Sam Darnold has every reason to be fired up.
On the day that Kirk Cousins returned to his home field of six years, Darnold passed for 347 yards and five touchdowns, both career bests, to lead Minnesota to its sixth straight win and 11th overall of 2024.
“It was phenomenal to see,” Justin Jefferson said of Darnold rewriting individual record books.
In addition to the single-game highs, Darnold composed the franchise’s top passer rating: 157.9. The 27-year-old had only six incompletions, and astonished 67,008 fans over and again with elite playmaking.
To initiate breaking Minnesota’s 42-21 win Sunday over Atlanta wide open, Darnold dodged two Falcons pass rushers, kept his eyes up as he weaved to his right behind the line of scrimmage and away from danger and unfurled a beautiful 52-yard throw on the move to the first player in NFL history younger than 26 with 7,000 career receiving yards. Jefferson caught the ball at a standstill, and turned in for six.
“That’s special. That’s something that can’t really be taught. That’s something that’s Sam,” Jefferson said with confidence. “To do what he has been doing for this season, and especially today, it’s unbelievable.”
The touchdown strike was Darnold’s second to Jefferson, who put together his finest game this season in harmony with Jordan Addison. The best wide receiver duo in the NFL combined for a line of 15-265-5.
But about that 52-yard airmail.
“Not very many [make that throw],” Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell said at his press conference. “That’s exactly what I told him when he walked off the field. I was a little more detailed with Sam. I’m not going to tell you what I told him in regard to my opinion on how many guys make that throw.”
Darnold’s awareness was maybe as special as his delivery – and Jefferson’s separation.
“I did see him wave his arm, and that’s kind of one of the first signs as a quarterback, ‘I should probably throw this to him,’ ” Darnold shared, then effused praise for ‘Jets.’ “I heard on the sideline, that if I would have had time [to stay in the pocket], he absolutely cooked the dude on the route that was called for him. And for him to be able to score on a play that he would have scored on if I had time anyways, that was awesome to see.”
Having two players capable of transforming the score and stealing momentum on a single catch makes it borderline unfair right now to try and defend Darnold, whose 11 games with a passer rating above 100 is the third most through a team’s first 13 games in a season since 1950 (Aaron Rodgers had 12 in 2011 and 2020).
Addison scored Minnesota’s first touchdown, on Darnold’s third pass, from 49 yards thanks to a skilled adjustment with the ball in the air, pivoting his hips to slow down and come back to nab an underthrow.
“J.A. is playing a very high level of football right now. For him to just, early on in the season, just keeping his head down and continuing to work, I think that was the biggest thing for him,” Darnold said. “If teams want to try to push a little bit of coverage over to Jets, we’ve got another guy to be able to make a play.”
Addison, reflecting on another nifty, 42-yard catch with a defender pinned to his hip, said: “I ain’t gonna lie, all I see is the ball. I don’t see nobody else. I just look at the ball and just make the play.”
T.J. Hockenson echoed that Jefferson and Addison performed crazily well.
“I loved it,” Hockenson said. “You know, they’re two great receivers in this league. You knew that it was going to come at some point, so it was exciting to watch them ball today and be out there with them.”
The Vikings tight end applauded his quarterback, as well.
“Sam’s been playing great this whole year, but especially these last few weeks, he’s had some big drives at the end of games. And then this week, obviously the second half that we had, it was a lot of fun to watch him work and ball a little bit,” Hockenson said, adding Darnold deserved to be fired up afterwards.
“I mean, he had a great game,” Hockenson continued. “The first time in 20 years that a (Vikings) quarterback threw five touchdowns, that’s insane. So, it was a lot of fun. I’m glad that he’s on our side.”
Aaron Jones, Sr., was impressed by Darnold’s navigation of dirty pockets and extension of plays – ala the 52-yard airmail to Jefferson; the underthrown bomb to Addison with pass rush in his face, and the nimbleness with his eyes scanning the field to find Josh Oliver moving to his right for a sweet 26-yarder.
“Not every quarterback can do that,” Jones emphasized to reporters. “Sam’s balling. When he’s playing like that, he makes it easier for everybody else around him and our job is to make it easier for him.
“When you’ve got that confidence and everything, it’s going to be hard to stop him,” Jones added. “Let’s be real, he has so many people doubting him, so for him to come out there and have a day like that with all his guys around … is big.”
Jones added in regards to hearing MVP chants for Darnold: “He’s getting the love he deserves.”
The running back also deserves some – for his resiliency, honesty and leadership.
Jones didn’t want to let his mom down Sunday after fumbling three times in the previous two games and receiving a tough-love scolding from his biggest fan. During pregame, he mentioned to her that it was show time (Jones humbly calls himself ‘Showtyme’) and she snapped that he better put on a show.
“I’m like, ‘Damn mom! Don’t I do it most of the time?'” Jones recalled. “And she’s like, ‘Nah, I’m talking about today!’ She’s hard on me at times but she’s very supportive – she just wants the best for me.”
With his mom’s words on his mind, Jones rushed for 73 yards on 13 attempts (5.6 avg.) and caught both of his targets for 11. He safely guarded the football, too, and “bank vaulted” into the low-level stands in the East end zone with 2:48 left after scoring the club’s sixth touchdown, capping a drive that began at the 2-yard line.
Jones credited Cam Akers, who had three rushes for 40 yards on the 98-yard jaunt that was birthed by Byron Murphy, Jr.’s, sixth interception this year, for wearing down Atlanta’s defense and setting Jones up.
O’Connell dubbed it, “one of the more special drives I think we’ve had here,” because of the group’s success draining the clock with big personnel groupings, leaning on Oliver, Johnny Mundt and C.J. Ham.
In support of Darnold, the Vikings running backs averaged a spunky 6.1 yards per carry, for 110 total, on only 18 rushes. They were at their best in the closing 30 minutes, helping escalate a 14-10 halftime lead.
“I do think it’s probably one of our more complete games, but we all still feel like we can improve a lot
more, which is a good thing – when nobody in here is satisfied,” Jones remarked. “We still feel like we have a lot of work to do, but we are happy with where we’re at and we will continue to work every day.”
Addison added: “We’ve got weapons across the board – tight end room, receiver room, the running back room – and then we’ve got a great quarterback, so that’s what it’s supposed to look like.”
In the second half, Darnold was truly perfect, per his maxed-out 158.3 rating. In completing 16 of 18 passes for 250 yards and three tuddys, he became the seventh QB since 1991 with 250-plus pass yds, 3-plus TD and a perfect 158.3 passer rating in the second half (first since C.J. Stroud in Week 9, 2023).
“I thought the last J.A. touchdown, really the last two were just pretty elite fundamentals in techniques, reads, progressions,” O’Connell detailed Darnold’s execution. “Not forcing anything but kind of big-field vision and putting the ball exactly where it needs to go. Incredibly calm. Total ownership, command.”
It’s been a theme for Darnold across the better part of the past month. Since he failed to steer a touchdown drive in the 12-7 win at Jacksonville, he’s gone 85-for-125 (68%) with 289.5 passing yards per game and a superb 11:0 TD-to-INT split. O’Connell commended Darnold’s self-coaching in that span.
“What it was, in my opinion, was an incredible growth moment for him to just come back the next week and start stacking some things that are kind of leading into a layered kind of success type approach, which is what happened to a lot of quarterbacks in this league, especially the ones that their trajectory over the course of a season or their career is pointing sky high.” O’Connell elaborated. “This day will be something he can build off of –I truly do believe that. And our offense, there’s a lot of things we’ll be able to highlight, about who we want to be about as a football team that will show up on tape.”
As the clock trickled to the final two minutes Sunday, the two giant video boards inside of U.S. Bank Stadium focused on sequential sideline shots of Darnold, Jefferson and Addison without their helmets.
The Vikings quarterback waggled his towel in the air and displayed the kind of emotion that’s been mostly bottled up through the first three-fourths of the season. Jefferson smiled his priceless smile, and Addison, only 22 years old, looked like he’s done this type of thing a lifetime, sitting coolly on the bench.
“I was just excited, man. I feel like I couldn’t just sit there just kind of stoic and just straight-faced. I feel like I had to show a little bit of emotion for the fans and give them what they wanted,” Darnold said.
“I just felt the buzz,” Darnold added. “And that was pure passion, pure joy.”
The second-largest crowd for a Vikings game in the venue’s history witnessed his best game to date.