We’re one sloppy, er, “Sam”day in Jacksonville past the halfway point of the Vikings’ 2024 season. Time for some midseason awards …
It may sound like coachspeak spin, but if you’ve followed the NFL long enough you most certainly get where Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell is coming from when he said Sunday’s hideous 12-7 victory at Jacksonville “is one of the wins I’ll be most proud of. … These are the ones you remember.”
Ask Kirko Chainz and the Falcons — losers to a New Orleans team that had just fired its coach in the wake of a seven-game losing streak — if there were worse ways to spend last Sunday.
Sunday’s narrow escape conjured memories of 2008 when the Vikings beat the Lions 12-10 as the Metrodome pulsated with chants of “Fire Childress!” in Week 6. Detroit was on its way to the first 0-16 season in NFL history. Without those 12 measly points and that hideous victory, the Vikings miss the playoffs and Chicago wins the NFC North.
Is beating Jacksonville with no touchdowns and three Sam Darnold interceptions the “best” victory of the year? Maybe not. Should it be the most appreciated victory of the year? Definitely.
Aaron Jones. The veteran running back makes everything about this team tougher, more explosive, more balanced, more efficient, and just better, both offensively and defensively, in how he helps control a game’s tempo. He’s not the best player on the team, but he is exactly what it needed coming off last season.
It’s probably open season on Darnold after back-to-back stinkers in terms of “Why the $#@%^& did he do that?!” errors in judgment and/or execution.