Minnesota quarterback Sam Darnold didn’t blame the officials for missing a face mask call when he was sacked for a safety late in the fourth quarter during Thursday night’s 30-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Instead, Darnold focused on how the Vikings ended up in that tough spot.
“The facemask — it is what it is,” Darnold said. “I thought we could’ve done a lot to not put ourselves in the situation that we were in. We just have to continue to play better and not put ourselves in that situation to begin with.”
The Vikings received the ball at their own 5-yard line with 1:46 left after Rams punter Ethan Evans’ 41-yard kick went out of bounds on the left side.
Darnold missed a pass to Jordan Addison on first down. On second-and-10, Darnold had a couple of clean seconds in the pocket before Byron Young got past left guard Blake Brandel and sacked Darnold for a safety, which put the game out of reach.
Referee Tra Blake explained in a report that he and umpire Carl Paganelli — the two officials closest to the play — didn’t have a clear view of it.
Blake said the officiating crew talked about the play after the Vikings pointed out Young’s foul, but no one could clearly see it. Face mask calls are not reviewable by instant replay.
“The quarterback was facing the opposite direction from me, so I did not have a good look at it. I did not have a look, and I did not see the facemask being pulled,” Blake said. “The umpire had players between him and the quarterback, so he did not get a look at it. He was blocked out as well. So that was the thing, we did not see it so we couldn’t call it. We couldn’t see it.”
Coach Kevin O’Connell mentioned that “it looked like (Young) got a pretty good amount of facemask there,” but he didn’t want to blame that for Minnesota’s second loss in five days.
“I told our team that focusing on officiating and trying to find comfort in that is not how we’re going to respond to this,” he said. “It looked like he got a piece of the facemask, but they didn’t think so, so they didn’t throw the flag.”
If Young had been called for a penalty, the Vikings would have had first-and-10 at their own 20-yard line. However, they had no timeouts left and would have needed a touchdown and a 2-point conversion to tie the game and go into overtime.
O’Connell is more worried about left tackle Christian Darrisaw, who injured his left knee late in the first half.
Darrisaw was hit from the side by Rams safety Jaylen McCollough while blocking for Aaron Jones. McCollough lost his balance and fell while trying to tackle Jones.
David Quessenberry took over for Darrisaw at left tackle for the rest of the game. Darrisaw was on crutches as he left the locker room after the game.
“We’ll continue that evaluation here and Friday, and try to confirm what that is, keeping our fingers crossed that we get some positive news,” O’Connell said.
After winning their first five games, Minnesota has struggled a bit with two straight losses, including a 31-29 defeat against Detroit last Sunday.
The Lions (5-1) have moved into the lead in the tough NFC North, while Green Bay (5-2) and Chicago (4-2) are not far behind.
“Having the mini bye will allow us to get healthy and look ourselves in the mirror and do the little things right,” said Darnold, who completed 18 of 25 passes for 240 yards and two touchdowns.
“At the end of the day, I feel like we have to do the little things right and focus on the details. If we do that, I know we are going to be a really good offense and team. It is the little things we can control.”
