Film Study: Darnold's playmaking on display
The Vikings QB used mobility to his advantage to beat the Titans
By Matthew Coller
The Minnesota Vikings received a strong showing from quarterback Sam Darnold when they really needed it after a tough outing the week before. Let’s have a closer look at his bounce back…
Darnold’s playmaking and pocket movement
When you think of Sam Darnold, pocket presence isn’t always the first thing that comes to mind because he ranks sixth in the NFL in sacks taken and he isn’t rushing as often as QBs like Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen but on Sunday against the Titans the way he navigated the pocket and scrambled was nothing short of terrific.
We begin with a 31-yard gain early in the game in which the pocket collapsed on Darnold and he saw an escape route. He rolled into space, kept his eyes downfield and spotted Justin Jefferson putting a nifty move on his defender. For some reason, the Titans didn’t get the memo about Jefferson vs. single coverage and it was over from there.
This next one would qualify for the “if Mahomes did it” meme. Darnold didn’t see an open man right away downfield and started to run up the middle. He discovered a linebacker in his way, so rather than take the big hit, he spun out of the pressure. Thinking that he was going to run, the Titans linebackers came after him and Darnold kept his eyes up and found Trent Sherfield for a first down.
As wild as it looked, this would be a play that you wouldn’t want Darnold to try to repeat on a weekly basis. We have also seen him take some hard hits trying too hard to escape. However, it does seem to be a part of his game each week. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes not.
One thing that plays to Darnold’s advantage in scramble situations is his strength. He can’t be knocked over with a light breeze — or sometimes even the paw of a 360-pound man. On this play, a third-and-7, he shakes off the nose tackle’s initial hit, runs through falling Titans defenders trying to take him down, fakes a pass to freeze the defensive back and barrels forward to nearly get the first down.
This is where athleticism goes beyond measures like 40 yard dash time.
Our next play falls under “pocket movement” more than mobility. Darnold runs a play-action, finds the spot where he wants to wait for Jefferson to come out of his break and then feels Jeffrey Simmons pushing the guard into his grill. Darnold slides to his left to give himself a lane, lets the ball rip and takes a big hit. The throw is on the money.
As an aside, the last play was a good summation of why the Vikings seemed to feel good about the way Dalton Risner played. While he did get shoved backward and lost the rep to one of the NFL’s best players, he didn’t give up a quick pressure or get run over and gave Darnold just enough time to make the play.
Our next one is a standard bootleg. Gary Kubiak would be proud. Darnold rolls out, spots Josh Oliver and converts an easy first down. But it’s only easy because of his arm strength and athleticism. The Titans got an edge rusher coming up field at Darnold, forcing him to take an angle going backward to create enough space to throw it. Then he had to torque his body to put enough juice behind the ball and lead Oliver.
This last one really defines the day for the Vikings. It was big mistakes that kept the Titans in it. From mid-field, Darnold feels the rush coming off the edge. Brian O’Neill pushes his man by the quarterback as Darnold steps up into the pocket and throws a ball into the end zone for Jalen Nailor. It hits him right in both hands and the Vikings QB gets zero credit in the box score for a throw that should have been a touchdown.
You could argue that all of these plays did happen against the Titans, who have a very bad record, but PFF grades the Titans as the 15th best overall defense and their defensive line has a ton of talent.
The only concern might be if Darnold has to consistently escape, slide, step up, boot away and shake off defensive tackles that it’s not going to go quite as well every time.
What happened to the run game?
Have you ever heard an NFL analyst say: “It’s a matchup-driven league?” Well, the matchup was the main reason that the Vikings couldn’t run the ball. Namely, T’Vondre Sweat and Simmons were just too much for the Vikings interior.
On this play, Cam Akers gets ripped down in the backfield after Sweat tosses Risner aside. By now, you are familiar with the criticisms of Risner’s run blocking and you can see that he isn’t able to get to Sweat’s outside shoulder or ride him down the line of scrimmage (which Akers thought was happening and cut back). Instead he just broke off the block and won the down.
Everyone up front participated in the issues running the ball. On our next play, there was a miscommunication between TJ Hockenson and Cam Robinson that resulted in a major negative play. The TE and LT seemed to go after the same guy and completely whiffed on the tackler.
Our last look at the struggles on the ground is the most befuddling. Aaron Jones this year has eight carries at the goal line for minus-7 yards and one touchdown (shoutout to Ian Hartitz on Twitter for that stat). We see here that Cam Robinson couldn’t get any push on former Viking James Lynch and allowed him to make the stuff.
Overall the Vikings had 10 runs that went for less than one yard against the Titans. That’s just not going to cut it. And while Tennessee’s front does deserve credit, they are far from the only team in the league with big dudes up there. It’s going to be a particular challenge with downgrades at LT and RG in terms of run blocking but they have to find a way to either gain more consistent yards or spring some big plays.
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