EAST RUTHERFORD — You know who deserves a game ball for the Minnesota Vikings’ victory over the New York Giants on Sunday? Well, about half the roster and the entire coaching staff.

In the Vikings’ 28-6 dominance over the G-Men at MetLife Stadium, the Vikings provided the perfect blueprint for how to win with Sam Darnold at quarterback: Give him a good strategy, run the ball, play strong defense, and let him show off his cannon a few times.

All of these things came together to give the Vikings an impressive 1-0 start to the season.

The Vikings’ first drive in the Darnold era was botched. Giants star DT Dexter Lawrence sacked the new QB and when Darnold played it safe on third down, fullback CJ Ham fumbled the ball trying to gain a few more yards.

The Giants had every opportunity to score a touchdown and take an early lead, with an enthusiastic crowd and all sorts of legends in the house to celebrate their 100th anniversary.

Instead, outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel brought quarterback Daniel Jones to the ground and scored a sack, preventing the Giants from capitalizing on the Vikings’ early mistake.

“You felt like a less mentally strong team might have said, ‘Here we go again,'” said head coach Kevin O’Connell. “But the next time we got the ball, we ran down the field and scored.”

The way the Vikings’ offense scored on Sunday was proof that everyone contributed to Darnold’s success in his first win since late 2022. Receiver Jordan Addison fought for a 50-50 third-down ball that Darnold threw in the air on the team’s second drive. He didn’t make the catch, but his effort resulted in a questionable flag that gave the Vikings 36 free yards.

As they reached the goal line, they saw a familiar sight: Aaron Jones charging past the crowd into the end zone. Only he did it in purple instead of green and gold. O’Connell explained after the game why it was a superstar-style play:

“Everything happens fast down there, you rely on vision, you rely on guys understanding the feel of the block combinations in front of them,” O’Connell said. “When guys are going for blocks, sometimes it’s clear and you have to make a decision in milliseconds to then have a chance to overpower the outermost defender. In this game, especially when he bounced the ball. Then it’s a race to the goal line. You talk about vision, feel and then acceleration and acceleration to finish the play. It was a great example of what he’s going to bring to our team.”

In recent history, the Vikings’ offense has often been asked to keep scoring to maintain the lead. But Sunday’s defensive performance was reminiscent of the old days of 2015-2019 teams that could sit on a lead and squeeze the life out of a faltering opposing quarterback. After taking a 7-3 lead, the Vikings thwarted the Giants’ next drive, though they did allow a 25-yard pass to rookie Malik Nabers, setting up the game-winning sequence for Darnold.

A great punt by the Giants brought the 27-year-old quarterback to his own 1-yard line. A quick pass to Ty Chandler brought the ball forward and put him on first down. Then Darnold made a throw that amazed everyone, including Justin Jefferson. On second-and-12 from his own 10-yard line, Darnold threw the ball in the direction of Jefferson, who ran a fade route toward the sideline despite two defenders nearby. The ball fell into Jefferson’s hands as if Darnold had stopped time, walked over, and put it in his gloves.

“I think it gives him (Darnold) more confidence when he sees the ball in my hands like that,” Jefferson said. “I think that’s something we’re going to need all season. We just have to give him that confidence and the strength to throw me the ball when there’s double coverage. Because on that play, I was double covered and he threw it to that spot and I caught it. That’s going to happen most of the season. He has to understand that even when I’m double covered, I’m still free and I’m going to make a play.”

“I thought the throw to (WR) Justin (Jefferson) was just remarkable,” O’Connell said. “To be able to rely on the quarterback in that moment to activate his best player and his trust and just a lot of time on the task while those two are getting free. That’s a really big play in that moment that really sets the stage for us to go down the field and come away with seven.”

Darnold built on the explosive play by hitting Addison on back-to-back throws of 16 and 13 yards in time, and then with the Vikings ready at the goal line for fourth-and-2, O’Connell decided to show his faith in his QB by going for it. Darnold threw a dart into Jefferson’s hands and scored a touchdown.

The Vikings’ defense then served its purpose by forcing New York to punt on every offensive drive after the first field goal of the first half.

O’Connell’s strategy and plays had to be perfect for Darnold to succeed. With Kirk Cousins ​​in Atlanta, the playmaker had to take a slightly different approach than in years past, when he could always let Cousins ​​throw intermediate passes. Darnold needed a few simple plays.

That happened on the opening drive of the second half. After Aaron Jones took the offense on his back with runs of 12 and 19 yards, the Vikings had the ball on first-and-10 at the 21-yard line. Jefferson lined up in the backfield and swung toward the sideline as if to make a block. Instead of throwing him the ball, Jalen Nailor ran completely free and Darnold found him for a touchdown.

“It always takes a little bit of time at the beginning to figure out what coverage intentions there are. Justin (Jefferson) and Jordan (Addison) got some double coverage today as well.
O’Connell said of the touchdown: “There were moments on some of those third downs where both guys got doubled and we had to try to make a play somewhere else, but yeah, that was a great play. Sometimes you worry when you’re making other moves and stuff and the noise and the silent cadence and not being able to hold onto the ball anymore. But that just fits with the performance from (QB) Sam (Darnold) that we can really build off of.”

After the 21:3 lead, the defense did the rest.

The Giants kicked a field goal and then stopped the Vikings with a quick three-and-out, leaving the door open for them to come back from a two-touchdown deficit. Then Van Ginkel put an end to the G-Men’s chances. He dove in front of the ball on a bubble screen, caught it and then headed into the end zone. The game was over.

“I had a similar play last year,” Van Ginkel said. “This defense applied so much pressure and we try to put a lot of pressure on the quarterback. If we can communicate with each other and get them to show us their cards, we can play faster and anticipate things faster and that’s what happened.”

The only other opportunity for New York to make a name for itself was quickly thwarted as well. Late in the third quarter, Darnold was intercepted when his arm was hit and the ball flew into the air. The Giants took over at the Vikings’ 39-yard line and converted a couple of first downs to get to the 11-yard line. On fourth down, Harrison Smith intercepted Daniel Jones, putting the final nail in New York’s coffin.

Aaron Jones dropped the Giants in every way he could, and the defense didn’t let them in for the rest of the game. When the dust settled, they were allowing just 3.5 yards per play.

As the Vikings begin the tough part of their schedule over the next two weeks with the San Francisco 49ers and Houston Texans, the win in New York will matter a lot. Not only because it gives them some edge when they face teams that are Super Bowl contenders, but because he showed they can play a complete game around Darnold. He proved they have a veteran defense with the talent to make game-winning plays and a running game that can score in the red zone and create explosive plays. They have a scheme that can play to Darnold’s strengths and allow him to “play point guard” instead of feeling like he has to play the hero every week.

“There’s no doubt that momentum and confidence play a real role in this league. There’s nothing like walking into an NFL stadium on a Sunday and winning a game by a big margin,” O’Connell said. “Nobody in the locker room is surprised or shocked that we went out there and pulled it off. I think it’s just a validation of the amount of work that went into it.”