What We Learned About the Minnesota Vikings in London Win Over Jets

By Andrew Buller-Russ |

Updated: Oct 6, 2024

Entering Week 5, the Minnesota Vikings were facing one of their toughest tests yet. A long trip across the pond to London for a matchup against a familiar foe. While Aaron Rodgers no longer plays for the Green Bay Packers, the New York Jets have just as many irritants.

From an aggressive defense, featuring a handsy shutdown All-Pro cornerback in Sauce Gardner, to Rodgers’ ability to pick defenses apart, the Vikings needed everything they had to remain undefeated on Sunday morning (or afternoon, depending on where you watched the game).

The Vikings could have made it look a lot easier. There were plenty of mistakes from both teams, but Minnesota had multiple opportunities to put the Jets away. Finally, with less than one minute remaining, they finally did, thanks to a Stephon Gilmore game-sealing interception, inside the Vikings 15 yard line.

STEPHON GILMORE SEALS THE WIN WITH A PICK.#NYJvsMIN pic.twitter.com/3Li9D2uZw1
— NFL (@NFL) October 6, 2024

From poor coaching decisions to errant passes, and penalty problems of their all over the place. Meanwhile, the Jets deserve some credit for bouncing back after falling behind 17-0.

Yet, for the second week in a row, the Vikings fought off a late rally on the road, doing exactly what was needed to move to 5-0 in the gut-wrenching 23-17 win. There were several ups and downs throughout the game, but what did we really learn from the Vikings in Week 5? It turns out, we learned a lot.

Maybe Sam Darnold isn’t an MVP candidate after all

Coming into the game, Sam Darnold looked like an MVP candidate after four weeks. He led the NFL in passing touchdowns, and of course, an undefeated record didn’t hurt either. While the record is still spotless, for the first time in a Vikings uniform, Darnold really struggled.

He completed just 14-of-31 passes for 179 yards, plus an interception on a pass that sailed. His 45.1% completion rate was the fifth-lowest mark of his career. Yet, to be fair, his receivers also dropped several passes, including Justin Jefferson on what felt like an off-day for the superstar.

ah yeah there's the Sam Darnold the Jets remember pic.twitter.com/m5IfwfK9y4
— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) October 6, 2024

Easily the most inaccurate Sam Darnold has been this season. Overthrows Jefferson and Addison on that possession. Thank goodness for rookie Will Reichard, who has now hit from 54 and 53 yards.

Vikings 20, Jets 10. 12:07 Q4.
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) October 6, 2024

Still, Darnold didn’t look unflappable on a day when he was facing a playmaking secondary plus a pass rush that generated four sacks. Yet, this was to be expected, considering the Jets entered play allowing the fewest pass yards per attempt and the second-fewest passing yards, all season.

We have seen the warts in Sam’s game first-hand in recent weeks, through spurts of poor play. When his first or second reads aren’t there and he starts to run out of options, he has a panic instinct to him. But now, Darnold and Coach O’Connell have an extra week to dive into the film, before resuming play on Oct. 20 against the Lions.

I have the utmost confidence the two of them will get things figured out. At least to a degree where the offense will work, and work well. This is what K.O. does. If anyone can make the Vikings offense work, it’s him. And remember, TJ. Hockenson will be returning to the lineup soon after the bye week, too.

The Minnesota Vikings’ offense isn’t the same without Aaron Jones

With Aaron Jones, the Vikings’ offense was getting seemingly anything they wanted against the Jets, gaining 111 yards and scoring 10 points on three drives. Once he left with a hip injury, everything changed.

The Vikings only gained 142 yards and scored 13 more points on their eight drives without Jones when the offense was forced to turn to Ty Chandler and Myles Gaskin. Chandler did have his longest gain, a 32-yard rush, negated by an illegal shift penalty.

Otherwise, the third-year running back was quite ineffective, rushing 14 times for 30 yards, for a paltry 2.1 YPC average. This offense needs their starting running back to be explosive, and Jones’ injury status is something that bears watching coming of the bye week.

Andrew Van Ginkel and Stephon Gilmore are really good

We can’t say enough about Andrew Van Ginkel. He just signed a contract with the Vikings this offseason, but is it too early to discuss an extension? He may not be the future at the position, that role belongs to Dallas Turner, but AVG is proving himself invaluable to Brian Flores’ defense.

For the second time this season, Van Ginkel surprised a New York quarterback by confusing him pre-and post-snap. The result both times have been walk into the endzone pick-sixes. Van Ginkel is now the only player in NFL history to have three sacks and more than one interception return for a touchdown, through five games.

Andrew Van Ginkel, who also had an interception-return TD in Week 1, is the first player in @NFL history with 3 sacks and multiple interception-return TDs in his team's first 5 games of a season. https://t.co/2napWrXhKy
— NFL345 (@NFL345) October 6, 2024

Van Ginkel signed a two-year, $20 million contract, but his ability to both drop back in coverage or be an effective pass-rusher makes him priceless. The same could be said for Stephon Gilmore, who signed late during training camp to a $7 million contract.

Gilmore’s 169 games of NFL experience were on full display, in the final moments, on Sunday. In fact, the vetera CB oftentimes seemed to have a better understanding of where Aaron Rodgers wanted to go with the football than Rodgers’ own receivers did. That was especially true on the Jets’ final offensive play of the game, seen earlier in this article.

It was the 34-year-old’s first interception of the season, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Obviously, there are a lot of new Minnesota Vikings defenders contributing week-in and week-out. But none have been more crucial to this team’s 5-0 start than Stephon Gilmore.

Will Reichard has nerves of steel

Vikings fans will never forget Daniel Carlson. After being selected 167th overall as a fifth-round pick, Carlson won the kicking job as a rookie. But he didn’t last longer than two weeks after missing a 48, 49, and 35-yard field goal, the last of which was a potential game-winner. Mike Zimmer made sure he was cut the very next day.

So when the Vikings selected Will Reichard 203rd overall as a sixth-round pick in April, forgive us if we had some of the same memories. Yet, the story has been entirely different this time around.

Reichard entered Week 5 with a perfect execution rate, nailing all six field goals and all 14 extra points. Then on Sunday. Reichard was called upon again, in several big moments. And every time, the rookie delivered. Because, why wouldn’t he?

He got the scoring party started, with a 54-yard field goal, to put the Vikings up 3-0. Later, after the Jets scored 10 points in a row and cut Minnesota’s lead to 17-10, Reichard came through again. This time, he hit a gutsy 53-yarder to push the Vikings’ lead back to two possessions.

ah yeah there's the Sam Darnold the Jets remember pic.twitter.com/m5IfwfK9y4
— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) October 6, 2024

After the Jets got a second chance following Darnold’s interception and scored to make it a 20-17 game, Reichard hammered home what ended up being the final nail in the coffin: a 41-yard field goal to close out a 23-17 win.

5-0 Minnesota Vikings, that’s all that matters.

With that, the Jets knew they needed at least a touchdown to tie or win, which only created more pressure on Rodgers to make big-time throws, leading to the game-sealing interception for Gilmore. It all came full circle, but without Reichard having nerves of steel, the Vikings wouldn’t be 5-0.