Scoggins: Kevin O’Connell, Vikings are leaning into QB Sam Darnold, and it’s paying off

GREEN BAY, WIS. – A laugher of a game suddenly wasn’t a laugher anymore. Almost in a blink, the Vikings found themselves shoved into a tense predicament.

Their 28-0 lead over the Green Bay Packers had dwindled to 28-22 early in the fourth quarter. Lambeau Field had been transformed from sleepy to raucous. The Vikings took possession knowing they needed something from their offense to regain momentum.

Kevin O’Connell trusted his quarterback.

His quarterback trusted the best receiver in football.

Both bets paid off, and the Vikings cashed in to remain undefeated with a 31-29 victory on Sunday.

The Vikings ran 64 plays in the game. None were more pivotal than when they broke the huddle on first down with 10 minutes 16 seconds left, clinging to a six-point lead.

O’Connell gave Sam Darnold the option to call either a running play or a pass play at the line based on the look he saw from Green Bay’s defense. He spotted man coverage on Justin Jefferson.

Easy decision.

Darnold rifled a pass to Jefferson near the Vikings sideline for a 17-yard reception.

“It was a great ball by Sam just by leading me and getting the first down,” Jefferson said.

Darnold didn’t take a victory lap for his role in that defining moment.

“It was a really good check by everyone, it wasn’t just me,” he said. “It was a good call.”

What came next was instructive in highlighting Darnold’s poise, O’Connell’s faith in Darnold and the understanding that the Vikings had the best player on the field in Jefferson, who rose to the occasion when his team needed him to be a superstar.

Darnold completed three consecutive passes after that Jefferson reception. The sequence included a 28-yard completion to Jefferson that put the Vikings in field goal range.

Rather than attempt to bleed the clock by running the ball, O’Connell entrusted Darnold to make good decisions in a pressure situation.

O’Connell refers to it as “leaning into your quarterback,” and he’s leaning on Darnold with full weight right now.

“My confidence level in him is really high because he’s making some [big-time] throws,” O’Connell said.

A critical function of playing quarterback is situational awareness.

At the end of that drive, Darnold dropped to the turf after a miscommunication with Aaron Jones in the backfield. He didn’t make a bad situation worse by trying to force something.

On third-and-7, Darnold threw the ball out of harm’s way for an incompletion, knowing a field goal was a positive outcome to the drive. Will Reichard’s 33-yard field goal pushed the lead to 31-22 with 8:10 left.

Green Bay’s Jordan Love showed the opposite of situational poise on the ensuing possession. Facing a blitz, Love tossed a pass up for grabs down the field, resulting in a Byron Murphy Jr. interception.

Darnold didn’t play error-free. He threw an interception in the red zone on the first possession of the second half and fumbled later. But his ability to shake off mistakes and not allow them to snowball into more mistakes remains one of the most impressive aspects of his performance through four games.

Darnold passed for 275 yards and three touchdowns while posting another triple-digit passer rating at 123.4.

“He’s leading us to these victories,” Jefferson said. “We can’t do it without him. His leadership and his ability just to be poised.”

Having Jefferson as a primary target has a calming effect. Darnold pulled off a Houdini trick on a 14-yard touchdown pass to Jefferson in the second quarter.

Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon blanketed Jefferson running down the sideline. Darnold’s pass somehow squeezed into the tiniest of windows before Nixon could turn his head around, making it look like a bit of thievery.

That wasn’t even Jefferson’s best catch.

On third-and-12 late in the fourth quarter, Darnold’s pass took Jefferson toward the Packers sideline at full speed. Officials on the field ruled it an incomplete pass. Replays showed Jefferson mimicking a ballerina’s footwork by toe-dragging as he was falling out of bounds.

“One of the better catches I’ve ever seen,” Darnold said.

Said Jefferson: “I’m always confident in making those type of catches.”

The game took a detour in the second half and became a fight to the finish. The Vikings put the ball in Darnold’s hands, and he, in turn, put the ball in Jefferson’s hands. That’s become a winning equation.