ClutchPoints
While many have roasted Minnesota Vikings star Sam Darnold for his performance in the wild-card loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night, Dan Orlovsky of ESPN says otherwise. There is no doubt that people are looking for who to blame on the Vikings with Darnold at the top of the list, but Orlovsky argues that he is far from the reason the team lost disappointingly.
On the show “First Take,” it seemed as if host Stephen A. Smith would hone in on Darnold’s performance as being the reason Minnesota lost. However, Orlovsky would go on to call out Smith for the opinion and even say that Darnold was “fourth or fifth” in ranking the issues with the team.
“You think last night’s about Sam Donald? You’re out of your mind,” Orlovsky said. “This is where we just look at football very differently, and this is where I get really frustrated with you. You have to be, you’re so smart, and you watch so much, you got to get past the ‘he lost, quarterback stunk.’ ‘He won, quarterback was great.’ Last night. Stephen A. I would put Sam Donald at fourth or fifth when it comes to reasons why that game went the way that it went. Number one Chris Shula, all he really did was copy Aaron Glenn. Aaron Glenn laid the blueprint, the defensive coordinator for the Lions last week laid the blueprint, you talk about Justin Jefferson being open a lot, he was double-teamed more than he was open. Okay, that’s what the Lions did.”
“You think last night’s about Sam Darnold? You’re out of your mind.” @danorlovsky7 tells @stephenasmith that Sam Darnold is “4th or 5th” on the list of reasons that the Vikings lost to the Rams in the Wild Card pic.twitter.com/Oc5hvaPee3
— First Take (@FirstTake) January 14, 2025
In the Vikings’ loss to the Rams, Darnold finished throwing for 245 yards completing 25 of 40 passes to go with one touchdown and one interception. Orlovsky would give more credit to how Los Angeles’ defensive line dominated Minnesota’s offensive line resulting in nine sacks and even spoke about how head coach Kevin O’Connell was “out-coached” by opponent Sean McVay.
“Number two, I would tell you their offensive line in Minnesota got absolutely demolished by the Rams’ defensive line,” Orlovsky said. “By the way America, Rams have the best young defensive line of football. They have since October. Okay, so they got demolished. I don’t think there’s five quarterbacks in the league that were going to play good last night in Minnesota’s situation, I’d say the third thing.”
“And this is probably the most surprising,” Orlovsky continued. “Kevin O’Connell got out-coached. That’s that’s a huge part of this as well. Kevin O’Connell got out-coached. Then I would put Sam Darnold at maybe fourth or fifth. Sam Darnold wasn’t going to do much last night. No quarterback outside of like Lamar, Patrick,...
