Vikings LT Christian Darrisaw exits Rams game with knee injury

MINNEAPOLIS – After a 5-0 start, the Minnesota Vikings have lost two games in five days. They lost Christian Darrisaw to a knee injury Thursday night, and Matthew Stafford torched the defense for 279 yards and four touchdowns.

The Vikings are 5-2 heading to a mini bye week after a 30-20 loss to the L.A. Rams, and there’s a lot to fix, mostly on defense.

Blatant facemask goes uncalled

The Vikings had the ball at their own 5-yard line with 1:46 to play and no timeouts when Sam Darnold was sacked in the end zone for a safety. The only problem was his facemask got blatantly grabbed by Byron Young right in front of an official, and no flag was thrown. Young even left the field grabbing his helmet, waiting for a penalty. For the second time in a week, officials got in the way of a Minnesota sports team. It’s a horrible miss despite the Vikings needing to drive 95 yards and score eight points to force overtime.

“It looked like he got a pretty good amount of facemask there. Not going to get into the call or no call or all that stuff. I told our team officiating, for us to talk about that, seek comfort in that is not how we’re going to respond to this. It’s just not going to happen,” Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said after the game. “I really don’t have a comment. They didn’t think so, so they didn’t throw the flag.”

Darnold finished the night 18-of-25 for 240 yards and touchdowns to Josh Oliver and Trent Sherfield.

“It is what it is. I thought we could’ve done a lot to not put ourselves in the situation that we were in. We just gotta continue to play better and not put ourselves in that situation,” Darnold said.

The big play

The Vikings got down to the Rams 5-yard line early in the third quarter, and had to settle for a field goal. The Rams answered with Matthew Stafford hitting Demarcus Robinson from 25 yards out for the go-ahead touchdown. Shaq Griffin not only got beat on the play, but also got a pass interference flag. The Rams took a 21-17 lead. They never trailed the rest of the game.

Christian Darrisaw leaves with knee injury

The Vikings’ offensive line took a big hit at the end of the first half after Christian Darrisaw left the game with a knee injury. Darrisaw had his left leg get rolled up on blocking on an Aaron Jones run play. The Vikings had the ball inside their own 5-yard line, but had all three timeouts with 35 seconds left in the half. O’Connell was not about to take a knee, knowing Jones could bust a big run.

Darrisaw had to be helped off the field by two trainers, and did not return to the sideline for the start of the third quarter, and was ruled out for the game. David Quessenberry took his spot at left tackle for the rest of the game.

“Keeping our fingers crossed that we get some positive news,” O’Connell said.

Disastrous second quarter

The Vikings managed just six yards on eight plays in the second quarter, due to pre-snap penalties and pressure on Sam Darnold. The defense had third down penalties on Byron Murphy Jr. and Stephon Gilmore that kept the defense on the field. Then Jonathan Greenard and Harrison Phillips whiffed on a sack attempt that led to Matthew Stafford hitting Cooper Kupp for a touchdown.

History for Justin Jefferson

Justin Jefferson’s first catch of the night put him in the Vikings’ history books. He passed Jake Reed to be No. 5 all-time in receiving yards in the franchise. He added insane catch in the third quarter for a 27-yard gain that set up a go-ahead field goal. Jefferson finished with eight catches for 115 yards.

What’s next

The Vikings host the Indianapolis Colts Week 9 for Sunday Night Football.