Matthew Coller: In Darnold’s new world, his team can win ugly

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.

The Vikings’ quarterback, who has led them to a 5-0 start to the season for the first time since 2016, opened up the game confidently with a 26-yard completion to star receiver Justin Jefferson. However, there were signs at the end of the drive that it was going to be an easy time overseas against a difficult Jets defense. On second-and-2, the Jets stuffed a run. On third-and-2, Darnold got sacked for a 12-yard loss.

While the veteran quarterback should have taken more of a game-manager mentality there and thrown the ball away, kicker Will Reichard was there to pick up the pieces. In front of fans who couldn’t wait to see the kicking game, Reichard slammed a 54-yarder through the goal posts.

On the second drive of the game, Darnold took a shot to the mid-section and went to the sideline to catch his breath. When he returned, Aaron Jones had gotten hurt (presumably when he fell hard on his hip after a long reception from Nick Mullens) and Ty Chandler was in the backfield. Chandler fumbled the ball, Darnold made the tackle and the Jets had a golden opportunity to take charge of the game.

Andrew Van Ginkel was having none of that. Unbeknownst to QB Aaron Rodgers, Van Ginkel dropped back in coverage on a short throw and then ran 63 yards for a touchdown.

The Jets got the ball back and the Vikings picked off Rodgers again.

Darnold couldn’t find a rhythm after he took the big hit and Jones wasn’t there as his security blanket. He got sacked and then bailed out by a Jets penalty on a third-and-12 pass toward Justin Jefferson. On third-and-2 and fourth-and-2, Darnold threw incomplete, with a particularly odd decision to launch the ball deep down the sideline on the fourth-and-short play.

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 past, the failed fourth down might have meant doomsday against a quarterback like Rodgers.

Not this year. The Vikings responded with a fourth-and-2 stop of their own, keeping the lead at 10 points.

That stop opened the door for Darnold to hit on another 27-yard pass to Jefferson and the Vikings to put another touchdown on the board when the Jets committed three penalties trying desperately to guard their receivers. So even without throwing completions his receivers were finding ways to contribute. And then CJ Ham finished off the drive by plowing into the end zone.

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.”  

If they’re going to keep playing this way, it has to work. Now that the Vikings are 5-0, the bar has been raised for the remainder of the season. Expectations are higher. They will come out of the bye and play their most difficult opponent of the year with the Detroit Lions. They can’t play similarly to the way they have in the last six quarters if they want to keep the train rolling — even with the top defense in the NFL there to provide plenty of support.