Minnesota’s latest win was its most dominant on defense and troublesome on offense.

Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold tossed three interceptions Sunday at Jacksonville, giving him a league-high 10. Still, a win’s a win. Minnesota scored all 12 of its points in the kicking game, possessed the football for 42:19 via a steady run plan and timely completions to its brawny tandem of tight ends and leaned on a championship-level effort by its defense, with Blake Cashman’s return a clear catalyst.

On Monday at team headquarters, Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell stressed that the offense must protect the ball and score more points, and the team can learn from the ebbs and flows of its 7-2 start.

“It doesn’t matter who’s played who [or] what it was like when that team played this team,” O’Connell said, turning the page to a second straight road jaunt in Week 11. “The challenge this week is against Tennessee. I’ve always thought [they’re] a very physical team, built on their physicality and running the football well and doing some really good things on defense. So it’s going to be a real challenge for us.”

Celebration Photos from Vikings Win Over Jaguars

If Minnesota’s 12-7 win over the Jaguars felt bizarre, it’s because it’s an anomaly.

Teams with zero touchdowns and three or more turnovers were 0-196 since Dec. 21, 2006, when Brett Favre and Green Bay had that combination and managed to beat Minnesota and Tarvaris Jackson, 9-7.

The Vikings win in Week 10 counts as one of seven instances in the past 30 seasons of a team winning despite such a performance. Case in point: “Every single game is its own unique thing,” O’Connell said.

Here are four other takeaways from O’Connell’s press conference on Monday:

1. Resiliency on the road

Although the Vikings offense failed to finish off any of its four drives of 10-plus plays with a touchdown, it inflicted its will in ways that kept Minnesota’s defense fresh: churning out plays and owning the clock.

The offense set season highs in TOP and plays (82), and its backfield compiled a season-best 169 yards rushing. Thirty of 43 carries were split between Aaron Jones, Sr., (17) and Cam Akers (13) and resulted in 88 (5.2 avg.) and 38 yards (2.9 avg.) Ty Chandler also rushed four times for 17, and Darnold registered his third game this season of 25-plus yards with his feet, scrambling on seven dropbacks for a net of 28.

Jones left the game in the third quarter after he was hit in the ribs, but he was able to return. O’Connell was optimistic about the star running back’s status for this week after coming in Monday feeling pretty good.

“We didn’t really have any of those big [gains] that maybe take that to a really, really significant day,” O’Connell commented. “But for the most part those guys all did a lot to find the space in there.”

The teamwork was crucial to softening Jacksonville’s defense and keeping Minnesota’s rested.

“Winning on the road is always hard, no matter what, even when you play a lot better than we did yesterday, especially offensively,” O’Connell said, underlining two phases that shined. “I thought our defense outside of really one drive was phenomenal all day long. And the specialists, new guys – welcome to the party – [had] a huge impact on the game. So we’ll take it. We still got our seventh win.”

2. On details for Darnold

With more interceptions than touchdowns since the London Game, external pressure on Darnold has increased. Yes, he can make wiser decisions in the red zone and do a better job seeing the whole field.

But let’s pump the brakes on any truth other than …

Darnold is a massive reason why the Vikings have surpassed their preseason win total set by Vegas; a core contributor in their 7-2 start and wholly important to pushing for a playoff spot and division title. His fearlessness is a good trait, and so is his poise in bouncing back from mistakes. He’s played well.

Of course, Darnold also is coming off arguably his worst showing in Purple against arguably his weakest opponent to date – the Jaguars entered Week 10 with the 31st-ranked pass defense and fewer interceptions in Weeks 1-9 than they recorded against Darnold. O’Connell’s confidence, however, is strong.

“I think it can be a really good learning lesson for Sam here in our system of just continuously trusting your feet and eyes and [letting] them be your barometer for how you make certain decisions,” O’Connell said. “I thought there were some things execution-wise that could have been better around him but as a whole, offensively, [we] got some chunks in the pass game [in] a game where [Jacksonville’s] entire game plan really was predicated on not allowing those things to happen and really trying to frustrate our guys outside.”

O’Connell added: “Sam will be right back to where we need him to be,” and maintained there’s lots of football left for him to improve in areas, whether it’s accuracy, timing or removing wasted movement.

FWIW: Darnold is only the fifth quarterback since 2008 to win with zero touchdown passes and three interceptions, joining Buffalo’s Josh Allen in 2022, Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger in 2016, Cleveland’s Brian Hoyer in 2014 and New York Jets’ Mark Sanchez (coincidently he was FOX’s analyst for the game) in 2012. There’ve been 105 instances in that span.

3. The Hockenson Effect

Sunday marked T.J. Hockenson’s second game back after recovering from a torn ACL, and he made a significant impact in Minnesota’s passing game. The tight end made tough catches in crucial moments, with four of his grabs converting third downs. Hockenson also played a big role in the Vikings opening drive of the fourth quarter, making a 26-yard catch and then a little later in the series by logging catches of 4 and 5 yards, respectively. The latter set up a fourth-and-1 that Minnesota converted en route to a Romo 34-yard field goal.

O’Connell had spotlighted Hockenson during his postgame press conference and spoke highly of him again Monday afternoon, homing in specifically on the long catch-and-run.

“I mean, those third-down catches, working the intermediate area, the big 26-yarder where he got in the middle of the field against man coverage, where so much was kind of predicated to where Justin [Jefferson] was and how the split-safety man coverage was being distributed,” O’Connell said. “It was kind of an on-the-fly, not a creation; it’s a base part of what we do, but not one you would find living on the call sheet anywhere that we kind of talked about and wanted to get T.J. going that way. Just a great execution, throw and run after the catch, for sure.”

4. Cashman and Co. back in business

In his first game back after missing three weeks with turf toe, Cashman regained the responsibility of wearing the “green dot” helmet to communicate calls to the rest of the defense. He led the team in tackles with five and also added a sack of QB Mac Jones. Fellow linebacker Ivan Pace, Jr., and outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel also recorded a sack apiece.

O’Connell was asked about having Cashman back and therefore allowing Pace and the outside linebackers to more freely play in their original roles.

“I think having those guys back in there was just a charge of life,” O’Connell said. “You put all those puzzle pieces together, the original plan, you see it coming to fruition where maybe guys aren’t being stretched or stressed outside of their real roles, which are really versatile, but when you can get kind of that sweet spot of guys doing the things within the defense, and pairing it all together with the disguise as a group of 11. Snap counts, even along the d-line, even along those linebackers, those edge players kind of looking where there were only 40-something plays that they played, so you really don’t worry too much about that, but they were getting on and off the field and giving us more [opportunity] offensively. Cash’ told me at one point, he felt like he hadn’t even broken a sweat. And I said, ‘Well, that’s a really good thing, because you’re playing really well.’

“It was great having him back, green dot, communicator,” O’Connell added of Cashman. “I.P. (Pace) flying around doing his thing, and then those edge players, when they get an opp’ like they do in situations like that, feel really good about that coverage and rush getting married together and working well together.”