Vikings close ‘another chapter in the purple book of pain’
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold (14) is sacked by Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Kobie Turner (91) as Jared Verse (8) dives on during the first half of an NFL wild card playoff football game, Monday, in Glendale, Ariz.
Ross D. Franklin | AP
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The Minnesota Vikings’ successful season has come to a familiar end. The team lost 9 to 27 Monday night in a Wild Card game against the LA Rams. The game was moved to Arizona due to the wildfires that continue to burn in California. Next, the Rams will go on to play the Eagles Sunday in Philadelphia.
That leaves quarterback Sam Darnold and the rest of the Vikings in reflection mode, looking back not just on their final game, but on their whole season.
“I think Sam would be the first one to tell you, could he have played better tonight? I'm sure he would tell you that he could have. Could I have coached better? I promise you, I could have,” Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell said after the game.
“Could our team have rallied around, you know, a play here or there to try to keep that thing competitive? For sure. But the other phase of it for Sam is acknowledging the things that made him a winning quarterback this year and the consistency at the times he had it throughout the year and what that meant for our team.”
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Sports contributors Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson joined MPR News host Nina Moini to put the game in perspective.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
NINA MOINI: The Minnesota Vikings had a successful season, but it has come to a familiar end. The team lost 9-27 last night in a wild card game against the LA Rams. The game was moved to Arizona, you'll remember, due to the wildfires that are still burning in California. So now the Rams will go on to play the eagles Sunday in Philadelphia.
That leaves quarterback Sam Darnold and the rest of the Vikings in a reflective mode, looking back not just on their final game, but on their whole season. Here's head coach Kevin O'Connell.
KEVIN O'CONNELL: I think Sam would be the first one to tell you. Could he have played better tonight? I'm sure he would tell you that he could have. Could I have coached better? I promise you I could have.
Could our team have rallied around a play here or there to try to keep that thing competitive? For sure. But the other phase of it for Sam is acknowledging the things that made him a winning quarterback this year and the consistency at the times he had it throughout the year and what that meant for our team.
NINA MOINI: Joining me now to put this all in perspective are our sports contributors, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Thank you for being here, guys.
ERIC NELSON: How's it going, Nina?
NINA MOINI: It's going well.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Nina, good to be with you.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. I mean, we thought this might happen. I do want to take us back, though, this is kind of fun, to the beginning of the vikings season, and no one really thought they would do very well, right? And they ended up 14-3 in their regular season, which is good. Eric, before the first game, this is what you had to say about the team's prospects right here on Minnesota Now.
ERIC NELSON: I don't think there's a lot of optimism surrounding the vikings. But I will say this. It's the NFL. Strange things happen and you never know. And they're going to need their defense to step up as well.
NINA MOINI: Eric, what do you think about that. Did that come true?
ERIC NELSON: Well, certainly they had an outstanding defensive season, with the exception of the game against Detroit nine days ago, and then last night against the LA Rams in the playoffs.
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
ERIC NELSON: You know, they exceeded expectations. But in the NFL, each season is like a snowflake. So once you figure out you've got something special going, which the vikings did for a long time, you need to capitalize on it and pounce on your opportunity to do something in the postseason.
And what happened last night? The team just cratered. And these final two losses to Detroit and the LA Rams, I think, leave a sour taste in the mouth of every Minnesota Viking fan in the Purple Nation. I mean, they were ready to do something good and they weren't ready for prime time. That was pretty obvious.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. And, you know, 9-27, it just-- it sounds like it was kind of rough. Wally, where do you think that the vikings really fell flat during the game?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: When they got off the bus.
[LAUGHING]
How's that? Really, it started right from the beginning. I mean, Detroit took the opening kickoff, marched down the field. I mean, they just sliced and diced the Viking defense on that opening drive. And you started thinking to yourself, boy, the Vikings better be able to respond to this, and they didn't.
They had to punt right away. They did what they call a three and out. They ran three plays, couldn't move the football, and had to punt. Detroit came down and scored again with a field goal. So it's 10 to nothing.
And before you batted an eye, you're wondering if they're going to even have a chance. Well, there was a play early in the second quarter where Jonathan Greenard sacked the quarterback, Matthew Stafford, of Detroit. Blake Cashman, he, of the University of Minnesota and Eden Prairie football fame, scooped it up and ran into the end zone.
And it looked like the vikings had tied the game at 10 apiece. But the officials ruled that Stafford's arm was moving forward. Thus, it was an incomplete pass.
And I wondered out loud, I thought to myself. I thought, wait a minute. You can't have it both ways. It can't be an incomplete pass and not have an intentional grounding penalty. And that's what happened. And the vikings weren't unable to capitalize.
And really, that was almost the last straw. They did have a chance at the end of the first half. They went for it on fourth and two near midfield. And you thought-- you figured, well, they could make this a 14-10 game--
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Or a-- before they go into the locker room. Well, or a 17-10 game, and another turnover on fourth and 2. He gets sacked and then Detroit comes down and scores again before the half. And it's 24-3 at the half. And really, that was that was game, set, and match right there.
So very, very disappointing. And I've been saying this since the end of that first half. The moment was just too big for them. They just did not live up to it.
NINA MOINI: How do you think, Eric, it goes down in the history of sort of Vikings letdowns? We had legendary Chuck Foreman who's been to the Super Bowl with the Vikings on. And we did mention, you know, is this a curse? And even he seemed to think maybe. But was this a pretty bad one.
ERIC NELSON: Absolutely. I call it just another chapter in the book of purple pain. Here's the deal, Nina. The Vikings tease, but they never please what is now a tortured fan base.
Late in the game, and a lot of people had checked out late in the game because it was over, ABC ran a crawl on the TV screen in very small font, and it posted a sobering stat. The Minnesota Vikings are the oldest franchise in major league baseball, the NBA, NFL, and NHL, known as the four major men's sports leagues in North America, to never win a title.
And the Vikings started playing back in 1961. So that's decades of coming up short and frustrating their fandom in countless ways. We're talking four Super Bowl losses, six straight NFC Championship game defeats, a Hail Mary dagger defeat to Dallas back in '75.
On and on it goes. And think about it. The Vikings won 14 games this season. They lost to only two teams, Detroit and the LA Rams. Both happened in back to back weeks. And what do they have to show for this? Squat.
The NFL is about what you do in the playoffs, not the regular season. And I hate to say this, Nina, with a polar vortex coming to Minnesota, but winter just got a lot longer.
NINA MOINI: Oh, I feel--
ERIC NELSON: After last night's debacle in the desert.
NINA MOINI: I feel you're still processing your emotions from the evening. I do wonder about Sam Darnold, who was such a star-- is such a star. And everybody thought, oh, are we even going to be able to hold on to him as a team? Wally, what does this mean for quarterback Sam Darnold?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, he was on a one-year contract that paid him $10 million this year. So let's not shed too many tears. But he had a very good season. There's no debate about that.
I think he exceeded expectations. And thus I think the Vikings exceeded expectations. You ran that clip earlier of Eric from back before the season started on the expectations for the Vikings. He'll tell you and he'll admit it, he was figuring on a five-win season.
Well, the Vikings far exceeded that and--
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: --the expectations of most by winning 14 games. So Sam Darnold had a very good year, had best year of his career. However, as I said, the moment just got too big for him. He cratered against Detroit a week ago and certainly did not play well last night against the Rams.
I think part of that was the scheme, the coaching scheme. But I think that Sam Darnold kind of faded. And I think that his big payday also faded. I think that he was going to get paid a big salary to go someplace next year.
And he'll still get paid and he still will get picked up by somebody. But I think that that went from possibly the vikings making a big push to keep him to now him out on the open market. And let's see where he lands with a team that is desperate to add a quarterback.
NINA MOINI: All right. Well, we only have about a minute left. But Eric, I do want to talk about what's next for the LA Rams. Obviously, their city of Los Angeles going through a lot. I'm sure a lot of people were rooting for the Rams. What's next for them?
ERIC NELSON: Yeah. They have to go to the city of not-so-brotherly love, Philadelphia, and play the Eagles. And I think the Rams are America's new team, at least for a for a while, because the catastrophic wildfires out there in Socal.
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
ERIC NELSON: I think there's a lot of people that think this is a feel-good story. I mean, you look at what the Arizona cardinals did, they flew their two team jets to Los Angeles to get the Rams, bring them to Phoenix so they could play this neutral site game. And the Rams organization stepped up.
They brought a total of 335 people, including players, coaches, families, and six dogs to the desert. They gave 1,500 season ticket holders a free bus trip from their stadium, SoFi in Inglewood, to State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
ERIC NELSON: So there's certainly a feel good story. They played exceptionally well last night. But I'm not sure what's going to happen against the Eagles and a very hostile fan base that goes to bed angry and wakes up angrier every morning.
NINA MOINI: All right, guys.
ERIC NELSON: That's Philadelphia.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
NINA MOINI: Thank you both so much, Wally Langfellow--
KEVIN O'CONNELL: All right.
NINA MOINI: --and Eric Nelson. Thanks, everybody for listening.
ERIC NELSON: Thank you.
That leaves quarterback Sam Darnold and the rest of the Vikings in a reflective mode, looking back not just on their final game, but on their whole season. Here's head coach Kevin O'Connell.
KEVIN O'CONNELL: I think Sam would be the first one to tell you. Could he have played better tonight? I'm sure he would tell you that he could have. Could I have coached better? I promise you I could have.
Could our team have rallied around a play here or there to try to keep that thing competitive? For sure. But the other phase of it for Sam is acknowledging the things that made him a winning quarterback this year and the consistency at the times he had it throughout the year and what that meant for our team.
NINA MOINI: Joining me now to put this all in perspective are our sports contributors, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Thank you for being here, guys.
ERIC NELSON: How's it going, Nina?
NINA MOINI: It's going well.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Nina, good to be with you.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. I mean, we thought this might happen. I do want to take us back, though, this is kind of fun, to the beginning of the vikings season, and no one really thought they would do very well, right? And they ended up 14-3 in their regular season, which is good. Eric, before the first game, this is what you had to say about the team's prospects right here on Minnesota Now.
ERIC NELSON: I don't think there's a lot of optimism surrounding the vikings. But I will say this. It's the NFL. Strange things happen and you never know. And they're going to need their defense to step up as well.
NINA MOINI: Eric, what do you think about that. Did that come true?
ERIC NELSON: Well, certainly they had an outstanding defensive season, with the exception of the game against Detroit nine days ago, and then last night against the LA Rams in the playoffs.
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
ERIC NELSON: You know, they exceeded expectations. But in the NFL, each season is like a snowflake. So once you figure out you've got something special going, which the vikings did for a long time, you need to capitalize on it and pounce on your opportunity to do something in the postseason.
And what happened last night? The team just cratered. And these final two losses to Detroit and the LA Rams, I think, leave a sour taste in the mouth of every Minnesota Viking fan in the Purple Nation. I mean, they were ready to do something good and they weren't ready for prime time. That was pretty obvious.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. And, you know, 9-27, it just-- it sounds like it was kind of rough. Wally, where do you think that the vikings really fell flat during the game?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: When they got off the bus.
[LAUGHING]
How's that? Really, it started right from the beginning. I mean, Detroit took the opening kickoff, marched down the field. I mean, they just sliced and diced the Viking defense on that opening drive. And you started thinking to yourself, boy, the Vikings better be able to respond to this, and they didn't.
They had to punt right away. They did what they call a three and out. They ran three plays, couldn't move the football, and had to punt. Detroit came down and scored again with a field goal. So it's 10 to nothing.
And before you batted an eye, you're wondering if they're going to even have a chance. Well, there was a play early in the second quarter where Jonathan Greenard sacked the quarterback, Matthew Stafford, of Detroit. Blake Cashman, he, of the University of Minnesota and Eden Prairie football fame, scooped it up and ran into the end zone.
And it looked like the vikings had tied the game at 10 apiece. But the officials ruled that Stafford's arm was moving forward. Thus, it was an incomplete pass.
And I wondered out loud, I thought to myself. I thought, wait a minute. You can't have it both ways. It can't be an incomplete pass and not have an intentional grounding penalty. And that's what happened. And the vikings weren't unable to capitalize.
And really, that was almost the last straw. They did have a chance at the end of the first half. They went for it on fourth and two near midfield. And you thought-- you figured, well, they could make this a 14-10 game--
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Or a-- before they go into the locker room. Well, or a 17-10 game, and another turnover on fourth and 2. He gets sacked and then Detroit comes down and scores again before the half. And it's 24-3 at the half. And really, that was that was game, set, and match right there.
So very, very disappointing. And I've been saying this since the end of that first half. The moment was just too big for them. They just did not live up to it.
NINA MOINI: How do you think, Eric, it goes down in the history of sort of Vikings letdowns? We had legendary Chuck Foreman who's been to the Super Bowl with the Vikings on. And we did mention, you know, is this a curse? And even he seemed to think maybe. But was this a pretty bad one.
ERIC NELSON: Absolutely. I call it just another chapter in the book of purple pain. Here's the deal, Nina. The Vikings tease, but they never please what is now a tortured fan base.
Late in the game, and a lot of people had checked out late in the game because it was over, ABC ran a crawl on the TV screen in very small font, and it posted a sobering stat. The Minnesota Vikings are the oldest franchise in major league baseball, the NBA, NFL, and NHL, known as the four major men's sports leagues in North America, to never win a title.
And the Vikings started playing back in 1961. So that's decades of coming up short and frustrating their fandom in countless ways. We're talking four Super Bowl losses, six straight NFC Championship game defeats, a Hail Mary dagger defeat to Dallas back in '75.
On and on it goes. And think about it. The Vikings won 14 games this season. They lost to only two teams, Detroit and the LA Rams. Both happened in back to back weeks. And what do they have to show for this? Squat.
The NFL is about what you do in the playoffs, not the regular season. And I hate to say this, Nina, with a polar vortex coming to Minnesota, but winter just got a lot longer.
NINA MOINI: Oh, I feel--
ERIC NELSON: After last night's debacle in the desert.
NINA MOINI: I feel you're still processing your emotions from the evening. I do wonder about Sam Darnold, who was such a star-- is such a star. And everybody thought, oh, are we even going to be able to hold on to him as a team? Wally, what does this mean for quarterback Sam Darnold?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, he was on a one-year contract that paid him $10 million this year. So let's not shed too many tears. But he had a very good season. There's no debate about that.
I think he exceeded expectations. And thus I think the Vikings exceeded expectations. You ran that clip earlier of Eric from back before the season started on the expectations for the Vikings. He'll tell you and he'll admit it, he was figuring on a five-win season.
Well, the Vikings far exceeded that and--
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: --the expectations of most by winning 14 games. So Sam Darnold had a very good year, had best year of his career. However, as I said, the moment just got too big for him. He cratered against Detroit a week ago and certainly did not play well last night against the Rams.
I think part of that was the scheme, the coaching scheme. But I think that Sam Darnold kind of faded. And I think that his big payday also faded. I think that he was going to get paid a big salary to go someplace next year.
And he'll still get paid and he still will get picked up by somebody. But I think that that went from possibly the vikings making a big push to keep him to now him out on the open market. And let's see where he lands with a team that is desperate to add a quarterback.
NINA MOINI: All right. Well, we only have about a minute left. But Eric, I do want to talk about what's next for the LA Rams. Obviously, their city of Los Angeles going through a lot. I'm sure a lot of people were rooting for the Rams. What's next for them?
ERIC NELSON: Yeah. They have to go to the city of not-so-brotherly love, Philadelphia, and play the Eagles. And I think the Rams are America's new team, at least for a for a while, because the catastrophic wildfires out there in Socal.
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
ERIC NELSON: I think there's a lot of people that think this is a feel-good story. I mean, you look at what the Arizona cardinals did, they flew their two team jets to Los Angeles to get the Rams, bring them to Phoenix so they could play this neutral site game. And the Rams organization stepped up.
They brought a total of 335 people, including players, coaches, families, and six dogs to the desert. They gave 1,500 season ticket holders a free bus trip from their stadium, SoFi in Inglewood, to State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
ERIC NELSON: So there's certainly a feel good story. They played exceptionally well last night. But I'm not sure what's going to happen against the Eagles and a very hostile fan base that goes to bed angry and wakes up angrier every morning.
NINA MOINI: All right, guys.
ERIC NELSON: That's Philadelphia.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
NINA MOINI: Thank you both so much, Wally Langfellow--
KEVIN O'CONNELL: All right.
NINA MOINI: --and Eric Nelson. Thanks, everybody for listening.
ERIC NELSON: Thank you.
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