Sam Darnold’s rise begins with the simple things

EAGAN – The Minnesota Vikings’ season had a pretty clear turning point. After a 12-7 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in which Sam Darnold threw three interceptions and the offense struggled to finish drives, the Vikings’ quarterback would either continue to have a roller coaster ride or he would use the Jags’ game to focus Refresh yourself and go back to the things that helped him get off to a 5-0 start and fuel the MVP discussion.

The answer is incredibly clear. Over the last four weeks, Darnold has completed 68% of his passes for an average of 289 yards per game with 11 touchdown passes and zero interceptions. PFF ranks him as the NFL’s best quarterback since the ugly win over Jacksonville, a hair above MVP favorite Josh Allen.

“I think there can be incredible growth in moments where it might seem on the outside that there’s something wrong leaving Jacksonville,” head coach Kevin O’Connell said. “Sam is coming back Monday morning and pretty much training himself based on a lot of things that Josh (McCown), Grant (Udinski) and I talked to him about. “Whether I just have better feet there or I don’t know why my eyes were there. (It) was an incredible growth moment for him to just come back the next week and start stacking some things.”

In the four explosive performances, Darnold had breathtaking highlight plays, including a 52-yard touchdown to Justin Jefferson that could be considered his best moment of the season so far. He leads the league in PFF’s Big-Time Throws statistic and has the most distance on throws traveling more than 20 yards over the last four weeks.

All of these things are signs of a former No. 3 overall talent reaching his potential and making the plays the New York Jets once dreamed of when they selected him in 2018.

But his latest piece had much more to offer than just the “wow” pieces. The Vikings quarterback did something he talked about a lot in training camp and the preseason: play point guard.

The “point guard” part of his game is most evident in two areas: playmaking and the underpass game. Both require timing and execution. Both are the driving forces of the passing game. Both are more consistent than 52-yard touchdowns.

Let’s start with the game actions.

Last week against the Atlanta Falcons, the Vikings intercepted a pass and needed a longer drive to deliver the final blow to the Falcons and secure their sixth win of the season. With 4:03 left and the ball at the Atlanta 43-yard line, O’Connell dialed a bootleg to Darnold. He rolled out to his left, looked down and then checked back to his under option, tight end Josh Oliver. The Falcons lost Oliver in the flow of the game and Darnold completed the return pass over his body for a 26-yard gain. Game over.

Since the Jags game, Darnold has the second-most play-action yards in the NFL and the most yards per attempt (14.6). He has a PFF grade of 95.7 (out of 100), zero turnover-worthy plays, an 83.3% completion rate, four touchdowns, zero interceptions and a 155.8 rating.

“There’s a lot of nerdy stuff in there, but when you see it come to life in a way, it’s easier for Sam (Darnold) to just throw and catch,” O’Connell said.

Of Darnold’s 30 completions since Week 10, six have qualified as big-time throws. That means the other 24 made good quarterback decisions as planned.

“I think he was really good at putting the ball in play, avoiding negatives, controlling the ball, and we reaped the benefits of a few yards after the catch from him keeping us on schedule and then “We have the best we can.” “The playbook we have,” O’Connell said. “That’s what I think our team has grown from and what I’m trying to grow is just having multiple ways in the game to get the same result.”

Darnold’s skill set fits well with the play-action game as he has the athleticism to throw quickly on the move when it matters most. Against the Falcons, he scored a routine first-down completion to Justin Jefferson while running full speed to his left. The play required him to turn and pass the ball out in front of Jefferson as he ran screaming down the field. Darnold made it look routine.

The 27-year-old quarterback says the reason the play-pass game worked is his increased comfort level on offense.

“The thing I keep talking about is the time we’ve put into this offense since April. Even in the season we have had since then, we have very similar concepts,” said Darnold. “So just the comfort level that I have with those play-action passes to be able to execute them very seamlessly in plays and find completions no matter where they are, whether they’re 5 yards or 50 yards down the field. “

When Darnold executes play-action plays in a structured manner, they are helpful in the pass protection game. It is more difficult for the defense to attack the quarterback when he is rolling or when they have to respect the possibility of a run. Of 41 game-playing dropbacks in the last four weeks, he was pressured on just 13 and was sacked three times. The Vikings have needed help wherever they can get it lately in the form of protection because opponents have been using blitzes in response to Darnold’s deep passing game.

“Most of the time when you’re in a (rollout), unless you have a (defensive end) screaming down the field, it’s a clean pocket,” running back Aaron Jones said. “So he has a little bit of time and then he can just choose (where the ball goes).”

Another response to opponents’ rushes was Darnold’s improvement in the short passing game.

When throwing between 0 and 9 yards through the air over the last four weeks, he posted an 89.1% completion rate (2nd), 7.1 yards per attempt, 6 TD 0 INT, a PFF grade of 85, 3 (2nd) and a QB rating of 136.0 (1st). .

“I think the last few games (Darnold) has gone back to three, four or five in a row,” O’Connell said. “All of these plays are just huge, even if it just seems like another first-and-10 right now. “Oh, it’s second and third, great.” But when you add them all together, you win football. That’s why he wins games and leads us to victories.”

One thing O’Connell pointed out this week was that Darnold gave him feedback on the plays, letting the game official know which aspects of the game plan he was happy with and which needed the “red pen” to be cut.

“It’s a surgical procedure that will make Sam feel completely comfortable,” O’Connell said. “We didn’t have a lot of plays, but we had a couple where the red pencils came out and it wasn’t called because he didn’t like the play, and we got a lot of those. Every week I hope that there will be more and more. Hey, let’s get rid of them, it makes it easier to call the game.”

Surgery is the perfect way to define Darnold in the final four weeks. The word cloud in front of it might have included phrases like “up and down” or “roller coaster.” For Darnold, it’s important that it stays that way.

And it has to stay that way while he continuously discusses his future. An underrated part of Darnold’s consistency as of late has been the fact that he has become a topic of discussion due to his future contract situation.

“Sam really stuck to all the clichés: be where your feet are, be in the moment. Let’s go 1-0 this week. Let’s think about that game plan,” offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said. “There was a lot of praise and he didn’t let it influence him, and when the games didn’t necessarily go the way we wanted them or the way he wanted them, he didn’t let it influence him either.” So he’s consistent in his behavior and his approach to his work ethic, and you know that’s where we want to be. The most important game is always the next one, which is this week in Chicago.”

Important indeed. The Vikings need the version of Darnold who continually executes plan-driven concepts like play-actions and sub-passes to lead his team to the finish line. With a loss in Detroit, the door is now open for the Vikings to compete for the NFC North crown, and they will only do so with quality play from their quarterback.

“I think the biggest thing for me is to continue to make good decisions and when I run the ball, I run it with confidence,” Darnold said. “I think that’s been the biggest thing for me over the last few weeks and I’ll continue to do that.”