Quarterback Sam Darnold had a strong debut for the Vikings on Sunday, helping the club defeat the Giants 28-6 to start the season 1-0.
Darnold hasn’t had many days like Sunday since the Jets selected him at No. 3 overall back in 2018. Only once has he had a better completion rate than his 79 percent — he was at 80 percent when New York defeated Indianapolis 42-34 in 2018.
Minnesota’s next opponent will be San Francisco, the team Darnold played for last year as a backup to Brock Purdy. In his Monday press conference, head coach Kevin O’Connell said Darnold’s time with the 49ers was valuable.
“I think Sam being around, the Niners and Kyle [Shanahan] and how he coached that group last year, I think he took a lot out of that,” O’Connell said. ”And then I think just the way he went about the daily, I really stressed to Sam throughout training camp as we installed plays go through a process of how you were digesting that information, what you were doing at night, if we gave him information early, how he was going about trying to be comfortable with that. What types of questions would he ask either in the quarterback meeting or when I get a chance with him one-on-one? And then that clarity that I can give him going into the games when we go through the whole call sheet the day before Saturday mornings, that red pen meeting where I think that’s the time where any and all uncertainty, gray, where he won’t have a maximum amount of confidence.
“That’s why we do the things that we do to make sure he does have that confidence.”
All of that translated to a performance where Darnold finished 19-of-24 for 208 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.
But even as the victory came in MetLife Stadium — where Darnold played his home games for his first three seasons — O’Connell didn’t get the sense that it meant a little extra to the quarterback.
“I mean, I didn’t get a chance to see him talk to you guys, but I think he mentioned to me something about just some people that worked at the stadium,” O’Connell said. “Some of the folks that he said hello to, Jihad Ward was kind of the same way. It really wasn’t — I don’t know whether, for whatever reason, it just doesn’t hit his brain like that. He’s too focused on kind of what we’ve talked about and playing the position and just it was his first start, so I think he was thinking about a lot of other things.
“But it may help just the surroundings, knowing where the play clock was, knowing which sideline he’d be on, and what locker room he’d be coming out of, all those things. But other than that, Sam was focused on the right stuff.”
