STILL KICKING

VIKINGS 12

JAGUARS 7

The Vikings improved to 7-2 with their win in Jacksonville in Sunday, due to the contributions of many, and in spite of the near sabotage of their own quarterback.

In my many years of watching the Vikings, I can't think of any other games they won despite such a pitiful performance by the starting quarterback. Usually, an effort like the one by Sam Darnold in this game dooms you to not just a loss, but an ugly one.

As with last week against the Colts, the Vikings played a first half marred by squandered scoring opportunities. 

The first drive ended with a Darnold misfire in the redzone. We settled for a field goal from Parker Romo, our temporary kicker with Will Reichard on IR.

The Jaguars, led by Mac Jones instead of Trevor Lawrence, delivered their one good drive of the day to go take a 7-3 lead. 

Then the Vikings quickly moved into Jaguars territory before Darnold stared down Justin Jefferson on a throw, and his pass was picked off.

The next drive was a methodical 17 play drive, featuring 4 separate 3rd down conversions by TJ Hockenson. But then this drive, too, yielded no points, as Darnold threw a terrible pass into the endzone and got picked off. Yes, replay showed it probably should have been overturned, but it was a terrible decision and throw either way. 

So, just like last week, halftime came with the Vikings trailing in a game they were dominating statistically. And the hope was that, like last week, Darnold would follow a bad half with a good half. 

That didn't happen. Darnold opened the 3rd quarter by getting picked off a third time at the goal line on a failed deep shot to Jefferson. 

He actually threw a FOURTH pick on the next series, but it was wiped out by a defensive penalty. That drive did end in points, Romo's 2nd field goal.

Into the 4th quarter, the Vikings eeked out a 3rd field goal to take the lead. These 2 scoring drives did have a couple of key passes in there, but a lot of the damage was done on the ground.

Then Mac Jones got to work sealing the deal for the Vikings. He fumbled a snap, Harrison Phillips recovered, and despite the Vikings offense making nothing out of it, they were close enough for Romo to kick his 4th. Romo actually set an NFL record for most field goals by a kicker making their NFL debut.

Two plays into the next series, Jones threw the ball right to Byron Murphy. We couldn't seal the deal, though, cause on 3rd and 1 KOC, for some reason, put the ball in Darnold's hands, and he did his patented spin move into a sack, forcing a punt.

The defense, having dominated all day (the Jags got about half their total yards on that TD drive), was needed one more time. Jones made it easy, by badly overthrowing a deep ball that was picked off at the goal line by Cam Bynum.

Naturally, there was a catch, that Bynum was ruled down at the 1 instead of getting a touchback. So we had to run some plays. A Jaguar defender got the stupidest of personal fouls, allowing the Vikings to run the clock out. 

So, one of the ugliest Vikings wins I have ever seen was in the books. 

No real complaints about most of the team today. 

The defense continued their resurgence from last week. Yes, the competition was poor, but they did a great job of shutting down the run, pressuring Jones, and they were at their best in the 4th. They only gave up about 140 yards. Blake Cashman returned, and made a few splash plays.

The run game was strong. Aaron Jones took a shot to the ribs, and was out for a while, but was back in at the end. And we got a few key runs from Cam Akers and even Ty Chandler.

TJ Hockenson had a big game, and Josh Oliver had a couple big grabs. 

The OL was solid. Cam Robinson, in his quick return to Jacksonville, did have one big penalty, but overall, the unit kept Darnold clean except for the one sack he brought upon himself.

And the special teams, with a replacement kicker AND long snapper, accounted for all our points.

Only 1 guy held us back, and that was Darnold. This was not the Darnold rollercoaster. This was just a very bad performance the whole way. It was the same issues, him holding the ball way too long and then often making poor decisions and throws on top of that. I would have put Nick Mullens out there, and not because he is some savior, but at least while he is throwing his own dumb picks, he puts up points.

I don't understand why Darnold is regressing so much, now, when he should be getting better (more familiarity with the offense, Hockenson back, etc). KOC seems to be scheming things alright. It's just Darnold short-circuiting. Early in the season, he was still having an occasional bone head play, but he was more than making up for it with big plays and way more consistency. But it's trended down in a big way, and I don't know what move KOC has to pull Darnold out of this spiral. 

The Vikings are 7-2, and sit as the top wild card, and are in a fantastic position to keep pushing for the playoffs. But they might not get there if Darnold doesn't stop this, and they absolutely have zero chance to be a threat in the playoffs if this is what Darnold is going to be. This has to be figured out, cause you aren't going to get away with any more of these performances by the most important player on the field.