It’s time for the world to take the 2024 Minnesota Vikings seriously. We’ll continued if the management is unshakeble” Sam Darnold said..
It’s time for the world to take the 2024 Minnesota Vikings seriously.
Beating the Giants in the season opener, even in convincing fashion, only carried so much weight. This one is another story. What the Vikings just put together was a wire-to-wire win over one of the best teams in the NFL. Sunday’s 23-17 victory over the 49ers at U.S. Bank Stadium serves as a statement to the rest of the league that this Minnesota team is for real.
All along, Kevin O’Connell and the Vikings have believed that they have a special group on their hands. They don’t care that Vegas sportsbooks put their preseason win total at 6.5 games, one of the lowest numbers in the league. They don’t care that national power rankings articles labeled them a bottom-ten team. They don’t care that no one outside of their building gave them much of a chance to do anything after losing Kirk Cousins this offseason.
All that matters is that the Vikings themselves believed in their roster and their potential to do great things this year. Now, during a 2-0 start, they’re showing the country where that belief comes from.
“I love this team,” O’Connell said after the game. “It takes a result sometimes for people to see it, and I understand that. … I’m most proud of what led into this football game. There’s a lot of individual performances we could talk about, but this was the epitome of building a football team with a mindset through many, many months ago of what we wanted to play like, how we want to battle, and ultimately how we want to come together and find a way to win a football game.”
All along, Kevin O’Connell and the Vikings have believed that they have a special group on their hands. They don’t care that Vegas sportsbooks put their preseason win total at 6.5 games, one of the lowest numbers in the league. They don’t care that national power rankings articles labeled them a bottom-ten team. They don’t care that no one outside of their building gave them much of a chance to do anything after losing Kirk Cousins this offseason.
All that matters is that the Vikings themselves believed in their roster and their potential to do great things this year. Now, during a 2-0 start, they’re showing the country where that belief comes from.
“I love this team,” O’Connell said after the game. “It takes a result sometimes for people to see it, and I understand that. … I’m most proud of what led into this football game. There’s a lot of individual performances we could talk about, but this was the epitome of building a football team with a mindset through many, many months ago of what we wanted to play like, how we want to battle, and ultimately how we want to come together and find a way to win a football game.”
Darnold’s performance featured some memorable moments, most notable among them a 97-yard touchdown pass to Justin Jefferson that gave the Vikings a 10-0 lead in the second quarter.
“The 97-yarder was one of the prettiest throws I’ve seen,” O’Connell said.
Darnold delivered a perfect ball to Jefferson at midfield, and the star receiver did the rest, weaving through the 49ers secondary on his way to the end zone. What was Darnold’s view of the score?
The Vikings had the ball with a 20-14 lead in the fourth quarter, but against a team like the 49ers, that’s not a comfortable advantage. And by then, Darnold was without his top target in Jefferson, who exited the game due to a quad injury. Jordan Addison was ruled out before the game due to an ankle injury, and T.J. Hockenson is yet to make his season debut after tearing his ACL and MCL last year.
So what did Darnold do? He hit Brandon Powell for an 11-yard gain on third-and-7 and fired a 26-yard dart to Jalen Nailor on third-and-8, ultimately taking 6 minutes and 46 seconds off the clock on a 14-play, 62-yard drive that was capped with a 27-yard field goal from rookie Will Reichard to make it 23-14.
Leave a Reply