The Minnesota Vikings won over the Atlanta Falcons by a score of 42-21, which was a performance that stood out in the fourth quarter.
Going into the final 15 minutes tied at 21, quarterback Sam Darnold led the Vikings offense to 21 unanswered points to win by the same amount. His play earned him NFC Offensive Player of the Week, his second award after earning NFC Offensive Player of the Month for September.
The play from Darnold was the biggest factor in getting the win, but a play early on in the game ended up swinging the momentum in the Vikings' favor
Matt Daniels explains rare special teams penalty
One of the interesting things that happens with teams and the officials is the communication between then before and during the game. Officials will talk to the coaching staffs about what they are looking for.
That led to the officials telling special teams coordinator Matt Daniels about something in field goal situations that would be a point of emphasis.
"There's been a trend going on around the league, that where, what's happening is, is guys are swiping the down hand of linemen that's kind of causing them basically to fall. And I guess, you know, officials are starting to consider that to be technically holding on the field goal block team. And so they came to me. They came to me prior to the game, kind of notified me like they're on the lookout for that, and they're considering calling the defensive hold. And so kind of stay away from being able to kind of use that technique."
The play itself felt innocuous at the time but when you look at what happens to the Vikings blockers, it makes sense.
If you watch 93 David Onyemata, he pulls down three players to try and help his teammates penetrate to get a field goal block.
"That's really an advantage to the field goal block team," said Daniels about the call. "Because obviously you got one hand down, using that as all your leverage, and your other hand, you know, it's outside hand help. And so what happens is, is when that defenders knocks that arm out, quite frankly, I mean, up toppling down to the ground right there. And so, the rifts or officials are kind of seeing that as a holding call. So that's kind of what that penalty was there. How often did officials approach you and stuff like that.
"It depends on who the crew is, you know, it also depends on the opposing coordinator. Maybe it's something they alerting the opposing team doing like, hey, looking how they do X, Y and Z that could be considered illegal as a pull and snatch on a pressure return, or the swipe on a field goal block. Or, hey, this guy gets really handsy on K, or with this technique, you know, just kind of ID, and certain guys or certain techniques are kind of that's showing up from previous weeks. And, you know, officials are looking at the tape of each team every Friday and just kind of going through it to see, like, Okay, what do we need to be alerted for that could possibly come up in a game that we kind of got to have our eyes open for? And so that's kind of one of the things that they brought up to me."
Why was the call so important? Instead of keeping the field goal on the board, they ended up turning the drive into a touchdown to Justin Jefferson.
That little bit of momentum made a difference in the second quarter and in turn, the rest of the game. Little things add up quickly and having a coaching staff that knows the little things has been huge for the Vikings.
