Ex-Minnesota QBs on Joshua Dobbs' Vikings debut: Unprecedented challenge, impressive execution

The man studied rocket science in college and interned at NASA. This serves as important context when analyzing Joshua Dobbs' debut as Vikings quarterback. He's literally the smartest guy in the room.

Even so, five former quarterbacks could only marvel Monday at what Dobbs did in engineering (pun intended) a 31-28 comeback win over Atlanta five days after joining the team.

Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton gushed that the circumstances made Dobbs' performance "impossible" given the complex nature of the quarterback position.

"There's no way that anybody could have done what he did and put 30-plus points on the board and win the game with 20 seconds left on a long drive," Tarkenton said by phone Monday morning. "You can't do it. Impossible. It didn't happen. It was a dream of yours and mine."

He had only a few days to learn the playbook after arriving mid-week. He didn't know teammates' names. He didn't take any reps in practice. He had never taken a snap from his center. He hurriedly went over cadences with his linemen on the sideline before his first play. He was playing on the road in a noisy stadium without the team's best receiver and starting left tackle, with injuries piling up around him.

Given all that adversity, Tarkenton joked that if he had been in coach Kevin O'Connell's shoes, "I would throw my hands up."

And O'Connell did — in celebration.

Dobbs calmly lifted the Vikings to a season high in points by accounting for three touchdowns, including a game-winning pass with 22 seconds left. "It's kind of Cinderella story," said former Gophers and Denver Broncos quarterback Adam Weber. "A once-in-a-lifetime type of opportunity that he just did."

Teams use OTAs (organized team activities), minicamps and training camp as an indoctrination period in learning schemes. They get months of rehearsal time. Dobbs had only a few days to digest it.

"I'm sure he stayed in his hotel room and stayed up until 2 o'clock every morning trying to memorize plays and formations and concepts," said former league MVP Rich Gannon.

Said Tarkenton: "It's like going to an exam you've never studied for."

NFL offenses are complex. Numerous Vikings players have noted the challenges in learning O'Connell's scheme. Teams use different terminology with their play calls, which made calling plays in the huddle in real time more complicated. Dobbs described the process as O'Connell translating Spanish to French over the headset into his helmet.

"It's all football language," said former Vikings quarterback Sage Rosenfels. "Everyone just calls stuff 'Snag' and 'Angle.' But that means all sorts of things in an offense."

Rosenfels went through a slightly similar experience when he was traded from Washington to Miami early in his career and then played in a preseason game a few days later. "More than anything," he said, "I was just trying to really think about the formations. I had every advantage possible. The other team played like three defenses [in the preseason]. This is completely different."

The quarterbacks agreed that Dobbs' nomadic career likely helped. He's proven to be adaptable, and some things in football are universal.

"If he's been in the league seven years and been on seven teams there's a good chance there is some carryover," Gannon said.

Said Rosenfels: "You know what plays work. You know how protections work. When you build up all that knowledge and you can decipher the language, it is possible to [play on short notice] the longer you're in the league. But every team has its own nuances."

O'Connell did a masterful job of helping Dobbs navigate those nuances. Dobbs said he asked coaches and teammates for assistance when he was unsure of something.

The former quarterbacks I spoke with were particularly impressed with Dobb's handling of the basic mechanics in managing the offense. He had only one exchange hiccup with center Garrett Bradbury, and the offense didn't commit any delay-of-game or false-start penalties with Dobbs in the game. That's remarkable given the lack of chemistry and familiarity with the new signal-caller.

"He did a good job of just operating and functioning within the system," Gannon said.

Dobbs' resilience after a tough start is what grabbed Hall of Famer Warren Moon's attention more than anything. Dobbs got sacked for a safety on his first possession and he lost two fumbles.

"Some guys would have given up at that point," Moon said. "He just kept battling."

Dobbs settled into a rhythm and made critical, game-changing plays as a runner and passer in the second half. The winning touchdown drive covered 75 yards over 11 plays in a two-minute drill. Dobbs' scramble on fourth-and-7 qualified as a mic-drop moment.

"That's what I love about the kid — he's just a battler," Moon said. "To be thrust in there and be in the heat of the battle and not get off to a good start and still find the wherewithal to make those gut-check plays, just a great performance."

. . .

AROUND THE STATE

Speaking of hard to believe ...

Several weeks ago, Albany trailed defending state champion New London-Spicer 35-0 at halftime of their season opener that ended in a blowout.

In a rematch Friday in the section championship, Albany trailed New London-Spicer 20-0 at halftime.

"The halftime speech was just about pride and honor and knowing dang well that they're going to get every last thing that we've got to take us down," Albany coach Mike Ellingson said.

Whatever was said worked. It was a second-half comeback for the ages — every last second of it. The Huskies ripped off 24 unanswered points that included a touchdown pass on the final play and a two-point conversion to advance to the Class 3A quarterfinals.

"We just found a way," Ellingson said.

That way made him chuckle in retelling it. Albany averaged 12 passes per game before Friday. The Huskies threw 30 passes to only 12 runs in forging a comeback.

"We are not a throwing team by nature," Ellingson said.

A deep pass on a jump ball moved them inside the 2-yard line in the closing seconds. Out of timeouts, they drew a pass inference penalty and then lined up in a running formation for the final play.

Albany likes to run a fullback dive out of that set. Instead, the Huskies faked it and threw a touchdown pass from quarterback Andrew Olson to Hunter Hamann. That brought Albany within one, 23-22.

"My instincts were to go for one," Ellingson said. "[But] you just read the body language of your team and you have the assistant coaches behind me saying, 'Go do it.'"

Ellingson said a "flurry of things goes through your head" in that split second. He was 0-2 in overtime in his two seasons at Albany, including an overtime loss to New London-Spicer in the section final last season.

He decided to go for it, and called a play named "Trey Right X-Whip."

A pass play.

"New London's kid was inches away from batting it down at defensive end," he said.

Albany's Jack Rieland caught it for the successful conversion and a 24-23 win.

"I felt like I was floating," Ellingson said.

The irony: New London-Spicer won the state championship last season on a last-second Hail Mary pass, catch and lateral that earned the No. 1 spot on ESPN's top 10 plays of the day.

Their opponent in the Prep Bowl that day was Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton — the same school that Albany plays this Friday in the quarterfinals.

. . .

Whatever it takes ...

East Ridge coach Dan Fritze figured his secondary would be the strength of the defense this season. But then injuries hit early, with the Raptors losing three starting defensive backs to season-ending injuries and a few others missing time with different ailments.

Quarterback Tanner Zolnosky offered to help after a loss to Rochester Mayo in the regular-season finale. The senior had played a few games at cornerback as a freshman as an emergency fill-in, but nothing since then, not even in practice.

"Tanner just said: 'Coach, it's time. Whatever we've got to do, let's do it,' " Fritze said.

The idea hadn't crossed the coach's mind because of Zolnosky's importance on offense, but with the Raptors facing Anoka's passing offense in the first round in the playoffs, Fritze signed off on the plan.

Playing free safety, Zolnosky intercepted a pass to help spark a first-round upset and then played every snap on offense and defense as East Ridge pulled off another upset this past Friday, 13-10 over Minnetonka, to advance to the Class 6A quarterfinals.

Zolnosky told Fritze that he does not want to come off the field as the Raptors prepare to face Lakeville South.

"I'm going to put literally every inch I have to keep it going," he said.

Zolnosky passed for 146 yards and a touchdown, rushed for 50 yards and registered four tackles on defense against Minnetonka.

He had not played safety since middle school. It dawned on Zolnosky the day before his defensive debut against Anoka that he had not tackled anyone since he was 14 years old. He practiced on a teammate that day.

"My form is not very good," he said, laughing. "My specialty is hitting them in the ankles."

He knows that style points don't matter in the playoffs. Zolnosky said he just wants his senior season to continue, whatever it takes.

"He's just an amazing leader," Fritze said.

. . .

WEEKEND REWIND

Game balls

• Josh Dobbs: The Vikings quarterback hardly looked like someone who joined the team only a few days earlier in leading the comeback in Atlanta.
• Maxwell Woods: Chanhassen's two-way star led his team to its first state tournament appearance by rushing for 236 yards and a touchdown and collecting seven tackles, two forced fumbles and two pass breakups while playing 140 combined snaps in a one-point win over Mankato West.
• George Sandven: Gustavus Adolphus quarterback passed for a career-high 403 yards and five touchdowns in a 38-20 win over Carleton that put his team in the MIAC championship game.

He said what?!

"I had a good time. I got them laughing and giggling and yelling and screaming. That's what I wanted to do. It was pretty cool."

— Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton, who spoke to the Vikings players and coaches at their hotel in Atlanta on Saturday night.

Numbers to know

• 23: Passes thrown by Illinois backup quarterback John Paddock this season before torching the Gophers defense with three completions for 85 yards on the game-winning drive Saturday.
• 113: Gophers' national ranking in passing efficiency, which remarkably is higher than five other Big Ten teams — Purdue, Rutgers, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Iowa.
• 2: Single-season school records set by Gustavus receiver Jake Breitbach — receptions (104) and receiving yards (1,518).
• 3: Minnesota teams ranked in the Top 25 in Division II — No. 9 Minnesota State Mankato, No. 12 Bemidji State, No. 24 Minnesota Duluth.

. . .

UP NEXT

Grab your popcorn

Gustavus vs Bethel, 1 p.m., Saturday. The winner of the MIAC championship game receives an automatic bid to the Division III playoffs. Bethel won the first meeting 37-28 at home and owns a 14-game winning streak in the series. Gustavus is looking for its first MIAC title since 1987.

15-yard penalty

The Gophers were tied with Illinois 14-14 with less than two minutes left in the first half Saturday. The Gophers had the ball at the Illini 22-yard line, facing third-and-9. Quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis had passed the ball efficiently in the first half. Tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford already had caught a touchdown pass. Daniel Jackson has emerged as a reliable big-play target.

P.J. Fleck went conservative. Again. The Gophers ran the ball on third and long and settled for a field goal. The difference between seven points and three in what became a one-point loss was massive. At what point will Fleck realize that coaching so conservatively is a losing proposition?

An important 48 hours for:

The Gophers football team. Losing in the fashion that it did to Illinois can linger if the players allow it. At 5-4 and 3-3 in the Big Ten, the Gophers are still in the mix in the West, one game behind Iowa's 4-2 Big Ten record. The Gophers' first half Saturday at Purdue will be telling.

. . .

A FAM FINAL WORD

"Instinctive"

Watching Josh Dobbs operate in the fourth quarter in Atlanta with limited knowledge of his teammates and playbook shows the value of a player's instincts. His ability to create game-changing plays when things broke down in the pocket showcased his athletic talent and feel for the game.

. . .

Thank you for reading Football Across Minnesota (FAM), my weekly column that tours football topics in our state from preps to pros. I'll publish this each Tuesday morning in time for your lunch-hour reading, and you can find all the previous FAM columns right here. I appreciate feedback, so please reach out anytime. Thanks again — Chip (@chipscoggins on X)