Nincompoop of the week

In Sam Darnold’s career he has 25 games where he’s posted a quarterback rating of 75.0 or lower. Before Sunday’s victory over the New York Jets in which Darnold managed just a 50.3 rating, he had a 2-23 record in those games. He’s never had a supporting cast like this before, right down to the kicker.

...

That was a trend throughout the day. It was hard to figure out whether it was Darnold’s decision making, head coach Kevin O’Connell’s play calling, the loss of Jones, the trust for Darnold, plays being checked at the line of scrimmage — it’s hard to know. Overall the Vikings went 4-for-14 on third or fourth down with many of them being misses downfield. The HC pointed to New York’s defense dictating the play calls.

“The thing was, the coverage was pretty tight,” O’Connell told the media after the game. “They were getting up on us a little bit and kind of taking away some of the quicker throws. So trying to live in a world where we can maybe use that against them and get the ball downfield.”

...

In the second half the Vikings’ first three possessions went like this: Punt, punt, punt. But the defense held the Jets to punt, field goal, and then a three-and-out inside their own territory that led to a short punt and field goal for Reichard without Darnold needing to even gain a first down.

That extended the lead to 20-10. Still, Darnold’s did everything he could with his erratic play to keep New York in the game. On third-and-15, early in the fourth quarter, he overthrew Jefferson for an interception, opening the door for another short touchdown drive for the Jets to close the score to three points.

When the Vikings had a chance to truly put the Jets out of their misery, Darnold hit two deep passes to Jefferson and tight end Johnny Mundt. But he couldn’t lead them to a first down in Jets territory to send Rodgers and Co. officially packing so Reichard calmly booted through another field goal to make the score 23-17, forcing the Jets to be aggressive at the end of the game needing a touchdown.

“I did think as much of a struggle as it felt at times there in the second half offensively, I was really proud of the way we went down there and got those three points,” O’Connell said. “There's been some of that in this five-game run here where the momentum, the energy in the stadium, the adversity that's kind of hit, and Sam Darnold finding Justin [Jefferson] on that big hit to start the drive, and then Johnny Mundt later on.”

The Jets couldn’t take advantage of only needing to score six points. On fourth down on the Vikings’ side of the field, cornerback Stephon Gilmore made a sliding interception on an attempted Rodgers back-shoulder throw that put the game on ice and kept the Vikings undefeated heading into the bye week.

In the end, the defense gave up just 254 yards and 5-for-18 on third or fourth downs.

“I just have so much respect for Flo [Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores],” O’Connell said. “He is leading that defense at a world-class level and really impacting our organization with how we play and how we win.”

All said and done, Darnold completed just 14 passes and averaged 5.8 yards per attempt. He took four sacks and threw an interception.

That’s not a game that he has normally ever won during his seven-year NFL career. This team is different. They have a defense stacked with playmakers to come through in the clutch and a defensive coordinator who has now caused massive problems for four star quarterbacks.

“What I told our team is there's going to be days like this, and when there's days like this, good football teams find a way to pick each other up against a future Hall of Fame quarterback [Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers] in tough circumstances,” O’Connell said. “Kind of a sloppy day all the way around with a little spitting rain and all those things. A thousand excuses out there. Our team didn't look for any of them. We kept playing.”

The takeaway here might be that Sam Darnold would have been viewed differently if he ever had a surrounding bunch like he has now with the 2024 Vikings.

It might also have to be considered as the Vikings go into the bye week that the quarterback doesn’t have to always be leaned heavily upon in the same way that Kirk Cousins was often asked to score 30 points and lead game-winning drives because his defenses were porous. In the first three games of the year, it seemed Darnold was playing more “point guard” style with occasional deep shots and more of a game-management mindset. He and O’Connell may want to lean into that and rely on the defense more when they are leading rather than constantly trying to stick the dagger in opponents.

However, it didn’t sound from KOC’s postgame comments like he wants to dial anything back.

“We want to stay aggressive,” he said. “I think that's one of the things that has helped us this year as a team. We had some opportunities. Sometimes you're not going to hit them.”

“Sam [Darnold] has been lights out,” O’Connell added. “My confidence level I think was on full display no matter what kind of day it's been to allow Sam to push us down the field there with some big, big time throws at the quarterback position.”