LOS ANGELES — Minnesota quarterback Sam Darnold did not blame officials for a missed face mask call when he was dismissed for safety late in the fourth quarter Thursday night. 30-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
Instead, Darnold lamented the situation that deeply ensnared the Vikings in the first place.
“The face mask – it is what it is,” Darnold said. “I thought we could have done a lot to not put ourselves in the situation we were in. We just have to keep playing better and not put ourselves in that situation.”
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The Vikings got the ball on their own 5-yard line with 1:46 left after Rams punter Ethan Evans’ 41-yard punt ended up out of bounds on the left sideline.
Darnold missed the connection with Jordan Addison first. On second-and-10, Darnold got a few clean seconds in the pocket before Byron Young burst past left guard Blake Brandel and picked off Darnold for the safety, putting the play out of reach.
Referee Tra Blake said in a pool report that he and referee Carl Paganelli – the two officials closest to the action – did not have a clear picture.
Blake said the officiating crew discussed the play after the Vikings brought up Young’s foul, but no one could see it clearly.
Facemask calls cannot be immediately replayed.
“The quarterback was looking in the opposite direction from me, so I didn’t look closely. I didn’t look and I didn’t see the face mask being pulled,” Blake said. “The referee had players between him and the quarterback, so he didn’t get a view of it. He was also blocked. So that was the problem, we didn’t see it, so we couldn’t call it. We could.” I don’t see it.”
Coach Kevin O’Connell said, “It looked like (Young) had quite a few face masks there,” but he wasn’t going to blame that on Minnesota’s second loss in five days.
“I told our team, the officials and all those things that we need to talk about that and take comfort, this is not the way we are going to respond to this,” he said. “It looked like he got a piece of the face mask, but they didn’t think so, so they didn’t throw the flag.”
On Friday, O’Connell said he had not received any further clarification on the no-call, but that he might consider contacting the league.
“I’m going to try to absorb all the information I can and if I want to ask some questions and get some clarification, I certainly will,” he said.
If Young had been penalized, the Vikings would have had first-and-10 on their own 20. But they had no timeouts and would have needed a touchdown and two-point conversion to send the game into overtime.
O’Connell’s biggest concern was left tackle Christian Darrisaw, who suffered a left knee injury late in the first half. The coach confirmed this on Friday Darrisaw will require surgery due to an “ACL/MCL injury” and will miss the remainder of the season.
Darrisaw was hit from the sideline by Rams safety Jaylen McCollough while blocking a run for Aaron Jones. McCollough lost his balance and went to the ground when he attempted a dive on Jones.
David Quessenberry replaced Darrisaw at left tackle for the remainder of the game. Darrisaw was on crutches as he left the locker room after the game.
After winning its first five games, Minnesota is reeling a bit with two straight losses, including a 31-29 loss to Detroit last Sunday.
The Lions (5-1) take the lead in the hyper-competitive NFC North, while Green Bay (5-2) and Chicago (4-2) are not far behind.
“The mini-bye allows us to get healthy and look ourselves in the mirror and do the little things right,” said Darnold, who was 18 of 25 for 240 yards and two touchdowns. “At the end of the day, I feel like we have to do the little things right and work out the details. If we do that, I know we’ll be a really good offense and team. It’s the little things that we do.” can control.”
