Vikings fall to Rams 30-20 as Matthew Stafford picks apart the defense

INGLEWOOD, CALIF. – Not five days ago, Kevin O’Connell was in charge of an undefeated team that had a chance to take a two-game lead over the rest of the NFL’s toughest division.

On Thursday night, he spoke with a subdued voice about a team that suddenly had two losses, concerns about the health of its left tackle and a set of issues to solve.

“We’ve just got to find a way as a team, across the board, to play better,” he said. “We’re not going to make any kind of excuses about the short week or anything like that. We’ll get back to work. We need to improve. We need to get back to some of the things that helped us get to this point, 5-2, and we will do that. I have a lot of trust and confidence in my coaching staff, and a ton of confidence we’ve got the right guys in that locker room.”

The solemn turn came in the building O’Connell last left as a Super Bowl champion about to become a NFL head coach. His return, a 30-20 Vikings loss to the Rams, was a harsh reminder of how quickly the NFL can change.

For the season’s first month, the Vikings had seemed a step ahead, throttling young quarterbacks with pressures they couldn’t decipher and finishing drives with impressive red-zone precision. They outscored opponents by 57 points in their first four games, before taking a 17-0 lead in London and surviving the Jets’ second-half comeback for a six-point win.

But on Sunday the Lions produced six plays of 20 yards or more, including 45- and 35-yard touchdowns, while handing the Vikings their first defeat of the season. The Rams mimicked much of Detroit’s approach on Thursday, speeding their offensive tempo to limit the Vikings’ ability to make defensive checks and buying time for Matthew Stafford to challenge their secondary. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, the Vikings pressured Stafford just four times, while finishing without a sack for the first time this season.

“It’s a copycat league,” cornerback Shaq Griffin said. “One team uses it and it works. I don’t see why another team won’t do the same thing. A lot of the things we’ve seen the past two games, we’re probably going to see the rest of the year until we stop it.”

Their defensive staff will search for adjustments before next Sunday’s home game against the Colts. Their offense could be preparing to play without left tackle Christian Darrisaw, who went down grabbing his left knee at the end of the first half. Darrisaw did not need to be carted off the field, but did not re-emerge from the locker room after halftime. O’Connell said Darrisaw will be evaluated further on Friday. “We’ll try to confirm what [the injury] is, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that we get some positive news,” he said.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, who won a Super Bowl three years ago with O’Connell as his offensive coordinator and showed up on MVP ballots last year, was intercepted once by Byron Murphy Jr. (who also caught up to Stafford’s throw for Tutu Atwell to save a touchdown). Otherwise, Stafford reaped dividends from testing the Vikings’ secondary, mixing downfield shots with intermediate throws to the middle of the field and throwing four touchdown passes. He completed 12 of his 16 passes for 174 yards in the second half, beating the Vikings’ man coverage for a 25-yard touchdown to Demarcus Robinson on a play where Griffin was flagged for pass interference and finding Robinson for another 10-yard score in the fourth quarter.

The Vikings got the ball first after the Rams won the coin toss and decided to defer, and started the game in clinical fashion.

Darnold went 8 of 8 for 97 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter, hitting Josh Oliver and Trent Sherfield Sr. for scores after the Vikings leaned on Justin Jefferson and Aaron Jones otherwise to take a 14-7 lead.

Jefferson and Jones touched the ball on 13 of the Vikings’ 18 first-quarter plays; the Vikings came out confident they could move the ball on the Rams’ 30th-ranked run defense, while Darnold found Jefferson with several darts off play action. On a 17-yard completion that set up the Vikings’ first touchdown, Jefferson was the third read on the backside of the play, and Darnold found him over the middle as the Vikings’ offensive line gave him plenty of time.

But after the Lions attacked the middle of the field with Blake Cashman out because of turf toe on Sunday, the Rams went after the Vikings’ linebackers in pass coverage early. It was slightly reminiscent of the Rams’ 38-31 win over the Vikings on a Thursday night in 2018, when Sean McVay picked on Anthony Barr in coverage. On Thursday, it was Ivan Pace Jr., who got beat on an angle route from Kyren Williams for the Rams’ first score after he was flagged for a face mask.

Stafford’s mobility, which burned the Vikings at times during his days with Detroit, led to the Rams’ game-tying score. It appeared the Vikings had him dead to rights when he slipped past a spin move from Jonathan Greenard, ducked a tackle attempt from Harrison Phillips and popped up in time to hit Cooper Kupp for a 7-yard TD. It was the second of four Rams drives that covered 70 yards; they were helped by Murphy’s third-down holding penalty and got another first down on Stephon Gilmore’s third-down pass interference penalty against Kupp.

O’Connell decided not to take a knee on the last drive of the half, trying to put together a scoring drive with 43 seconds and three timeouts after a Rams punt and a holding penalty started the Vikings at their own 3.

“They had dime defense on the field, so I thought we could maybe pop a run,” O’Connell said. “I don’t know if we were necessarily targeted right versus that group out there, and if we are, maybe that ball’s got a chance to get [going]. If we get that first first down, there’s a chance to maybe try to dial some stuff up.”

After one play, the decision became costly.

On Jones’ first-down run, Darrisaw was still engaged with a pass rusher while Rams safety Jaylen McCollough rolled over the back of his leg. Darrisaw was helped off by team vice president of player health and performance Tyler Williams and team doctor Chris Larson, and ruled out with a knee injury after halftime.

Darnold kneeled out the half, the Vikings’ eighth play of a second quarter where they netted just six yards after gaining 140 in the first quarter.

The Rams were starting to get pressure on Darnold before Darrisaw’s injury, and their pass rush affected the game more in the second half. They hit Darnold four times in the first 25 minutes of the second half, sacking him for a 13-yard loss when he tried to spin away from pressure and forcing a Vikings punt.

The Vikings would get the ball back at their own 5 with less than two minutes to go and no timeouts. On their first play, Darnold threw incomplete downfield for Jordan Addison while the Rams declined an illegal formation penalty on Jefferson. On the second play, Byron Young tackled Darnold by his facemask, twisting the quarterback’s helmet around as he took him down in the end zone.

Young put his hands on his head in shame after the tackle, expecting a 15-yard penalty. But none came, as referee Tra Blake’s crew signaled for a safety to make the score 30-20, and the Rams were able to kneel out the clock.

Blake, who was standing in the end zone on the play, told pool reporter Calvin Watkins he did not have a good enough vantage point to call a face mask penalty, since Darnold was facing away from him, adding umpire Carl Paganelli could not make the call because players were blocking his view. Officials discussed the play, Blake said, but were unable to call the penalty without a good enough view to confirm it. “That was the thing,” Blake said. “We did not see it; we could not call it.”

O’Connell had no interest in attributing the loss to the missed call. “It looked like he got a pretty good face mask there, but I’m not going to get into it,” he said. “I told our team, for us to talk about that, for us to seek comfort in that is not how we’re going to respond to this.”

They will have 10 days to find a response, heading into an inviting stretch of their schedule with T.J. Hockenson set to return and Cashman possibly able to recover for the Colts game. But for the second time this week, they could look at a loss and find troubling themes.

“We’re way better than what we’re doing out there on the field,” Jefferson said. “We just need to all come together with one plan and execute it, simple as that.”

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