The Vikings elected to receive the opening kickoff Sunday ... and that doesn’t happen often

Myles Price’s face lit up while he was sitting at his locker at TCO Performance Center. He was asked about setting the tone Sunday for the Vikings’ 31-0 shutout of the Commanders on the opening kick return.

“I was like, ‘Uh oh. Opening kick?’ Price said with a smile Wednesday. “I wanted to go to the crib, but I’m glad we got out to a good start. It was a decent return. It definitely helped gain us some momentum for the start of the game.”

For only the second time this season and fourth time in coach Kevin O’Connell’s tenure, the Vikings chose to receive the opening kickoff after winning Sunday’s coin toss.

Price didn’t return it for a touchdown, but he did take it 35 yards to the Vikings 39-yard line. The Vikings then drove 61 yards in seven plays to take a 7-0 lead, with J.J. McCarthy finding tight end Josh Oliver for an 18-yard touchdown pass.

The decision by O’Connell aligned with the team’s “fast start” mentality for the week and allowed them to play with an early lead, a benefit they have rarely had this season.

Long snapper Andrew DePaola, a staple coin toss captain for the Vikings, said fullback C.J. Ham is the one who gets the directive on what to call at the toss from O’Connell. DePaola perked up when he heard “receive” instead of the typical “defer.”

“It kind of just gives you a confidence boost,” DePaola said. “It’s like, ‘All right, here we go. Let’s do it.’ ”

But it negates the possibility of the boost that comes when a team goes up 14-0 after scoring their first drive, stopping their opponent on defense, and then scoring again, as the Vikings did against the Commanders.

This season, entering Week 15, the team that has won the coin toss elected to receive the ball on only 45 of 208 tosses, or 21.6% of the time.

In those games, the team that received the opening kickoff has won 25 times (55.5%). That might not be enough to prove causation, but it could show correlation.

Twenty-two teams have made that call at least once. Eight have made the call multiple times: Colts (six), Dolphins (six), Falcons (five), Bears (four), Saints (three), Jaguars (three), Jets (two) and Vikings (two).

The other occasion the Vikings elected to receive was their Week 11 loss to the Bears. In that game, the opening drive ended with a punt after two first downs.

But in both games where the Vikings have scored a touchdown on their opening drive (vs. the Bengals and Commanders), they held the lead through the end of the first quarter — and won the game.

“I feel like KO has been stressing starting out fast, coming out hot,” wide receiver Justin Jefferson said Thursday. “I feel like he definitely felt the juice and the energy that we had.

“All of those things are big for us. All of those things create those moments, create those opportunities to feel the energy and to really play off of that. For us to go down and strike first with that first touchdown, that was a big momentum shift for the whole entire team and the whole stadium.”

The opening drive, starting with Price’s return, certainly injected life into what was a subdued crowd at U.S. Bank Stadium before kickoff.

It also set the stage nicely for the Vikings defense’s goal-line stand as the Commanders tried to respond to the Vikings’ opening touchdown.

So should the Vikings, given the chance, choose to receive the opening kickoff against the Cowboys on Sunday night in Arlington, Texas?

The decision will be O’Connell’s — with maybe a little input from special teams coordinator Matt Daniels, who said Tuesday he changed course from initially recommending the team kick off to start.

For a team that’s been hungry for hot starts, it seems like an easy way to at least create some sparks early.