The Vikings move to 7-2 on the season with the road victory. Head coach Kevin O’Connell could not have been happy with what he saw on the field as the Vikings looked lost on offense. Sam Donald had 241 yards, but he also had three interceptions. Darnold has a horrible habit of holding the ball and not looking off his receivers. Even worse is that the ball sailed over his receivers head multiple times, and he could have easily been picked off one or two more times. The Vikings are very happy with how Darnold has played, but he is not the long-term answer at quarterback, as the team loves injured rookie J.J. McCarthy, who will be back next season.
Justin Jefferson
Justin Jefferson was only able to garner five receptions for 48 yards, which was a major disappointment, considering the Jaguars defense has been shaky all season. The good news was that TJ Hockenson seems to be back to normal, as he had eight receptions for 72 yards on nine targets. In fact, Hockenson tied Justin Jefferson with a 23% target share, showing that he is a clear TE1 moving forward. Now would be the time to trade for him if you can.
Jordan Addison
The Vikings need to figure out a way to get second-year receiver Jordan Addison more involved in the offense. Addison had five targets and two receptions for 25 yards. The bigger problem is that Addison is open most of the time, but Darnold doesn’t figure out how to look off his first receiver and find his progression.
Brian Thomas Jr.
The Jaguars move to 2-8 on the season and arguably may be one of the worst two or three teams in football. To compound things further, this was one of the worst endings to a game in recent memory. Trayvon Walker committed a ridiculous penalty at the end of the game for unnecessary roughness. The Jaguars never had another chance to get the ball, and the game ended despite how well the Jacksonville defense had played. At this point, Jaguars ownership needs to figure out whether Doug Peterson should be fired as its head coach. The playcalling has been abysmal; the effort has not been there each week, and outside of WR Brian Thomas, none of the young players seem to be progressing. Owner Sharif Khan has said that he’s happy with the direction of the team but that seems hard to believe considering how bad the Jaguars have played this season.
Lawrence is clearly better than Jones
Mac Jones started in place of Trevor Lawrence at quarterback and only threw for 111 yards and two interceptions. Even more concerning was that Brian Thomas Jr. only had two receptions for 12 yards. Prior to his injury in Week 8 Thomas was averaging over 6 targets per game and 71 receiving yards. In the past two games, he’s had 3 targets and 17 receiving yards per game. That might be about better coverage, or it might simply mean that Thomas is more injured than he is letting on. The bottom line is that if you can’t get your best player the football, you’re never going to win.