Darnold threw for 156 yards and two touchdowns after the Vikings trailed 19-6 late in the third quarter of Sunday’s victory over the Arizona Cardinals.
Justin Jefferson makes a key fourth quarter reception for the Vikings in their victory over the Cardinals on Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium. (Jerry Holt/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
One of quarterback Sam Darnold’s 12 completions to lead the Vikings back from a 13-point deficit late in the third quarter of Sunday’s victory over the Arizona Cardinals might best illustrate the progress he’s made through 12 games leading the offense.
The Vikings trailed 19-13 and lost four yards when Cardinals linebacker Baron Browning overpowered fullback C.J. Ham in the backfield and tackled running back Cam Akers.
Coach Kevin O’Connell called a downfield passing play that sent all three receivers past the first-down marker, urging his quarterback to fire away. O’Connell later commended Darnold on second-and-14 for not fearing the situation. He remained aggressive, avoided the checkdown option, which was tight end T.J. Hockenson, and fired an 18-yard pass that allowed receiver Justin Jefferson to add 12 yards after the catch.
The 30-yard play moved the Vikings into Cardinals territory, from where they kicked a key field goal in the fourth quarter of a one-point victory.
“Maybe the most critical throw all game,” O’Connell said. “He felt the void his back foot hit and he turned it loose. … It’s built around principles of attacking voids and vacancies and knowing my arm talent to be able to turn the ball loose with great timing and some anticipation.”
The Vikings trailed 19-6 when Darnold got the ball back with 4:37 left in the third quarter.
From there, Darnold completed 12 of 17 passes for 156 yards and two touchdowns for the largest comeback victory of his career through 68 NFL starts.
This was also Darnold’s third game-winning drive of the season, tying 2019 for the most he’s had in one year. He’s done it in the last four games, including the go-ahead, fourth-quarter drive in Jacksonville where he also threw three interceptions. Darnold has played especially well since the Jaguars game, throwing six touchdowns to zero interceptions over the last three victories.
“Almost a surgical level,” O’Connell said. “How many throws can we … say that Sam’s flat out just missed this year? There’s just not a lot of them. He’s thrown the ball at an incredibly high level, accuracy, perfect amount of pace, layering the ball, pushing it downfield. … It’s winning football. That’s why he’s winning games and leading us to wins.”
“He’s strung together a few really good performances where he’s got more and more comfortable,” coordinator Wes Phillips said. “I don’t think you can coach those types of moments. You can try to give them good play calls and all that kind of thing, but how guys respond in those types of moments, especially game-winning drive down six.”
“He’s kind of found a little balance, at least the last few weeks, of: When is it too risky? and, When can I take my shot at something?” Phillips added.
‘Don’t drop it’
Darnold started dealing on the first of the Vikings’ three scoring drives that ended the game.
He got a nice 18-yard run from Jalen Nailor, but the other 52 yards and touchdown of the Vikings’ first strike back at Arizona came from Darnold’s arm. He rifled passes to receivers Akers, Jefferson and Hockenson that set up a goal-to-go sequence from the 4-yard line.
O’Connell turned to a play that the Vikings have scored with previously this season, which sends the first two options on crossing routes from opposite ends of the field in an effort to beat the Cardinals’ man-to-man coverage that they like to run in their own end zone. In the video below, you’ll see Darnold calmly buy time as the pocket collapses. He finds a wide-open tight end Johnny Mundt by the pylon for six points.
“It helps when everyone is looking at Justin [Jefferson], and the linebacker [Mack Wilson] falls down,” Mundt told the Minnesota Star Tribune’s Mark Craig. “Then it was just, ‘Don’t drop it’ and, ‘Stay inbounds.’ ”
‘Another phenomenal throw’
During the Vikings’ next possession, Darnold got things going with the aforementioned 30-yard throw to Jefferson. Three plays later, he had one of his more impressive passes of the game on a 17-yard strike to receiver Jordan Addison, who played a leading role in the comeback with three catches for 51 yards during the three late scoring drives.
“Another phenomenal throw,” Phillips said. “You gotta have a lot of talent throwing the ball to even attempt that throw. It’s kind of old hat for Sam. … He’s confident in his ability and knows he has that in his bag. Definitely not a throw I ever would’ve attempted.”
Rare play repeat
Darnold converted a fourth down to a shockingly open Jefferson, but the biggest play of the Vikings’ final drive by yardage gained was a 26-yard grab by Addison. O’Connell said this was the second time he’d gone to that call in the game. A little digging found where, exactly, and it’s easy to see why they went back to the well in a critical moment.
In the video below, you’ll see Jefferson motion to the top of the screen and run a deep dig, or in-cutting route, that gets him in front of the Cardinals defender in coverage. Arizona’s linebackers latch onto Hockenson underneath, leaving a huge void for Darnold to find Jefferson. But blown protection ruins the play; a D-line twist gets by running back Ty Chandler and left guard Dalton Risner. Darnold manages to gain a couple of yards running.
The Vikings trailed 22-16 when O’Connell went back to that play on second-and-4 with three minutes remaining.
This time, you’ll see some adjustments. There’s no motion. And Addison, not Jefferson, is running the dig route that Darnold targets by throwing over Cardinals linebackers who had played so tightly to the underneath route before. Once again, the dig route had a ton of space within Arizona’s zone coverage.
“The rare kind of play repeat,” O’Connell said. “I had actually called it early on in the game. It’s not breaking news, but I have not been a habitual play repeater during my time as a play caller. … Sam, the way he turned that thing loose and perfect up and down trajectory to it, I thought it was a huge throw.”
The game-winner
Of course, the Vikings defense had to seal the deal with 1:13 remaining, but what ended up being Darnold’s game-winning touchdown pass was the product of play design.
It was a similar concept to the touchdown to Mundt, where he was the third option behind two crossing routes (or a “mesh” concept you’ll hear in football parlance). Below, running back Aaron Jones runs into the flat as that third option after two crossing routes, and again, Darnold quickly skips to him in the progression. Jones outruns the Cardinals linebacker to the pylon for the go-ahead touchdown.