Kevin O’Connell didn’t hold back as he assessed the flow of his new quarterback, Joshua Dobbs.

“He’s knocked it out of the park," O’Connell told USA TODAY Sports during a Friday morning chat.

O’Connell, the energetic, second-year Minnesota Vikings coach, could have been referring to the heroic performance by Dobbs last Sunday that earned him NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors.

But he wasn’t. Pardon me, Allen Iverson, but O’Connell was talking about practice.

He gushed about Dobbs’ details in handling the game plan during Thursday’s practice, which was quite the contrast to how it went down last week when the quarterback didn’t get a single rep with the first team after arriving from Arizona in a deadline-day deal.

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Dobbs, with his seventh NFL team in six seasons, didn’t know the names of all of his teammates when Murphy’s Law struck, and he came off the bench to relieve concussed rookie Jalen Hall and spark Minnesota to an upset victory at Atlanta.

Now, with the first encore coming on Sunday against the New Orleans Saints, Dobbs has had a whole week to drill down on the strategy.

“I think you kind of felt the whole team gain a little confidence, as much as we gained Sunday, to have a good week of preparation, which was my challenge to him,” O’Connell said. “Everybody is continuing to feel like Josh is going to give us a chance to win this football game. Now let’s make sure we all go out and do our part…make sure it doesn’t take Josh going out being Superman to win this game.”

Dobbs’ debut for the Vikings, a week after Kirk Cousins suffered a season-ending torn Achilles tendon, was classic storybook stuff. A 13-play touchdown drive was kept alive by a third-and-10 scramble. Another drive was capped by Dobbs’ sizzling 18-yard TD run. Operating without a huddle on the game-winning march, Dobbs spun away from a blitzer on a fourth-and-7 play and dashed around right end for 22 yards. It set up the 6-yard, game-winning TD toss to Brandon Powell that came with 22 seconds on the clock.

Dobbs, 28, became the first player in NFL history to produce three touchdowns in back-to-back games for two different teams. And it happened on a stage roughly 25 miles from where Dobbs grew up in Alpharetta, Georgia.

He knows. The NFL is a week-to-week proving ground.

“If you don’t show up and play next week, then no one cares about last week,” Dobbs told reporters in Minnesota. “I’m excited for the next opportunity to go out and compete.”

The Vikings (5-4) would hold the NFC’s final playoff spot if the regular season ended today. With a four-game winning streak, they have embodied one of the themes that O’Connell has stressed since starting 0-3 – turn adversity into opportunity.

Along comes Dobbs, who broke into the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2018 as a fourth-round pick, to fit right into that message as the quintessential journeyman. For the third time in less than a calendar year, he’s been called on to start at the game’s most complex position is short order. Last season, the Tennessee Titans signed Dobbs off the Detroit Lions' practice squad in early December. By the end of the month, he made his first NFL start.

He also started the win-and--in regular season finale the next week at Jacksonville…and lost. Next stop: Cleveland. In August, though, the Browns dealt him to Arizona, which needed a temporary starter until Kyler Murray was nearing a return from a torn ACL.

Last week, with Murray still not ready to return (that happens on Sunday when the Falcons visit the desert), the Cardinals benched Dobbs after originally announcing that he would start again at Cleveland. With eight starts for the Cardinals, he was traded again – about a week after his furniture had finally arrived in Arizona from Cleveland.

It was fitting that Dobbs used an educational analogy after Sunday’s game when describing his whirlwind. “It’s like if you were taking AP Spanish all year and you showed up and someone told you Wednesday that you have an AP French exam on Sunday,” he said. “And you’ve gotta go execute. Someone’s gonna talk to you in Spanish and translate it to the French.”

Dobbs just happens to be the NFL player with an aerospace engineering degree, achieved with a 4.0 GPA as he starred at Tennessee. He’s a real-life rocket scientist who, on top of his multiple NFL jobs, has interned twice for NASA.

No doubt, Dobbs’ advanced mind helped him thrive last weekend, too. Part of the magic in the debut included O’Connell serving up coaching points through the sideline-to-helmet radio communication that allows for 25 seconds of transmission. On top of giving Dobbs the plays, O’Connell provided depth to play designs and intel to counter defensive strategies. You know, Spanish to French.

It helped that O’Connell, 38, is a former quarterback who bounced around as a backup for several teams. He knew how to maximize the limited communication time between plays from a quarterback’s perspective.

“All the things that as a coach you can go crazy worrying about, Josh kind of put us all at ease just by his comfort of playing quarterback,” O’Connell said. “It allows us to focus on the details.”

For all of the Dobbs’ stops on the NFL circuit, this is the first time that he is playing for a head coach who is also the offensive play-caller. Clearly that will be a benefit as the Vikings – expecting standout left tackle Christian Darrisaw (groin) and starting receiver K.J. Osborn (concussion) to return this week, while star receiver Justin Jefferson (hamstring) has entered the 21-day practice window to be activated from injured reserve – bank on Dobbs as their emergency starter.

O’Connell will tailor the game plan around Dobbs, who also led the Vikings with 66 rushing yards at Atlanta; the most by a Minnesota quarterback since 2010. The experience that Dobbs has picked up in learning so many different offenses undoubtedly helps about now.

“You run a play like this before? How did you read it? What footwork did you take?” O’Connell said of picking his quarterback’s brain. “We can kind of piece it together now, have a little better feel for ultimately the plan we put together for Josh and his ownership of it.”

What a difference a week makes. Last week, O’Connell told Dobbs to focus on the game plan and critical situational packages rather than the overall playbook. The idea, O’Connell recalled, was to build some confidence that would help “if you went into the game, you and I can work through that together and figure out a way to move the ball and score some points.”

Well, we see how that turned out. And now, with a playoff push envisioned, the bar is raised.

Quick slants

Desperate for a boost, embattled Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada moved to the sideline rather than working from a booth upstairs for the Week 9 game against the Titans. Something worked. Pittsburgh scored a touchdown on its game-opening drive for the first time this season and the reviews from coach Mike Tomlin, quarterback Kenny Pickett and others were way positive in the wake of a 20-16 victory. Tomlin liked the face-to-face communication between Canada and players. And of course, Canada will be back on the sideline when the Packers visit on Sunday. “We’re willing to do whatever is required to continue to progress in all three phases,” Tomlin said. The coach told reporters during his Tuesday news conference that game management changes always happen. “Some weeks you notice them,” Tomlin needled. “Most weeks you don’t.” Just know that it will be noticed the first time this season that Pittsburgh (5-3) outgains its opponents in total yards, which underscores why the heat on Canada has been so intense…After Titans coach Mike Vrabel announced that rookie quarterback Will Levis will remain the starter when Ryan Tannehill returns from an ankle injury, the pledge of support from the veteran quarterback was striking. Tannehill, practicing on a limited basis and listed as questionable for the game Sunday at Tampa Bay, acknowledged that it will be “hard” to get benched for the second-round pick but declared that he will “be here to answer any questions he might have and help him out along the way.” That’s quite the contrast to the comment Tannehill ruffled feathers with in 2022 after the Titans drafted quarterback Malik Willis in the third round. “I don’t think it’s my job to mentor him,” Tannehill said last year after Willis was selected. Hmmm. Apparently, Tannehill, 35, is taking a different approach now in dealing with younger quarterbacks competing to take his job.