{"id":18487,"date":"2025-01-14T16:30:58","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T16:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=18487"},"modified":"2025-01-14T16:30:58","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T16:30:58","slug":"video-vikings-hc-kevin-oconnells-comments-suggest-that-the-team-has-already-made-their-final-decision-on-qb-sam-darnold-for-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=18487","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO: Vikings HC Kevin O\u2019Connell\u2019s Comments Suggest That The Team Has Already Made Their Final Decision On QB Sam Darnold For 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"mai-link-injected\" href=\"https:\/\/www.totalprosports.com\/tag\/sam-darnold\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sam Darnold<\/a>\u00a0had it all going for him until he picked the worst time to have his worst two-week stretch of the season.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a class=\"mai-link-injected\" href=\"https:\/\/www.totalprosports.com\/nfl\/minnesota-vikings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Minnesota Vikings<\/a>\u00a0lost back-to-back games, ending what seemed like a dream season that no one saw coming.<\/p>\n<p>After the Vikings\u2019 27-9 loss to the\u00a0<a class=\"mai-link-injected\" href=\"https:\/\/www.totalprosports.com\/nfl\/los-angeles-rams\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Los Angeles Rams<\/a>\u00a0in the NFC Wild Card round on Monday, Vikings coach Kevin O\u2019Connell spoke to reporters.<\/p>\n<p>His words made it seem like he and the organization have already made a decision on his status going forward, as he said Sam Darnold has a \u201cspecial place in my heart\u201d because of the way he played this season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cI think that can stay with him moving forward. Sam and that journey him and I went on will always be something that\u2019s a special place in my heart.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The way Kevin O\u2019Connell talks about Sam Darnold here really signals that he\u2019s gone \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that can stay with him moving forward\u2026 Sam and that journey him and I went on will always be something that\u2019s a special place in my heart.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/noQChHpGNh\">pic.twitter.com\/noQChHpGNh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Purple Persuasion (@TPPSkol) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TPPSkol\/status\/1879037961586745718?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 14, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Rams\u2019 nine sacks of Darnold tied for the most by a team in a single playoff game.<\/p>\n<p>The pressure was on from the start, as they had six in the first half alone. The most crucial one resulted in a fumble that Jared Verse returned 57 yards for a touchdown.<\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen if the Vikings would at least use the franchise tag to keep Sam Darnold.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, his final two games were terrible, but he led the team to a 14-3 record, and if not for a historic year of their own, they could\u2019ve easily been the No. 1 team in the NFC over the Lions.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-sam-darnold-shoulders-blame-for-wild-card-loss\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sam Darnold Shoulders Blame For Wild Card Loss<\/h2>\n<p>Darnold was excellent for most of the season, playing by far the best football of his career.<\/p>\n<p>However, teams will remember the last two games: the 31-9 loss to the Lions in the regular-season finale and Monday night\u2019s 27-9 loss to the Rams in the wild-card round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>After the season came to an end, Sam Darnold shouldered the blame for taking nine sacks in the game.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cIt\u2019s up to me to be able to feel that and either step up, move, go run for a first down, or just simply throw it away,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vikings.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">he said.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cI felt like there were a lot of sacks that I was responsible for, where I was just holding onto the football and taking sacks where I could have dirted it at someone\u2019s feet or simply thrown it over someone\u2019s head.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Darnold finished 25-of-40 for 245 yards with one touchdown and one interception.<\/p>\n<p>This came after he went 18-of-41 for 166 yards in a 31-9 loss against the\u00a0<a class=\"mai-link-injected\" href=\"https:\/\/www.totalprosports.com\/nfl\/detroit-lions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Detroit Lions<\/a>\u00a0in Week 18.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; Sam Darnold\u00a0had it all going for him until he picked the worst time to have his worst two-week stretch of the season. The\u00a0Minnesota Vikings\u00a0lost back-to-back games, ending what &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18489,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18487\/revisions\/18489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}