Minnesota Vikings 28, New York Giants 6: Defense, Darnold Dominant

The Vikings, for once, got an easy victory

In the 2024 season opener at MetLife Stadium, fans of the Minnesota Vikings got a glimpse of how they hope this team can win all season long, even if it was against a team that spent most of the day looking like a mess.

Sam Darnold threw two touchdown passes in his regular-season Vikings debut and the Minnesota defense kept the New York Giants completely out of the end zone in a dominant 28-6 victory over New York in Week 1 action.

The Giants got on the board first, thanks in large part to another Vikings’ turnover, which was their Achilles heel last year. C.J. Ham fumbled the ball away on a third down catch to set the Giants up near the Minnesota red zone, and they turned it into a 23-yard field goal from Graham Gano to give the home team a 3-0 lead halfway through the first quarter.

The Vikings took the lead on their next possession, courtesy of a 3-yard touchdown run from the newly-acquired Aaron Jones. The big play on the drive was a 36-yard pass interference penalty on a long pass attempt to Jordan Addison that moved the ball into Giants’ territory. With Will Reichard’s extra point, the Vikings had a 7-3 lead with just under four minutes left in the opening quarter.

After the Giants downed a punt at the 1-yard line, the Vikings put together as impressive a drive as you’ll ever see, with Darnold throwing it all over the lot and pushing into New York territory. They wound up facing a 4th-and-2 from the New York 3-yard line, and Kevin O’Connell elected to go for it. His confidence was rewarded with a 3-yard touchdown pass from Darnold to Justin Jefferson to make it a 14-3 game midway through the second quarter.

We also saw the first NFL sack for rookie Dallas Turner, who put an end to the Giants’ two-minute drive at the end of the first half.

The second half started in very nice fashion for the Vikings as well, as they marched down the field on their opening possession and put the ball into the end zone again as Darnold found Jalen Nailor for a 21-yard score. Reichard’s extra point split the uprights, and it was quickly 21-3 in favor of Minnesota.

The Giants finally added some more points midway through the third quarter, as Graham Gano connected on a 50-yard field goal to make it a 21-6 game. The next touchdown in the game came courtesy of the Minnesota defense and linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel, who stepped in front of a Jones pass and intercepted it, taking it back 10 yards for a Vikings touchdown and a 28-6 lead.

Darnold did wind up throwing an interception near the end of the third quarter, as he was trying to throw one deep but got hit by Dexter Lawrence on the throw, resulting in an interception by Giants’ rookie Darius Muasau at midfield. Fortunately, the Vikings came up with another interception of their own on the ensuing drive, as Harrison Smith picked off Jones in the end zone on a fourth-down attempt to keep the home team without a touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

The Giants had one more opportunity to score, but another pass from Jones fell incomplete and the Vikings were able to run out the clock, preserving their biggest victory since a 29-point win over the Los Angeles Chargers back in 2019. Darnold finished the afternoon with 19 completions in 24 attempts for 208 yards, two touchdown passes, and an interception.

There was a bit of bad news for the Vikings, as Jordan Addison left the game in the third quarter after aggravating the ankle injury he had been dealing with and did not return. We will have to monitor his status heading into next week’s home opener at U.S. Bank Stadium against San Francisco.

The Minnesota Vikings thrash the New York Giants to open the 2024 NFL season by a final score of 28-6 at MetLife Stadium. Thank you to everybody who got their coverage of this week’s contest right here at The Daily Norseman!