The Minnesota Vikings' Cinderella season came to a crashing halt on Monday night as they suffered a devastating loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the opening round of the playoffs. After a historic 13-4 regular season, the Vikings were unable to replicate their regular-season success on the biggest stage.
14 times this season, Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell stood in front of his team and gave a victorious postgame speech in the locker room. Frequently, especially as the season went on, those speeches included mentions of how 'special' of a group this was. A team that nobody thought would do much of anything did a whole heck of a lot during a four-month journey that felt magical at times.
O'Connell and his players seemed to truly believe that they had what it took to do something no Vikings team had ever done before. Late on Monday night, inside State Farm Stadium in Arizona, O'Connell had to address his team under very different circumstances. Their season had just come to a sudden and painful end in ain the opening round of the playoffs. All of the good vibes and positive momentum they'd built had come crashing down in consecutive primetime blowouts against the Lions and Rams with everything on the line. It wasn't supposed to end like this. 'Very tough feeling in that locker room right now,' O'Connell said to open his postgame press conference. 'This team was really one of one in my mind, as far as the feeling that's in there right now, the brotherhood. This team truly did a lot of special things this year, but we didn't play well enough to win the football game. First and always, I know I've gotta be better for our team. I've got 100 percent confidence in our players, our coaches. We've got the right kind of things going on in this organization, but we've gotta find a way to play better as a team, complement each other and do the things we need to do to win games against the class of the NFL. And that's what we're going to go back to work and do. 'I love this organization,' he continued. 'I love those players more than anything. I just appreciate everything about those guys and what they mean to me. But that only gets you so far. You gotta play to a certain standard, and we did not do that. Way too many negatives on offense, missed opportunities and things we can all do better. It's obviously very fresh right now for a team that, from the moment I stood before them in training camp to right now, all they've ever done is be the exact team you want as a head coach. This stings, I know it stings for our fans. It hurts, and we've gotta use this as fuel moving forward.' It's almost whiplash-inducing to think about how quickly it all fell apart for this Vikings team. It was just a touch over two weeks ago when they were mobbing Sam Darnold inside U.S. Bank Stadium after he shredded the Packers and became the first quarterback to ever win 14 games in year one with a team. The loss in Detroit to end the regular season stung because of what was on the line in that game, but the Vikings were confident they'd bounce back. Instead, a team that prided itself all year on going '1-0' each week went 0-1 when it mattered most. This looked very little like the team that played so well for the vast majority of the season — the team that went 14-0 against opponents other than the Lions and Rams. LA jumped out to an immediate lead with an easy touchdown drive on the opening possession. Darnold was bad for the second straight week, taking nine sacks that lost. Two of those sacks in the second quarter led directly to touchdowns that made it a 21-point game at halftime and forced the Vikings to try for a miraculous comeback that never came close to materializing. It was an ugly end to the season for everyone, but specifically for a quarterback who did so many good things all season long. Darnold took full advantage of his opportunity in Minnesota and resurrected his career, but the proverbial clock struck midnight for him in the Vikings' two most important games, throwing his future into question. 'I think it's important that we look at it two ways,' O'Connell said when asked about his QB. 'Football-wise, playing the position of quarterback, areas that we can really focus on to improve. Areas, as an offense, where we can pick our quarterback up with a little execution, give him another click when it is a four-man rush. Whatever it is, we've gotta find a way to look at it from that standpoint. 'But also, I just wanna say, I think it's very important we all think about Sam's body of work, what he was able to do this year. ... Just the way he came in, committed himself to a daily process to be the best version of himself. It did not work out, in the end, and I think Sam would be the first one to tell you — could he have played better tonight? I'm sure he would tell you that he could have. Could I have coached better? I promise you I could've. 'The other phase of it for Sam is acknowledging the things that made him a winning quarterback this year and the consistency, at the times he had it, throughout the year and what that meant for our team. Because I think that can stay with him moving forward as he goes back to work. Proud of hi
NFL Vikings Rams Playoffs Sam Darnold Kevin O'connell
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