Sam Darnold, Aaron Jones & Defense Star in Big Opening Day Win for Vikings
Winning the regular season opener is always a big step for an NFL team, and the Vikings accomplished that goal while looking very impressive on both sides of the ball in their dominant 28-6 win over the Giants on Sunday. It was surprisingly easy, considering the game was on the road, and the Vikings had 10 new starters plus a new kicker, including, of course, quarterback Sam Darnold, who played great in his Vikings debut.
Sam Darnold, Aaron Jones & Defense Star in Big Opening Day Win for Vikings
The Giants looked bad with excessive penalties, dropped balls, and a poor performance from QB Daniel Jones, who threw two picks, including the game-changing Pick 6, on a tremendous play by one of those new starters—OLB Andrew Van Ginkel. Predictably, the Vikings’ defensive front seven outplayed the lousy Giants’ offensive line (worst in the league last year with 85 sacks allowed, and the Vikings had five on Sunday).
The Vikings’ task gets much tougher next Sunday in the home opener against defending NFC champion San Francisco. But the 49ers will be coming off a Monday night game vs. the Jets and have to travel on a short week, which is a nice advantage for the Vikings. The Vikings knocked off the 49ers last season in a Week 5 home Monday night game.
It’s just a big positive for the Vikings to start 1-0, considering their rough early season schedule, including the 49ers, a strong Houston team at U.S. Bank Stadium in Week 3, and the first division game at Green Bay in Week 4. However, the Packers are likely to be without quarterback Jordan Love, who suffered an MCL sprain in their opening loss to the Eagles in Brazil.
Here are my other reactions to the Vikings opening victory:
1. The Vikings showed early resilience by shrugging off the first drive turnover on C.J. Ham’s fumble (only the second of his career). The defense made a big red zone stop with Van Ginkel sacking Jones on third-and-goal from the 5. Then the offense responded with a five-play, 65-yard drive that included a 36-yard pass interference penalty that Jordan Addison was the recipient of on 3rd-and-8, followed by a great throw from Sam Darnold to Josh Oliver for 22 yards and Aaron Jones’ three-yard burst around left end for the score.
2. Jones was a key player, as I expected him to be this season, with 14 carries for 94 yards plus two receptions for 15 yards. He showed his vision and speed on the TD run. Keeping him healthy is critical to help keep the Vikings’ offense balanced and take some pressure off Darnold, Jefferson, and the passing game. So Jones shouldn’t have been in the game late in the fourth quarter with the game already won (O’Connell said he wanted to give Jones a chance to reach 100 rushing yards but it wasn’t worth the risk).
3. Darnold completed his first 12 passes (a career best) and went 19 of 24 for 209 yards and two TDs with one pick (his arm was hit on that play by the Giants’ best player–DT Dexter Lawrence). Darnold’s first-half stats: 13 of 14 for 151 yards and a two-yard TD to Justin Jefferson that completed a terrific 99-yard drive, highlighted by a perfect throw for 44 yards to Jefferson, who beat double coverage.
4. Kevin O’Connell had one of his best games as a play caller, mixing 26 runs and 25 passes. He lived up to his preseason statements on wanting to run the ball more often and more effectively. He made a gutsy call in trusting Darnold in his first Vikings start to throw the two-yard dart to Jefferson on 4th-and-Goal from the Giants 2 for the second quarter TD in what was a close game at the time.
The 21-yard TD pass to Jalen Nailor on the first drive in the third quarter (to put the Vikings up 21-3) was a great play design and execution. Jefferson motioned into what appeared to be a wide receiver screen, Darnold faked to him, and then hit a wide-open Nailor with a good throw.
5. The offensive line played well overall despite some early penalties and difficulties at times for center Garrett Bradbury and guard Ed Ingram with Lawrence. Tackles Christian Darrisaw and Brian O’Neill had excellent games in holding Giants edge rushers Brian Burns (a $28 million per year player) and Kayvon Thibodeaux (11.5 sacks last season) to only four tackles, one QB hit and no sacks combined.
6. There’s a long way to go, but I liked the Vikings’ play on defense in Week 1. DC Brian Flores had Jones rattled with more fake blitzes than actual blitzes, the defense stopped the run (74 yards on 21 carries, 3.5-yard average), and so many defenders had big games.
They included: Van Ginkel (one sack, four tackles, two QB hits, and the Pick 6), Pat Jones (two sacks and two tackles-for-loss), Harrison Smith (seven tackles and a fourth-quarter interception to put it away, DL Harrison Phillips (strong against the run with five tackles plus one sack), ILB Blake Cashman (six tackles), Josh Metellus was all over the field making plays (finishing with four tackles, one QB hit and one pass breakup), Jerry Tillery was very effective at DE (three tackles, a QB hit and a pass defensed), edge Jonathan Greenard had several strong pass rushes and first-rounder Dallas Turner had his first career sack and three tackles.
New corners Stephon Gilmore and Shaq Griffin, along with returning starter Byron Murphy, did fine, but they’ll be tested more in the next two weeks against the 49ers and Texans, who each have at least two elite wide receivers and better quarterbacks than Jones.
The D had 12 quarterback hits on Jones, along with two interceptions, against a player who had a great game against the Vikings in the 2022 playoff loss.
7. There were no special teams issues other than a hold by Jay Ward on a punt return and one short punt by Ryan Wright. Will Reichard made all four of his PATs and did not have a field goal attempt which meant the Vikings got in the end zone on drives.
8. O’Connell was obviously pleased with the opening win but spoke of the need for fewer penalties (seven for 63 yards but the G-Men were worse with nine for 95 yards). The two turnovers also are an area of concern after the Vikings had major turnover problems at the start of last season but with the defense forcing two turnovers, the ratio turned out even.
An injury concern headed into the 49ers game is Jordan Addison’s sprained ankle (the other ankle after he recovered from an ankle sprain to play and have three catches for 35 yards and the big pass interference penalty he drew before he sustained the injury). The Vikings need him to take some pressure off Jefferson in the passing game with T.J. Hockenson out for three more games.
Around the NFL Observations from Week 1:
1. The Lions struggled at times in blowing a 17-3 second-half lead in the Sunday night opener against the Rams but survived with a 26-20 OT win. Lions QB Jared Goff had an up-and-down game and was outplayed by Matthew Stafford who made several amazing throws. Detroit is my NFC Super Bowl pick, but they didn’t look super in this opener at home on the national stage.
2. The Bears fell behind the Titans 17-0 as No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams struggled with only 93 passing yards in the game. But Titans QB Will Levis was worse with two picks—one a game-winning Pick 6 by Tyrique Stevenson—and the Bears had a blocked punt return for their first TD as they rallied to win 24-17 at home.
3. The Packers are the only 0-1 NFC North team after losing to the Eagles in Brazil. They also lost star QB Jordan Love for three to six weeks with a sprained MCL.
4. Kirk Cousins had a dismal debut with the Falcons in an 18-10 home loss to the Steelers, who were led at QB by Justin Fields, not Russell Wilson (out with a calf). Cousins had only 155 passing yards and threw two costly picks. Much more was expected from Atlanta’s $180 million QB.
5. In other notable games, the Chiefs continued their dominance of the Ravens with a 27-20 opening night win last Thursday; the Patriots pulled the biggest upset of opening week with a 16-10 win at Cincinnati (holding Joe Burrow to 164 passing yards and rushing for 170 yards with 120 yards from Rhamondre Stevenson as vet QB Jacoby Brissett got the win).
The Cowboys crushed the Browns in Cleveland as new highest-paid QB Dak Prescott (at $60 million per year in new money on his just signed extension) far outplayed the lousy Deshaun Watson (held to 169 passing yards and picked off twice by new DC and ex-Vikings Coach Mike Zimmer’s D led by ex-Vikings LB Eric Kendricks who had nine tackles and two sacks and All-Pro DE Micah Parsons who had one sack and five QB hits).
Week 2 big games besides 49ers at Vikings include Tampa Bay at Detroit in a rematch of last January’s divisional playoff won by the Lions, Indianapolis at Green Bay with Love out, Chicago in a tough matchup on Sunday night at Houston, Dallas hosting New Orleans (a 47-10 home winner over lowly Carolina in Week 1), Buffalo at Miami in a big AFC East matchup on Thursday night, Kansas City hosting Cincinnati with the Bengals staring at a likely 0-2 start and Cousins and the Falcons trying to rebound in a difficult road game at Philadelphia on Monday night.
Vikings fans will be interested to see if Darnold can continue to outplay Cousins in Week 2.
I’ll be back on Friday with my Vikings-49ers preview, my prediction on the Purple’s home opener, and picks on the other key Week 2 games.
Jeff Diamond is a former Vikings GM, former Tennessee Titans President and was selected NFL Executive of the Year after the Vikings’ 15-1 season in 1998. He now works for the NFL agent group IFA based in Minneapolis and does other sports consulting and media work along with college/corporate speaking. Follow him and direct message him on Twitter– @jeffdiamondnfl.
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