Vikings Get Justice for Sam Darnold Face Mask, but Punishment Too Little, Too Late

The Minnesota Vikings lost their most recent game due to a missed face mask penalty that led to a safety and a 10-point victory for the Los Angeles Rams on “Thursday Night Football.”

That Rams linebacker Byron Young grabbed the face mask of Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold during the process of the sack inside Minnesota’s end zone was obvious to anyone watching the game, though apparently not to the officials on the field standing just feet away from the play.

Referees did not throw a flag, and the Vikings lost by a score of 30-20, with the safety taking possession away from Minnesota and making the contest a two-score game rather a one-score affair. The missed call effectively robbed the Vikings of a chance to move to 6-1, even if that chance was slim.

On Saturday, November 3, the NFL imposed a fine on Young for his behavior. The punishment is an acknowledgement by the league that the penalty occurred, but the action is too little and too late to matter to Minnesota either way, as the team prepares for a “Sunday Night Football” matchup with the Indianapolis Colts.

“The NFL fined the Rams’ Byron Young $7,014.19 for his face mask of Sam Darnold on the Vikings’ final play in their loss to the Rams on Oct. 24,” Ben Goessling of the Star Tribune reported via an X post. “Young was not called for a penalty; referee Tra Blake said after the game his crew didn’t have a good enough view to call it.”

Vikings Will Try to End 2-Game Losing Streak Against Colts on Sunday Night Football

The Vikings have now lost two games in a row after a 5-0 start to the season, after which Darnold garnered serious discussion involving the league’s MVP Award.

That has cooled off in the interim, and Minnesota’s main focus Sunday night has to be avoiding a three-game skid by getting back into the win column against the Colts.

Indianapolis is dealing with some significant tumult of its own, as the team has benched second-year quarterback Anthony Richardson in favor of veteran Joe Flacco — presumably for the remainder of the season.

The franchise decided to go to Flacco despite the fact that the Colts selected the 22-year-old Richardson with the No. 4 overall pick in last year’s draft. A primary reason is that Richardson pulled himself out of last week’s game against the Houston Texans because he was tired, which opened him up to massive amounts of criticism across the national sports landscape.

Sam Darnold Has Struggled Somewhat After Hot Start to Season

Minnesota will need to do its best to take advantage of that dysfunction Sunday night at U.S. Bank Stadium, and the best chance to accomplish that is a resurgence from Darnold.

Darnold was decent against the Rams, throwing for 240 yards and 2 TDs in the loss. However, he combined for just 438 passing yards, 1 TD and 2 INTs in the two previous games — a loss and a win against the Detroit Lions and New York Jets, respectively.

The Vikings can’t climb back into a tie for first atop the NFC North Division after the Lions bested the Green Bay Packers Sunday, though they can cement their position in second place — one game behind Detroit — with a victory over the Colts.