Usually, when your favorite team loses in the playoffs, the first finger pointed is usually at the quarterback.
This was the case for Minnesota Vikings fans after there 27-9 dismantling versus the Los Angeles Rams earlier this week in the Wild Card round of the NFL Playoffs.
Sam Darnold, would tell you the same thing, he didn’t play well. Darnold finished the game on Monday with 245 passing yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception and a fumble that lead to a score for the Rams before halftime. Darnold also took 9 sacks in the game, when many times he could have simply thrown the ball away, or ran for a couple yards and slid.
The last two weeks were signs of ‘Darnold from the Jets’ resurfacing, as a Vikings team who averaged 26 points per game in weeks 1-16, had scored just 9 points in back to back weeks in games that the Vikings organization and their fans needed them to show up and show out. Now entering the offseason, the overlying question that will loom the Vikings franchise until training camp will be who is going to be the Vikings quarterback in 2025. Darnold becomes a free agent soon, Daniel Jones was picked up late in the season, and sitting and waiting for his own opportunity is 2024 first round draft pick J.J. McCarthy.
As the fingers are still pointing at Darnold, one of his most reliable targets this season has come to the aid of Darnold, saying this weeks playoff loss, ‘Was Not Just Sam”
Justin Jefferson, who was on the other side of Darnold’s passes finished the 2024 season with 103 catches, 1,533 yards, and 10 touchdowns, was asked during recent media interviews about the talks of Darnold performance in the playoff game as well as his thoughts on the Vikings quarterback situation going into 2025.
“Our team performance as a whole haven’t been great, not just Sam, I would never blame Sam for the losses or the struggles that we’ve been having. It’s a whole team thing, which I would say it’s just the execution. We just got to look in a mirror.”
Jefferson was quiet in the Rams game only catching 5 passes for 58 yards and no touchdowns. Also saying that regardless of who is at quarterback next season he will be business as usual no matter who is at center, “I always say that I’m confident in myself to go out there and still perform the same way I’ve been performing. But it’s not my job to say who’s going to be the quarterback, who I want to be the quarterback. At the end of the day, they’re going to figure it out, and whoever they decide to go with we’re going to work with that.”
So according to one of, if not the BEST receiver in the game, regardless of who’s behind center for the Vikings next season, you can bet on Justin Jefferson going all out if it means the team is winning and successful, and they’re doing it as a TEAM with proper execution, and no finger pointing.
Quotes in this article were provided by heavy.com
Photo Credit: ESPN, The NFL, The Minnesota Vikings
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