Everything that went right and wrong for the Vikings against the Rams

Looking closer at the Vikings' loss to the Rams

© Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

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By Matthew Coller

The Minnesota Vikings suffered their first “letdown” loss of the year to the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday night. Let’s take a closer look at what the numbers said about the game and what direction some of the trends are pointing…

What went right

The Darnold-Jefferson connection

At the end of Thursday night’s game, Justin Jefferson was the NFL leader in receiving yards and Sam Darnold had a QB rating of 122.7 when targeting Jefferson for the year (per PFF). Darnold threw to Jefferson nine times against the Rams, completed eight for 115 yards, including one of the best catches of Jefferson’s career.

Over the last two weeks, the Vikings have found ways to get the ball to Jefferson over the middle of the field. He caught six of his eight passes over the middle, including four catches on five targets for 67 yards on intermediate throws between 10-20 yards.

The short passing game

While Darnold has been most impressive when launching the ball deep, he was sharp on underneath throws against Los Angeles. On passes under 10 yards through the air, Darnold went 11-for-13 for 107 yards and two touchdowns. That would have been even better if Jalen Nailor hadn’t dropped a pass in the red zone.

There have been times throughout the early part of the season where Darnold has made mistakes by trying to push the ball into tight windows rather than taking his check down or underneath option. On Thursday he was improved in that area, with the only blemishes being sacks.

One area where they still could have added more to the short passing game was in screens. The Vikings only ran two for 18 yards vs. Los Angeles.

Center and right guard pass protection

Pressure coming directly up the middle and from the right guard spot has been problematic for the Vikings. On Thursday night, it was not an issue. Garrett Bradbury posted a 77.8 PFF grade and Ed Ingram a 75.9. They only gave up three QB pressures between them. Bradbury has always been prone to big ups and downs from week to week but this year that has especially been the case. He has three games with pass blocking grades under 40 and three over 67 (two over 77). Ingram’s grade was the third highest of his last two seasons.

With Christian Darrisaw out and the possibility of Dalton Risner moving over to the left side and Blake Brandel sliding to left tackle, the Vikings will need Ingram and Bradbury to be more consistent. Whether that’s possible or not based on their large sample size of inconsistency with pass blocking is questionable but there is no doubt that they badly need the interior to hold up.

Jonathan Greenard

Matthew Stafford was very rarely pressured on Thursday but when he was it was usually Jonathan Greenard. The former Texan had five QB pressures while the rest of the team only totaled seven. When the night was over, Greenard was at the top of the league behind only Aidan Hutchinson for total pressures this season (43). He also ranks ninth in PFF pass rush grade. He has 5.0 sacks this year and with these pressure numbers and QBs who are not the caliber of Goff and Stafford on the way we can expect the sack numbers to increase for Greenard.

What went wrong

Darrisaw’s injury

The Vikings have been mostly healthy across the roster this season but against the Rams disaster struck. At the end of the first half, a Rams player fell on Darrisaw’s knee, injuring his ACL and MCL. O’Connell announced on Monday that he will need surgery and will be out for the season.

Darrisaw ranks 10th overall by PFF among tackles, which is remarkable when you consider the caliber of defensive ends that he has faced this year. He also rates as the eighth best run blocker.

There is no easy solution to replacing Darrisaw. It will take schematic adjustments along with someone stepping up for the offense to survive his loss.

Penalties

The Vikings rank fifth in the NFL in total penalties and several against the Rams were crushing. At the beginning of the second quarter, the Rams were stopped on third-and-7 at their own 49-yard line but Byron Murphy Jr. was called for holding. The Rams moved the ball to the Minnesota 6-yard line after that and the Vikings got another third-down stop but Stephon Gilmore was called for pass interference. The Rams scored a touchdown two plays later.

In the fourth quarter the Rams had second-and-11 from the Minnesota 27-yard line and threw an incomplete pass but Murphy Jr. was hit with an interference penalty that set up a first down at the Vikings 16-yard line. They scored a touchdown three plays later.

The referees came into question a number of times in the game, particularly on the Murphy Jr. holding penalty and a missed obvious facemask on the Vikings final drive. Darnold was clearly taken down in the end zone by his facemask but no flag followed. While it was pointed out that the Vikings win probability was low at that point, Darnold did lead a similar game-tying drive in 2021. While with Carolina, Darnold trailed by the same score 28-20 with two minutes to go against the Vikings and ended up forcing overtime with a touchdown pass and 2-point conversion. A chance at a similar drive was robbed from the Vikings.

Rams targeting Gilmore

Overall, the signing of Stephon Gilmore has been a game changer for the Vikings defense. On Thursday, however, he had his toughest outing of the year. The Rams targeted him eight times, completed six passes for 98 yards including 31 after catch and a touchdown.

The Vikings have to assess why the Lions and Rams were both able to expose the secondary after opponents struggled so much over the first five weeks.

Replacing Cashman