At the end of the second quarter of the Vikings’ eventual 30-20 loss to the Rams on Thursday, offensive tackle Christian Darrisaw suffered what appeared to be a potentially significant knee injury.
Darrisaw gingerly walked off the field with trainers’ assistance and was ruled out early in the third quarter.
After the game, head coach Kevin O’Connell said he did not have an update on the left tackle.
“Christian Darrisaw did sustain a left knee injury,” O’Connell said. “But, we’ll continue that evaluation here and on into tomorrow and then try to confirm what that is. [We’re] keeping our fingers crossed that we get some positive news.”
The Vikings inserted David Quessenberry at left tackle for the last play of the second quarter and he remained there for the second half. O’Connell admitted Darrisaw’s injury changed some of Minnesota’s offensive approach.
“I think they’ve got some good young rushers and we were trying to do the best we could to make sure we were cognizant of that, with plays we were calling — maybe limiting the menu a little bit to try to get some help over there on the left side. Made a few plays,” O’Connell said. “I thought ‘Quess’ came in and battled. We’ll see what it looks like with CD and ultimately put together a good plan. Regardless of who’s out there, I’ve got a lot of confidence in our guys. But you lose a guy like CD in the middle of the game, game plan’s kind of rolling a little bit outside of the penalties at that point, and we felt it.
“But, once again, no excuse. Next man up and we’ve got to roll.”
Quarterback Sam Darnold echoed that sentiment when asked about losing Darrisaw after the game.
“Yeah, obviously Christian’s a really good player,” Darnold said. “But I would say it’s the same thing [as] when Aaron [Jones] went out a couple games ago — for the next guy to be able to come in and do a great job, that’s what we always count on. We always expect the next guy to step up and do a great job. And I’m very confident in DQ to be able to do that.”
