Defensive meltdown in L.A.

The Vikings' defense got roasted by the Rams in a rough loss to drop them to 5-2

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LOS ANGELES — Remember when the Vikings had an elite defense?

Well, it’s been a while now since that was the case.

On Thursday Night Football, the Vikings lost to the Los Angeles Rams 30-20 in a game in which the defense was shredded for nearly 400 yards. They allowed key conversions by Matthew Stafford and weren’t able to match score for score. Now they will fly home and get a mini-bye with lots of questions to be answered.

Here’s how it went down…

You had to figure that Kevin O’Connell wanted to show off to his old boss with the opening offensive script. After the Vikings got the opening kickoff,. Aaron Jones went to work against a struggling defense, running for five yards and then dodging a tackler for 10 more two plays later. Darnold then got the cannon out and ripped a 17-yard pass to Justin Jefferson in between several Rams defenders to bring the ball to the 25-yard line.

The Rams pass rush sans Aaron Donand was not anywhere close to the other times we have seen Los Angeles against the Vikings. Darnold sat in the pocket all day before finding Jefferson again for 17 yards and then he got great blocking on a 5-yard touchdown pass to Josh Oliver.

Welcome back to Primetime, Sam Darnold. 7-0 lead before the fans got to their seats (literally because of LA traffic there was a good chunk of folks who missed that series).

L.A. took over, looking very different than in the last few weeks when they didn’t have either WR1 or WR2. Puka Nacua caught a quick pass and slammed his way for a 13-yard gain. Then running back Kyren Williams, who has been most of the Rams offense in the last few weeks with Cooper Kupp and Nacua out, scooted for a 13-yard gain.

The defense was looking a little bit on its heels, as they did four days ago against the Lions. Last week Detroit threw a bunch of screens and swing passes to beat the Vikings’ blitzes and that’s what the Rams did with a quick throw to Nacua to gain 22 yards, bringing L.A. down into scoring position. Matthew Stafford, looking calm in the pocket, delivered a pass to Williams for a quick answer.

Ah, the memories of the wild 2018 shootout between these two teams are flooding back in.

The Vikings got the ball back with a few more cheers coming from Rams fans now, despite probably being the minority in the stands. Jones got taken down in the backfield — a rare sight — but Darnold ripped a throw to Jordan Addison for 14 yards. It’s worth noting that the Rams don’t have anywhere near the caliber of secondary of most of the opponents they have faced this year.

If you had the over on Jefferson’s yardage total, you were feeling pretty good already as he gained 19 yards on another play-action pass over the middle to bring the Vikings to the Rams 32-yard line. Darnold sneaked for a first down and then hit Jefferson for another first down. From the 10-yard line, typical run blocker Trent Sherfield surprised the Rams by coming open underneath and catching a touchdown. 14-7 with 53 seconds left.

Amazon executives cackled at the entertainment value. You made your Jaguars-Titans jokes, huh? Watch this.

L.A. got right back into their rhythm with a completion for 16 yards to Nacua. To start the second quarter, the Vikings committed a (questionable) hold on third-and-7, giving the Rams a new set of downs. They took advantage with Williams rushing for 17 yards on a classic Rams outside zone carry and then Nacua picking up 14 more on a slant across the middle. Don’t blink or you’ll miss an explosive play. The Rams were back inside the Vikings 15-yard line before you could spell C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A.

Stephon Gilmore got nailed for a pass interference call and then Stafford reminded everybody why he was a Super Bowl-winning quarterback. He shredded a Harrison Phillips tackle and laser-beamed a throw to Cooper Kupp for a touchdown. Tie ball game. Whew.

With 10:05 left in the second quarter, the Vikings got a little sloppy. They committed another set of “procedural” penalties that have frustrated O’Connell over the last few weeks, jumping offside and then lining up illegally. Darnold got pressured and threw the ball away on third down, forcing the first punt of the game. Sherfield conmtinued his good day with a tackle at the Rams 12-yard line after a 61-yard punt.

Of course, the questions started to rain in from social media: Is Flores’s defense cooked? Is Cashman that valuable? Will this inspire a trade?

Well, let’s see how things play out here before we go down that road.

The Vikings defense appeared to bounce back with a three-and-out but Jihad Ward committed an illegal hands to the face penalty. Another first down giving up for free by a Viking penalty. But the Rams returned the favor with false start and holding penalties and Flores’ D finally got its first stop of the game.

The Rams defense started hot with a sack of Darnold as the clock started to run out on the second quarter. Rookie Jared Verse did the SKOL chant after beating Josh Oliver to take down the Vikings QB. Why someone with the No. 84 was taking on a top rookie edge rusher is unclear. Darnold got pressured again on second down and had to check it short on third down.

Wright pinned the Rams deep again and the game seemed to be reaching its “settling down” stage. At the 2 minute warning, the Rams stood at their own 23-yard line. After a 12-yard run from Williams and an underhand pass that only Stafford and Mahomes would try, the Rams were at midfield. A pressure by Pace Jr. and back-to-back pass deflections by Gilmore and Jonathan Greenard sent the Rams back to their sideline and gave the Vikings the ball back with 42 seconds remaining in the half.

O’Connell attempted to start out with an Aaron Jones run to see if they could get something going but left tackle Christian Darrisaw had a Rams defender roll up on his knee. Darrisaw walked off slowly and the Vikings brought the half to an end. He was officially ruled out with a knee injury.

At 14-14, L.A. started the second half with a bomb down the sideline that Nacua couldn’t quite bring in. Since it didn’t work the first time, Stafford tried it again. This time he made a leaping toe-tap catch along the sideline for a 19-yard gain. But Stafford’s success didn’t last long. He overthrew Nacua on another deep ball that was nearly picked off and then he overthrew his receiver for an interception by Byron Murphy Jr.

Darnold got back into same mode from the first quarter as he threw a quick first-down pass to Addison, who fought for extra yardage, Jefferson got back into the game. First, he toasted a Rams corner off the line of scrimmage for a 14-yard gain and then he put another highlight on his all-time reel. Darnold flipped the ball down the sideline and Jefferson tapped the ball to himself and then jabbed his second foot down for a 27-yard reception that will be played over and over.

But the Vikings couldn’t fully take advantage of Jefferson’s genius reception. Darnold threw incomplete at the goal line and Will Reichard was called upon to give the Vikings a 17-14 lead.

Stafford went back into entertainment mode, hitting a sidearm pass (with very little resistance from the pass rush) and then whipped a throw into tight coverage that found Tutu Atwell for 18 yards. Murphy Jr. broke up a deep shot toward the end zone but Stafford continued to sit in the pocket with all sorts of time to throw and drilled another throw to Nacua. Unsurprisingly, Nacua went over 100 yards with that catch. Stafford then dropped an absolute dime to Demarcus Robinson in the end zone for a 25-yard touchdown. 21-17.

You have to wonder if the Vikings were regretting settling for a field goal the last time down the field.

At the end of three quarters, the Vikings stood at their own 45-yard line down by four points. Does anybody else feel a pang of 2022? With the defense struggling and the game riding on the razor’s edge, some flashbacks are happening.

Aaron Jones rose to the occasion, catching a 25-yard pass in which he had to flip around and get his feet barely in bounds. Darnold trusting his receivers (and RB) continued to pay dividends over and over. On third down in the red zone, Darnold scrambled and found Jalen Nailor wide open in the middle of the field. He dropped it. That play would have easily resulted in a first down, instead it meant the Vikings settled for a field goal. 21-20 with 12:47 left.

The Rams took the ball with a chance to make things very difficult on the Vikings. Stafford picked up right where he left off with an 18-yard rollout completion to get the ball into Viking territory instantly. He found Williams out of the backfield on another play-action throw in which Stafford had all day.

On fourth-and-short, Williams blasted forward for three yards and a first down. The Vikings were going to have to go full bend-don’t-break mode or this drive might break them.

Instead, they broke. Murphy Jr. committed a pass interference against Kupp and then on third down, Stafford cruised a throw into the end zone for a wide open Robinson touchdown. 28-20 with 6:17 left. Not over, but getting late.

In this QB shootout, Darnold took over with a statement to make. He started out with a patient throw over the middle to Josh Oliver for 25 yards but took a huge sack that sent the Vikings stumbling back to third-and-21. An incompletion led to having to punt the ball away with 4:18 left.

With only two timeouts, the Vikings needed an instant stop.

Breaking: They did not get it. Stafford made another great throw to find Kupp as he flew by Gilmore for a first down. The clock ticked down to 2:00 as the Rams faced third-and-12. The Rams played it halfway with a screen pass and somehow Kupp ran out of bounds.

If the Vikings had some Thursday Night Football magic, it was going to have to arrive in the form of a 97-yard drive after an unbelievable punt by the Rams.

There would be no magic. On second down, Darnold took a sack in the end zone.

It wouldn’t be a Minnesota misstep without controversy though. The refs missed a completely obvious facemask in the end zone. The Vikings’ night ended rather than having a chance with 1:36 left at their 20-yard line.

Goodnight, Hollywood.

Normally when a team loses on Thursday night — especially after a tough game on the previous Sunday — you shrug your shoulders a bit. It’s not the best time to make sweeping statements. But in this case, the Vikings defense sputtered so much that we have to ask: What happened? Are they tired? Was Flores figured out? Was it Stafford getting his two star receivers left? Where did the pressure go? Is the secondary going to hold up? Can they really contend without the defense being elite?

The Vikings offense was mostly good enough to win but they let too many opportunities slip away, just as they did last week, in order to pull off a victory. That is concerning as well. If they need to play in shootouts down the stretch, can they really do that if they couldn’t hang with a struggling Rams team?

Make no mistake: 5-2 is still a great place to be but this wasn’t just a bad loss, it was a concerning loss for what’s next, even if they have a less threatening schedule on the way. In the mini bye week, they have a lot of thinking to do. Is there a player to add that will improve the weaknesses that have cropped up recently? Is there a schematic glitch?

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