Some Minnesota Vikings fans feel as if their team wasn’t given a fair shake on ‘Thursday Night Football’ against the Los Angeles Rams, and they may have a point. At the very least, Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell has reason to be upset about the 30-20 loss, which featured a controversial facemask no-call that put the game out of reach for Minnesota.
O’Connell, whose team has now lost two in a row after a 5-0 start to the season, did not go in on the officials’ blunder following the game.
“It looked like he got a pretty good amount of face mask there,” O’Connell said [h/t ESPN]. “I’m not going to get into the call, or no-call, or all that stuff. I talked to our team, officiating and all that stuff … for us to talk about that, for us to seek comfort in that, is not how we’re going to respond to this. It’s just not going to happen. I’m going to do the same thing right now. I really don’t have a comment on that. Looked like he got a piece of the face mask, but they didn’t think so, so they didn’t throw the flag.”
Vikings fall to Rams after referees miss facemask on final drive
The Vikings, trailing 28-20 in the final two minutes, were backed up inside their own 5-yard line. On second-and-10, quarterback Sam Darnold dropped back to pass in his own end zone and was ultimately taken down by Byron Young for the safety.
However, it was immediately clear that Young had tugged on Darnold’s facemask while throwing him down to the turf. After turning Darnold’s head sideways while grabbing the facemask, Young, realizing his error, put his hands to his head and ran away from the end zone thinking he had just given Minnesota a huge break.
But the referees did not see Young grabbing Darnold’s facemask and instead ruled it a legal sack and safety, putting the Rams ahead by 10 with just 1:36 remaining. Although the Vikings may not have been able to drive 95 yards to score in 100 or so seconds, the safety made it impossible, as Los Angeles received the ball following the safety and ran out the clock.
Like his coach, Darnold, who pleaded with the referees immediately after the play, did not use the facemask as an excuse for the defeat.
“It is what it is,” Darnold said. “I thought we could have done a lot to not put ourselves in the situation that we were in. … So we’ve just got to continue to play better and not put ourself in that position to begin with.”
Minnesota returns home next week for a game vs. the Indianapolis Colts, against whom the Vikings will try to avoid extending their losing streak to three. The Vikings won their first five games but have since lost to the Detroit Lions, their NFC North rivals, as well as the Rams, who were 2-4 entering Thursday’s game.
