging for Loney, who was promoted from offensive
line coach to offensive coordinator in the offseason after Scott
Linehan left for Miami.

Loney kept his duties as offensive line coach, however, leading
some to question whether it was too much responsibility for one
coach to handle on game day. But Loney said that he didn't worry
about coaching the offensive line in the preseason opener, leaving
those duties to tight ends coach John Tice and coaching intern
Corbin Lacina.

That left Loney free to handle the play-calling duties. In the
Vikings' revised system, Loney gives the play to backup quarterback
Brad Johnson, who then relays it to Culpepper on the field. Coach
Mike Tice can interject and suggest plays if he wishes, and
quarterbacks coach Rich Olson handles the play-calling duties in
2-minute situations.

For the first game of the season, everything went as well as
could be expected.

"It was very smooth," Culpepper said. "I'm very excited to be
working with Coach Loney. He knows about play-calling and he knows
how to establish a rhythm about calling plays. It worked out
well."

Loney said rhythm is one of the biggest factors in calling a
game. It's his goal as a coach to decide on a play and get it to
Culpepper in a timely fashion to avoid a delay-of-game penalty.

"If you're double-clutching on one or two plays and the offense
is stagnant, that hurts you," Loney said.

The Vikings moved crisply in and out of the huddle on Friday
night, and Tice said he was pleased with Loney's approach.

"I thought Steve called a very good game," Tice said.

But he also said there is room for improvement in the system.

"The communication between coaches always needs work," Tice
said. "And you haven't done it since January and you have guys in
new roles, and I'm not even talking about Steve Loney. I'm talking
about all the coaches. It takes time to get rhythm down."

Still, it was a marked improvement from Tice's first year as
head coach, when the coaching staff struggled mightily with making
decisions on plays and communicating them clearly to Culpepper in
time to beat the play clock.

The staff worked hard on communication while at training camp in
Mankato, particularly during the intrasquad scrimmages, to prepare
themselves for game situations.

It paid off on Friday, with the Vikings amassing 410 yards of
offense and 27 points.

"I really just called from my gut," Loney said.

Neither Tice nor Loney was willing to make a blanket evaluation
without first looking at the game film, but it was clear that they
were generally pleased with the results, and determined to get even
better.

"We're no different than anybody else," Tice said. "We're not
going to be perfect the first game, so there are some things we
need to work on as coaches, and we will."

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Jon Krawczynski can be reached at jkrawczynski(at)ap.org.

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