Sam Darnold sets a Vikings single-season record with his recent strong performance

Only three times in the 64-year history of the Minnesota Vikings has a quarterback had ten games with a passer rating of at least 100 in a single season. Daunte Culpepper did it in 2000. Brett Favre did it in 2009. With another convincing comeback performance -Sunday’s win over the Cardinals, Sam Darnold equaled those two performances with his 10th performance of the season – and he has five games left to break the record and stand alone in franchise history.

Randall Cunningham had nine games over a 100 rating in 1998. The same goes for Culpepper in 2004. Kirk Cousins ​​​​had nine hits in each of the 2019-21 seasons. That should help put into context how impressive and consistent Darnold’s 2024 was.

He got off to a slow start against the Cardinals. Midway through the third quarter, Darnold had thrown for just 79 yards and recorded four sacks. But when the Vikings trailed 19-6, their offense finally awoke from its slumber. They scored on each of their last three possessions and earned a 23-22 victory, moving them to 10-2 on the season. During those three drives, Darnold was 12 of 17 for 156 yards with touchdown passes to Johnny Mundt and Aaron Jones.

Darnold finished the game 21 of 31 for 235 yards, 2 TDs and no picks. That’s good for a rating of 111.6. With the exception of the wins against the Jets and Jaguars, he has been over 100 in every game this season. He has also thrown multiple touchdown passes in nine of 12 games.

Looking beyond Vikings history, Darnold is only the seventh player to have a 100+ passer rating at least ten times in the first 12 games of the season (Update: Lamar Jackson became the eighth just a few hours after Darnold). Aaron Rodgers did it twice. The other five are Patrick Mahomes, Philip Rivers, Dak Prescott, Carson Palmer and Peyton Manning. Rodgers holds the all-time record with 14 such games in 2020, which Darnold could still break if he does it in each of the final five games of this season.

It was truly remarkable to see that clutch play and consistency from Darnold. Most importantly, he hasn’t thrown an interception in any of the last three games.

“The ability for him to be detailed and focused in those moments and then go all out and throw the football at a really high level, there are very few plays where you go back and say, ‘Oh shoot, he did that narrowly missed,’” Kevin told O’Connell. “Basically, after a period where we maybe had some turnover difficulties, he played really, really good football and is pretty consistent now. He was a big driving force behind us and won games. My confidence in him is extremely high to play the game the way we need to play it… Sam has been absolutely amazing for us in the moments when everyone needs him.”

Related: 5 things that stood out in the Vikings’ comeback win over the Cardinals