Vikings’ Aaron Jones comes and goes because of big hit, insists he’ll play next game

JACKSONVILLE, FLA. - Vikings running back Aaron Jones left the game against the Jaguars on Sunday for X-rays on his ribs after absorbing a “direct hit” from Foye Oluokun on a third-quarter run, but he returned to the game to carry four times for 17 yards on the team’s final two drives in a 12-7 victory.

Jones was injured on a 7-yard run with 10 minutes left in the third quarter, when Oluokun’s helmet hit him in the ribs. He stayed doubled over on the field for several seconds, and when he tried to run off he went down again, holding his right side while the Vikings’ medical staff attended to him.

“I don’t have too much [but] bones on my sternum and my ribs, so I definitely felt that,” he said.

After an extended stretch in the team’s medical tent, Jones emerged and grabbed his helmet to go back in the game. Shortly after that, though, the Vikings called for a cart to take him to the locker room for X-rays.

Once the X-rays showed Jones’ ribs were fine, he returned to the game and finished with 88 yards on 17 carries and another 13 yards on two receptions.

“A lot of blood, sweat and tears go into it, just for these 17 games,” he said. “When a game is taken away from you, you really feel it. So I’m like, ‘I don’t want to miss any time. I want to get back out there.’ Shoutout to our trainers for taking care of me and making sure I was good to go.”

Jones said he was still in pain after returning to the game, especially on plays that required him to drop his weight on his right side. Once he grabbed a football on the sideline to test how it felt to run while carrying the ball, he said, he realized he could go back in the game.

Coach Kevin O’Connell said Jones would undergo further testing Monday, but Jones said he didn’t think the injury would affect his availability for the Vikings’ game at Tennessee next Sunday. “The initial hit, I thought it cracked something,” he said. “But I’m good.”

Especially since his celebration with Josh Metellus — mimicking the handshake from the 1998 remake of “The Parent Trap” — became a sensation after the Vikings’ Oct. 6 win over the Jets in London, safety Camryn Bynum knows he has a standard to uphold.

“I’ve got at least three ready every game, just in case I have a three-turnover game,” Bynum said. “I have to use them wisely, but I’ve got a few more in the bank.”

When he intercepted Mac Jones in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game, Bynum pulled out one from the Olympics.

He imitated the moves of Rachael Gunn, the Australian break dancer known as “Raygun,” whose moves from the Summer Games went viral following the breaking competition.

“I’m a big fan,” Bynum said. “She went out there and had fun, and that’s what I do on the field. I wish I had a little more time; I would have done the whole dance.”

Bynum said he’d had the celebration ready to go for a few weeks. But unlike earlier this season, when he learned Usher’s “Glitch” dance, he didn’t need much time to get this one ready.

“I can clown like she did, so it was a fun celebration,” he said. “It didn’t take too much effort.”

With the Vikings up five points and the Jaguars holding two timeouts with 2:53 to go, Minnesota had a third-and-1 on the Jacksonville 38 after two Aaron Jones runs had gained 9 yards. But O’Connell decided to have Sam Darnold drop back, rather than running for a third straight play.

Travon Walker got the Jaguars’ only sack of the day, forcing the Vikings to punt after an 8-yard loss.

“In their four-minute defense, they were starting to really load up [the front] there,” O’Connell said. “We just didn’t get great execution on the play; we had that guy go inside of the tight end [Josh Oliver], where we really should have a full turn where we can cut that guy’s legs down, simulate guys firing off and try to get an easy one. I was thinking you could feel a little of the desperation starting to show up, from a standpoint of committing defenders to the line of scrimmage. Didn’t want to take a sack.

“I think the line protected pretty well for the most part. But if we were going to get single-high [safety coverage] or even no safety back there, I wanted to see if we could pop one there, for even a walk-off, but they were able to get immediate pressure and execute a little bit better.”

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