Vikings celebrate QB Sam Darnold after decisive win over Packers

MINNEAPOLIS – More than 100 people waited for a man in the Minnesota Vikings locker room Sunday night. Sam Darnold conducted two on-field interviews after his team’s 27-25 victory over the Green Bay Packers, and no one – owners, coaches, players, front office staff – wanted to start the festivities without him.

So they waited for Darnold to talk to Fox Sports reporter Tom Rinaldi. Then they waited a few more minutes while Fox Sports analyst Tom Brady presented Darnold with his “LFG” trophy for the game.

“We felt,” coach Kevin O’Connell said, “like we had waited a long time.”

Meanwhile, linebacker Jonathan Greenard has put a plan in place to commemorate Darnold’s arrival. They harassed him as he ran through the door, doused him with what linebacker Blake Cashman called a “waterfall” and finally lifted him onto their shoulders – all in honor of a season in which the Vikings are playing their biggest regular-season game in recent memory.

Darnold smiled during his postgame press conference with local reporters and even offered a rare glimpse into his personality by referencing the movie “Talladega Nights.”

“It was chaos,” Darnold said. “I think I passed out when (players) grabbed me and lifted me up. I didn’t know what to do with my hands in this situation, Ricky Bobby style. That was an interesting moment, but a fun moment that I could embrace. “Your teammates like that.”

The Vikings now face a winner-take-all matchup against the Detroit Lions in Week 18 to determine both the NFC North title and the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs. None of this would have been possible without Darnold, who signed a one-year deal in March to serve as the short-term starter until rookie JJ McCarthy was ready to take over.

McCarthy’s season-ending knee injury resulted in Darnold starting all 16 of the Vikings’ games. He won 14, breaking the NFL record for most wins by a quarterback in his first season with a team. His season-high 377 passing yards gave him the first 4,000-yard season of his career, and his three touchdown passes on Sunday gave him 35 for the season, the fourth-most in NFL history for a quarterback in his first season with one Team.

“He’s playing quarterback at a very, very high level,” O’Connell said, “and has been for most of the season. You can see that in the locker room. You can tell by how I call plays. I know it. “To get where we want to go, we have to be aggressive and play football in a way that allows us to have the entire offense at our disposal.

In fact, O’Connell once again relied on Darnold to implement his unconventional but now unsurprising approach to closing out close games. When the Packers cut a 17-point deficit to two points in the fourth quarter, O’Connell didn’t simply rely on his running game to call timeouts and/or force the Packers to use their timeouts. Instead, Darnold threw six of the Vikings’ seven plays over the last two possessions before going down on the final three plays.

Darnold completed four of those passes for 46 yards, including a 6-yard floater to running back Cam Akers on third-and-2 – which Akers caught just inches from the ground – to seal the game.

“If guys are doing their best to stop the run, I know (O’Connell) is going to be aggressive if that’s the case,” Darnold said. “Obviously there were times during the season where we tried to do it. So it won’t always be like this. But whenever he makes a pass in that situation, I’m always prepared for it, and I feel like our guys executed that really well.”

When the locker room emptied about 30 minutes later, Akers was one of the last players remaining. He was still grinning at what he called the “electric” moment.

“He deserves this,” Akers said. “He has put in a lot of work to be here and we are all behind him – the players and the staff.”