Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
The ghosts made an appearance at Ford Field Sunday night.<\/p>\n
Sam Darnold looked like the Jets version of himself instead of the potential franchise quarterback he\u2019s resembled for most of the season during an awful performance in the Vikings\u2019 31-9 loss to the Lions in the battle for the NFC\u2019s No. 1 seed and the NFC North crown on \u201cSunday Night Football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darnold misfired on several potential touchdowns early in the game and posted season-lows in passing yards (166) and completion percentage (43.9 percent) after going 18-for-41.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, disappointing game,\u201d Darnold said. \u201cFelt like, for me personally, didn\u2019t hit the throws that I should hit in the red zone, especially early on. Just didn\u2019t execute the way we wanted to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darnold\u2019s resurgence played a major factor in why the Vikings entered Sunday with a 14-2 mark but he did not rise to the occasion in the season\u2019s biggest moment.<\/p>\n
The performance adds an extra layer of pressure as the narrative of his season of redemption could turn quickly if he plays similarly in the wild-card round against the Rams.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old is in line for a huge contract this offseason after he brilliantly piloted the Vikings offense in 2024.<\/p>\n
The No. 3 pick in the 2018 draft, who once said he saw \u201cghosts\u201d in an awful Jets game against the Patriots, led four drives into the red zone but only scored six points, including two turnovers on downs.<\/p>\n
The Vikings had scored touchdowns on 60 percent of their red zone drives entering the game, according to NBC.<\/p>\n
The first drive came with Minnesota down, 7-0, early in the second quarter and Darnold fired three straight incompletions while at the Lions\u2019 5-yard line.<\/p>\n
Following an interception on the Lions\u2019 next possession that gave the Vikings the ball at Detroit\u2019s seven-yard line, Darnold again threw three incompletions.<\/p>\n
This time, head coach Kevin O\u2019Connell opted for a field goal to cut the deficit to 7-3.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeemed to be some opportunities, chances maybe to put seven on the board,\u201d O\u2019Connell said. \u201cHe\u2019s hit a lot of those all season long and not one of those plays did I call and the outcome of the play change my mentality for Sam for the rest of the day. I always believe he\u2019s going to hit the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe Lions defense played man coverage on 66.7% of dropbacks, the 2nd-highest rate by a defense in a game this season.Darnold finished 10 of 28 for 125 yards against man (-20.1% CPOE), while completing only 1 of 9 attempts on dropbacks over four seconds.Powered by @awscloud pic.twitter.com\/HzVwfqDsXu\u2014 Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) January 6, 2025 <\/p>\n
Minnesota also settled for a field goal late in the second quarter to make it a 7-6 game after getting the ball inside the 20 and, in what proved to be a turning point in the game, failed to score on the first drive in the second quarter despite having a first-and-goal at the 5-yard line.<\/p>\n
Receiver Jordan Addison seemed to be wide open on fourth down for a touchdown, but Darnold hesitated and later fired an incompletion to Addison in tight coverage.<\/p>\n
Darnold said he felt his feet and eyes were fine and he made some right reads during the game, but just simply did not make the throws he needed to.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connell noted that Darnold missed high with his throws early.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust going down in the red zone and kicking field goals, that\u2019s not going to cut it against a good team like that,\u201d Darnold said. \u201cJust got to be a lot better for myself, personally, got to hit the throws in tight coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darnold stressed that he needed to watch the tape to have a full evaluation of what went wrong, but he\u2019ll have extra time to prepare for the Vikings\u2019 wild-card road matchup next Monday against the Rams.<\/p>\n
The Rams are one of two teams to beat Minnesota this year, triumphing 30-20 at SoFi Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe obviously didn\u2019t have the day we want to have,\u201d Darnold said. \u201cBut we\u2019re looking forward to the challenge that awaits with playoffs and everything, just getting ready for that next step and going 1-0 next week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic The ghosts made an appearance at Ford Field Sunday night. Sam Darnold looked like the Jets version of himself instead of the potential franchise quarterback he\u2019s resembled for most of the season during an awful performance in the Vikings\u2019 31-9 loss to the Lions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-155037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155039,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155037\/revisions\/155039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}