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The departure of Kirk Cousins from Minnesota was arguably the biggest story of the offseason, but the unquestionable biggest story of the actual season so far is the Vikings’ success without him. And it’s not a Cousins thing: the Vikings are now 3-0 with their low-cost backup Sam Darnold starting and playing fantastic football in place of rookie J.J. McCarthy who was lost for the year before the year began. It’s a massive tribute to Kevin O’Connell’s ability to get the most out of the quarterback position.
Darnold outdueled reigning OROY C.J. Stroud pretty easily and generally looked fantastic for the third week in a row, going 17-for-28 with 181 yards and a quartet of passing touchdowns. We talked about O’Connell last week and I’m even more comfortable today suggesting he’s already a top-five coach in the NFL. But Darnold’s success isn’t schemed up, “easy button” stuff or remotely gimmicky. The scheme is sound and it’s good but Darnold is just running an NFL offense and making big-boy throws.
Having Justin Jefferson helps, of course, but Darnold spread things around on Sunday yet again, throwing touchdowns to Jefferson, running back Aaron Jones, emerging receiver Jalen Nailor and — because why the heck not — Johnny Mundt. All four of his touchdown passes came against man coverage on dropbacks over 2.5 seconds, per Next Gen Stats. It took a while, and Darnold had to bounce around with three different teams first, but he might be living up to his pre-draft pedigree under KOC’s tutelage.
The numbers could have been even gaudier for Darnold but the Texans declined to make this much of a game, posting just a single score in the ugly 34-7 blowout. Credit to that goes to a massive Jonathan Greenard Revenge Game and an incredibly well-orchestrated defensive game plan by Brian Flores.
Sunday was the type of game that showed why Flores emerged from the Bill Belichick tree in New…
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Author : Will Brinson
Publish date : 2024-09-23 04:06:09
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