Los Angeles Rams 27, Minnesota Vikings 9: Season Ends in Arizona

It really wasn’t all that close

When the Minnesota Vikings lined up against the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football to wrap up Super Wild Card Weekend, they had an opportunity to put the awful performance in the regular season finale behind them and extend their season.

Instead, they’re now heading for the offseason with a lot of questions they’re going to need to answer.

The Vikings found themselves down by 21 at halftime following a disastrous first half performance, and it didn’t get much better from there as their season ended at State Farm Stadium in Glendale with a 27-9 loss to wrap up the Wild Card round of the playoffs.

The Rams got the ball first and, despite being one of the worst first quarter teams in the league, marched right down the field with Matthew Stafford finding Kyren Williams for a 5-yard touchdown pass to give the “home” team an early 7-0 lead less than five minutes into the game.

After the Vikings went three-and-out on their first possession, Los Angeles added to their lead on a 34-yard field goal from Joshua Karty to extend their lead to 10-0 with four minutes left in the opening quarter. Minnesota answered on the second play of the second quarter, with Will Reichard connecting on a 34-yard field goal of his own to cut the score to 10-3.

The Vikings appeared to have a defensive touchdown on the Rams’ first play after the field goal, but it was taken off the board when the officials decided that Stafford was attempting to throw it instead. Sufficient to say, Kevin O’Connell was not pleased.

The Vikings got a break on their next possession, as they were forced to punt but the Rams were called for roughing on punter Ryan Wright to give the Vikings a fresh set of downs. Unfortunately, a few plays later the Vikings turned it over anyway as Sam Darnold’s pass was intercepted by Cobie Durant to end the Vikings’ possession.

The Rams’ defense then got a score of their own later in the second quarter, as Sam Darnold was sacked by Akhello Witherspoon and fumbled it away with rookie Jared Verse recovering it and taking the ball 57 yards for a defensive touchdown to make it 17-3 with just under five minutes left in the half.

The Vikings turned the ball over on downs just after the two-minute warning as Darnold was sacked for a sixth time on a fourth down play to give the Rams the ball in very good field position. They took advantage, with Stafford finding Davis Allen for a 13-yard touchdown to make the score 24-3 going into halftime.

Los Angeles added more points midway through the third quarter, as Karty added a 44-yard field goal to make it 27-3. Then, the Vikings got their first touchdown since Week 17 as Darnold found T.J. Hockenson for a 26-yard touchdown pass to make it 27-9 with about five minutes left in the third quarter. The Vikings went for a two-point conversion and failed to keep the deficit at 18 points.

That put an end to the scoring for the evening, as the Vikings finish the season with a 14-4 record, having only lost to two teams during the entire season, ending up as a Wild Card team, and not making it to the Divisional Round. It was a fun season, but the final two weeks are going to leave a pretty nasty taste in the mouths of a lot of fans.

It’s time to start looking towards the offseason for the Minnesota Vikings, as they fall to the Los Angeles Rams in the Wild Card round of the 2024 NFL playoffs by a score of 27-9. Thank you to everyone who got their coverage of this week’s game, and their coverage of this entire season, right here at The Daily Norseman!