A win is a win?

The Vikings outplayed the Jaguars, yet they barely survived in Jacksonville because of Sam Darnold interceptions

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JACKSONVILLE — The bottom line from Sunday is that the Minnesota Vikings are 7-2. Don’t ask about the rest.

In a goofy football contest in Jacksonville, the Vikings barely escaped the Jaguars despite three interceptions by Sam Darnold.

How we’re supposed to interpret this one through the lens of the rest of the season, well, that’s complicated. Is it good that they moved the ball or bad that they couldn’t make the most of it? Is it good that the defense can win them a game or bad that they made the defense win them the game?

Anyway, here’s how it went down…

The Jaguars’ offense started out just about the way we all would have expected. They handed off for a short gain, then completed a pass for almost no gain and then threw incomplete toward a covered receiver. When quarterback Mac Jones was in New England, he saw his supporting cast fade and he went from a playoff quarterback to being replaced. He must have looked around him on Sunday and wondered, why me?

The Vikings took over on offense after a punt out of the back of the end zone. Sam Darnold ran a rollout pass to Josh Oliver, as the Vikings offense loves to do. Most of the Everbank Stadium crowd, dressed in purple. had to be thinking the same thing: If Darnold doesn’t turn the ball over, the Vikings can cruise to 7-2.

The Darnold circus started early with a backward scramble on third down. He was able to escape three linemen being squished on the play to convert a pass to Justin Jefferson off schedule. The next throw was nearly picked as he tried to fire it into traffic to TJ Hockenson but unfazed Darnold followed up with a 15-yard throw to Jefferson. On third-and-7 in Jags territory, Darnold overthrew Jordan Addison and Parker Romo came on for his first career field goal. Good. 3-0 Vikings.

The Jags had to be happy with the way their defensive line was able to pressure Darnold early on and mostly slow down Aaron Jones to five carries, 22 yards.

Mac Jones got some help from his play caller to start his second drive. A play-action pass went for 23 yards to get the Jags only to the Vikings side of the field. Jacksonville’s offense followed that up with a short gain in which RB Tank Bigsby went down with an injury. His replacement jumped on the Vikings right away. Travis Etienne broke through the D-line and went for 18 yards to put the Jags in field goal position. Then on third-and-4, Jones made it clear that the Vikings can’t take Jacksonville for granted. The backup QB hit receiver Gabe Davis for a 19-yard gain to the goal line. Jones sneaked it in for a touchdown to give the Jags a 7-3 lead. He celebrated like he was shaking off a couple years of frustration.

The Vikings took over with three minutes left in the first quarter, maybe realizing that they would have to take the Jaguars seriously. Darnold went back to his recent favorite target. No, not Jefferson. Josh Oliver. He picked up 28 yards on the first play on the second drive. The shaky Darnold then had his first run in with disaster. With nowhere to throw the ball, he tried to force it to Jefferson. The ball was tipped and picked off. That made for Darnold’s fourth INT inside the opponent’s 25-yard line of the year. Not great.

The defense got back on track though, forcing an incompletion from Jones on third-and-1 and they got the ball back pinned in their own territory.

Darnold has been very good at bouncing back after mistakes in the past. He opened the second quarter with back-to-back-to-back short completions to the tight ends. The strategy of working underneath has been pretty successful over the past few weeks for Kevin O’Connell. On third down, Hockenson got another catch for a first down. And then on the next third down, Hockenson caught another first down to bring the Vikings into field goal position. Ya think getting him back was a big deal or what?

Darnold scrambled to the Jacksonville 24 and then Jones pushed forward. Third down was the 15th play of the drive. You’ll never guess who it was thrown toward. Yep, Hockenson again. First down and goal.

Then Darnold threw his fifth INT inside the 25 of the year. Darnold hung in the pocket and underthrew Jefferson and it was picked off. It’s really hard to win when you have a 10 minute drive and come away with zero points.

Wheels Jones got the Jags going with two scrambles, including one where it looked like he fumbled but it turned out to just be a Jacksonville first down. Jones kept it going, rolling out and completing a pass to Evan Engram to get the ball to midfield right before the two-minute warning. Jones took a sack though and the Jags handed off on third-and-17.

One last shot in the half for the Vikings to put more than a field goal on the board. Instead, Darnold threw incomplete over the middle and the Vikings had to punt. Still with enough time for Jacksonville to score again.

Defensively, the Vikings continued to do their job, sacking Jones to end the half.

There’s only one way to describe the half: Ooof. The stat line from the first 30 minutes was just bizarre to look at. The Vikings outgained the Jags 182 to 101 and gained 13 first downs to six and controlled the ball for 18:22… and were losing 7-3.

Darnold got on track to start the second half with a Free3 completion to Jordan Addison on a deep out route for 21 yards. An Aaron Jones run for 13 yards brought the Vikings into scary territory for Darnold: Inside the 25. You’ll never believe what happened next: He got picked off again. This time on third-and-short he tried to force the ball into coverage and the Jags defender jumped in front of Jefferson.

Again, the defense gave up nothing. If the Vikings can just get in the end zone one time they might win 10-7.

Darnold actually threw his fourth interception of the game but it didn’t count. He threw a bomb that was picked off, then negated by an illegal hands to the face flag on the Jags. The subsequent throws from the Vikings QB were not pretty but they did move the ball. A 9-yarder that Jalen Nailor had to reach out for, a Jones screen, a throw that Oliver had to bend his body to grab.

You could feel the nervousness increase as Jefferson caught a pass to bring the Vikings inside the 30. Naturally, they gave the ball to Jones. It felt like that might be a good idea to do that on every play but Jones went down with an injury. Darnold missed an open Nailor on the end zone and then the old illegal formation penalty bit the Vikings. Darnold converted a first down on a throw to Addison but Cam Robinson was lined up off the line of scrimmage. On third-and-17, they played safe with a screen and settled for a field goal. 7-6. Whew.

Again, the defense gave up nothing. Andrew Van Ginkel smacked Mac Jones and the Jags punted. The last two weeks the Vikings defense has mauled their opponents.

Darnold got back to moving the ball repeatedly — so long as it isn’t in the red zone. He remembered that Hockenson is still here and completed a 26-yard pass over the middle. With 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Vikings were sitting at 371 to 119 in yards.

Facing third-and-5 at the 20, the Vikings got four yards. O’Connell then went for fourth down and sneaked forward for a first down — juuuuust barely.

Then O’Connell had to get into his bag of tricks, trying a double reverse for a 7-yard loss. Parker Romo kicked in his third field goal and the Vikings were up 9-7.

This time, the Vikings defense didn’t just give up nothing, they recovered a fumble. Sometimes breaks are earned. Mac Jones fumble the snap — after nearly four quarters of being harassed by the D-line. Probably not a coincidence.

Cam Akers blasted for a first down. Then they handed it to him again. And again. Third-and-7 at the 11-yard line. Score and the game is over. Darnold instead threw the ball away. Field goal. 12-7 score, 393 to 116 in yards.

Again, the defense came through. Mac Jones threw into Byron Murphy Jr.’s coverage, well short of his receiver, and the veteran corner picked the ball off. With 3:39 left, the Vikings took over at midfield.

Aaron Jones returned from his injury to try to close out the game. Handoff, handoff. Third-and-1.

Of course, O’Connell could never, ever just win the game by running. He called a play-action pass and the Jags blew it up for a sack. Somehow, freaking somehow, the Jags still had a shot at winning the game.

A third down conversion to Engram and then completion to Thomas got Jacksonville rolling for the first time in….forever.

Linebacker Blake Cashman blasted through the line and sacked Jones but he was called for a facemask. Yes, indeed, they are allowed to call that.

First-and-10 from the Vikings 43. Jones threw up a wild bomb to the end zone, where Cam Bynum picked it off at the 1-yard line. The Vikings ran three times and on third third, former top pick Trevon Walker committed a 15-yard penalty to end the game.

And we all looked around like… what just happened? A 12-7 win? Huh?

There have been few games in NFL history where one team so greatly dominated the other in terms of yardage and time of possession and ended up only scoring 12 points.

You could say it’s a survive-and-advance game. The team is 7-2. Who are we to complain about how it looked? Nobody expected them to be this good. At the same time, Darnold’s penchant for awful interceptions is now showing up every single week. From a QB who has a deep history of big mistakes, it’s hard to shrug that off as a random event. No matter how many great weapons they have and no matter how dominant the defense, it’s hard to call anyone an elite team when the QB can’t stop tossing it to the other team.

But the season goes on with the Vikings staying at the front of the NFC race. You have to win ugly sometimes. And holy moly was it ugly.

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