Darnold and O’Connell don’t blame missing face mask call for Vikings loss to Rams

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — When Minnesota quarterback Sam Darnold was sacked for a safety late in the fourth quarter Thursday night, he didn’t blame officials for missing a face mask call. Lost to Los Angeles Rams 30-20.

Instead, Darnold lamented the situation fixing the situation vikings First of all, it’s deep.

“That’s what a face mask is,” Darnold said. “I thought we could do a lot to avoid getting ourselves into the situation we were in. We just need to keep playing better and not put ourselves in that situation to begin with.”

The Vikings took the ball at their own 5-yard line with 1:46 left after Rams punter Ethan Evans’ 41-yard kick went wide of the left sideline.

Darnold missed connecting with Jordan Addison on first down. On second-and-10, Darnold got a few clean seconds in the pocket before Byron Young got past left linebacker Blake Brandel and grounded Darnold to safety, putting the play out of reach.

Referee Tra Blake said in the pool report that she and referee Carl Paganelli, the two referees closest to the game, did not have a clear view.

Blake said the referee staff discussed the play after the Vikings brought up Young’s infraction, but no one could clearly see it.

Face mask searches cannot be reviewed via instant replay.

“The quarterback was looking in the opposite direction from me, so I didn’t get a good look at him. “I didn’t look and didn’t see the face mask being pulled down,” Blake said. “The referee had players between him and the quarterback, so he didn’t look. He was also blocked. So it was, we couldn’t see it so we couldn’t say it. “We couldn’t see that.”

“(Young) looked like he had a pretty good amount of facemask in there,” coach Kevin O’Connell said, but he wouldn’t blame that for Minnesota’s second defeat in five days.

“I told our team, referees and stuff, to talk about it and seek solace, we’re not going to respond to it that way,” he said. “It looked like he had taken part of the face mask, but they didn’t think so, so they didn’t throw away the flag.”

Had Young been penalized, the Vikings would have had first-and-10 on their own 20 points. But they had no timeouts and needed a touchdown and 2-point conversion to send the game to overtime.

O’Connell’s biggest concern is left tackle Christian Darrisow, who injured his left knee late in the first half.

Darrisow was hit in the side by Rams safety Jaylen McCollough while blocking Aaron Jones’ run. When McCollough attempted to dive at Jones, he lost his balance and fell to the ground.

David Quessenberry replaced Darrisow at left tackle for the remainder of the game. Darrisow was on crutches as he left the locker room after the game.

“We’ll continue that assessment here and on Friday and try to confirm what this is, doing what we can to get positive news,” O’Connell said.

Minnesota is reeling from two straight losses after winning its first five games. 31-29 defeat Last Sunday in Detroit.

The Lions (5-1) have moved into the lead in the hyper-competitive NFC North, with Green Bay (5-2) and Chicago (4-2) not far behind.

“A little goodbye will help us get healthy, look at ourselves in the mirror and do the little things right,” said Darnold, who was 25-of-18 for 240 yards and two touchdowns. “At the end of the day, I feel like we have to get the little things right and go over the details. If we do that, I know we’re going to be a really good offense and team. These are the little things we can control.”

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