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The No. 5 seed Minnesota Vikings travel to Los Angeles to face the fourth-seeded Rams at SoFi Stadium on Monday night at 8:00 pm ET on ESPN to close the NFL’s Super Wild Card Weekend.
The Vikings finished the season 14-3 with a 31-9 loss at the Detroit Lions on Sunday night ending a nine-game win streak, which knocked them into a Wild Card position. Their last loss before that extended win streak came at the hands of the team they are playing Monday night, the Rams. This is the second time in three seasons that Minnesota has reached the postseason under coach Kevin O’Connell.
Los Angeles is making its sixth playoff appearance, and second straight, in eight seasons under head coach Sean McVay. The team won five straight before closing the season with a 30-25 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. The Rams won the NFC West for the fourth time during McVay’s tenure.
Let’s break down each team’s recent play while previewing this Wild Card matchup and making a Minnesota Vikings @ Los Angeles Rams pick.
The Vikings’ rebirth this season coincides with that of the team’s signal caller, Sam Darnold. The third overall selection by the New York Jets in the 2018 NFL Draft, Darnold failed to live up to expectations in the Big Apple. Minnesota represented Darnold’s fourth team in five years. Something clicked, as Darnold threw for 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns, both good for fifth in the league.
Another important import, running back Aaron Jones, had 1,138 yards and five touchdowns while Justin Jefferson had 103 catches for 1,533 yards and 10 touchdowns. In his second year, Jordan Addison emerged as a legitimate No. 2 wide receiver. He had 63 catches for 875 yards and nine touchdowns.
Defensively, Jonathan Greenard (12 sacks) and Andrew Van Ginkel (11.5 sacks) set the tone up front ahead of Byron Murphy, who led the team with six interceptions.
During the Vikings’ nine-game winning streak, the team won five contests by five points or less. They were swept by the Lions, and their only other loss was a Week 8 setback at the Rams, which finished 30-20. In that matchup, Darnold threw for 240 yards and two touchdowns, while Jefferson had eight catches for 115 yards. The Rams held Minnesota to 276 total yards.
In that win over the Vikings, Los Angeles quarterback Matthew Stafford threw for 279 yards and four touchdowns as star wide receivers Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp returned to the lineup in that game after both missing more than a month of play.
Nacua had seven catches for 106 yards in that game and led the team with 79 catches for 990 yards despite only appearing in 11 contests. Stafford threw for 3,762 yards and 20 touchdowns during the regular season, and Kupp had 67 catches for 710 yards and six touchdowns.
Los Angeles closed the 2024 campaign on a tear, winning five straight before the Seahawks setback. Four of those five wins came by a touchdown or less. Los Angeles recorded eight victories by that point spread throughout the season.
The Vikings had an impressive season with 14 wins. That doesn’t just happen in the NFL. But the team did not dominate one area statistically and Los Angeles has already shown that it can defeat Minnesota at home.
The Vikings finished ahead of the Rams in points and total yards per game offensively, and finished fifth in the league in scoring defense, allowing just 19.5 points per contest. For Minnesota to leave SoFi Stadium with the victory, Darnold will have to regain his regular season form. The NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year favorite looked quite pedestrian against the Lions last week, completing just 44% of his passes for 166 yards and no touchdowns. That cannot happen again.
Darnold needs to find Jefferson often on Monday night. He had just three catches for 54 yards against the Lions, his third-lowest total of the season, as Darnold repeatedly overthrew him. Jefferson averaged 90 yards receiving per game this season. The Vikings went 4-1 in the five games he accumulated more than 100 yards receiving, the only loss being to the Rams.
Look for Jefferson to go for 100 or more receiving yards on Monday night and for Los Angeles to stun the Vikings.
Brian has been writing about sports professionally for 25 years, specializing in the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, men's college basketball and football, and soccer. He covered high school, collegiate and professional sports in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area for two decades. His written work has appeared in several print and online publications since 1999.