Dan Orlovsky Blasts Viking’s O-Line And Kevin O’Connell
Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
It finally happened. The haters and losers circling around Sam Darnold finally got to feast on his carcass after two big-time losses in Week 18 and the Wild Card round, which ended the Minnesota Vikings seasons. As feel-good as the Darnold story was through most of the regular season, many analysts and pundits eyed his breakout year with something of a step beyond skepticism. It was as if their world had gone crazy, and only Darnold’s collapse could set things right again.
As a New Yorker, Stephen A. Smith saw too much of the Old Darnold to buy in. Before Darnold first started imploding at Ford Field, Smith went on a slightly inaccurate rant in which he claimed that Darnold hadn’t had a 300-yard game between Weeks 13 and 17 (he passed for 347 yards in Week 14 and 377 yards the previous Sunday).
“All of a sudden, it’s Air Coryell now?” Smith chided an ESPN panel. “It’s Dan Fouts, it’s Dan Marino?… What are we talking about here?”
"We're talking about Sam Darnold…The man hasn’t thrown for 300 yards since November 24th against Chicago…Let’s not act like this is the second coming of Dan Marino."@stephenasmith wants to “wait and see” on #Vikings QB Sam Darnoldpic.twitter.com/8vmQD4Z2Xp
— VikingzFanPage (@vikingzfanpage) January 2, 2025
Credit to the haters and losers, their worldview came back into focus as they were proven right against the Detroit Lions and LA Rams. They’re out there right now, taking their well-deserved victory laps, and leading the way is Smith, who spiked the football like Gronk in the Super Bowl while taking former NFL quarterback and Noted Darnold Believer Dan Orlovsky to task on Tuesday’s First Take.
“You’re so full of it!” exploded Smith, shifting from quiet to loud as quickly as a Pixies song. He continued (edited for brevity and coherence): “When Sam Darnold was balling out, I sat up there weeks in advance and said ‘We’re gonna see when it counts now,’ because you got about six years of history to look at… You’re calling me out… I’ve got clips, I’ve got receipts.”
There’s only one move you can make when Smith backs you into a corner with his famous argument style: You gotta hit back, and hit hard. And Orlovsky had some haymakers that landed blows on Smith, Kevin O’Connell, and the Vikings’ offensive line. The rebuttal from Orlovsky:
You’re out of your mind. You’re out of your mind. This is where we just look at football very differently, and this is where I get really frustrated with you. You’re so smart and you watch so much; you got to get past the ‘team lost, quarterback stunk’ ‘team won, quarterback was great.’ [Monday] night, Stephen, I would put Sam Darnold 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 open a lot, he was double-teamed more than he was open… that’s what the Lions did!
Number two, I would tell you their offensive line in Minnesota got absolutely demolished by [the] Rams defensive line…They got demolished. I don’t think there’s five quarterbacks in the league that were going to play [well] last night in Minnesota’s situation.
I’d say the third thing — and this is probably the most surprising, I really thought, and I think the world of him — Kevin O’Connell got out coached. 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 [Monday] night. No quarterback outside of like Lamar [Jackson], Patrick [Mahomes], Josh Allen was going to do much. So we can have the ‘Oh my gosh, Sam Darnold stunk’ reality or conversation or we can have the reality that the offensive line got embarrassed by a better defensive line
That’s a lot. It might not be as easy as being Team Stephen A. or Team Orlovsky, here, though. Multiple things can be true. It’s absolutely accurate to say that both Glenn and Sean McVay handed O’Connell’s lunch to him, and he couldn’t figure out a way to beat the looks the Lions and Rams threw at him. It’s also fair to point fingers at an interior offensive line that has always threatened to be the Vikings’ undoing. Orlovsky is clear-eyed on this.
But still, Stephen A. is right to point out Darnold’s role in these losses, as his deficiencies added fuel to the flames. It doesn’t matter how bad your protection is, a quarterback can’t get sacked nine times in a playoff game. The Rams did a great job at throwing bodies at Darnold and jamming up Vikings receivers at the line of scrimmage, but the solution there is to simply throw the ball out of bounds.
If you’re a Vikings fans (and especially, if you’re the Vikings) trying to figure out exactly where the blame goes is a much worse use of your time than having everyone look at themselves in the mirror and figuring out what it must take to ensure the same sort of flameout doesn’t happen again. It’s a team effort, and unfortunately for Minnesota, there were no heroes on Monday night.
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