SEATTLE — The Minnesota Vikings are 13-2, have a clear path to the top playoff seed in the NFC and are — ever so slightly — starting to feel it.
“We’re coming together,” said receiver Justin Jefferson, whose second touchdown reception Sunday accounted for the final margin in a 27-24 victory over the Seattle Seahawks. “Every single game, we’re finding different ways to overcome adversity.
“These close games are what make championship teams.”
Jefferson has started to see similarities between this team and his final season at LSU in 2019, when the Tigers won the national championship. He didn’t hesitate when asked if he thought the 2024 Vikings are also championship-caliber.
“Oh for sure,” he said. “Not just what we’re doing out there on the field, but the way we carry ourselves, the way we treat each other. … In 2019, when I won a championship at LSU, it was the same type of vibe. The team is just together, fighting for one another every single game. It definitely feels the same.”
Jefferson’s sentiments qualify as crowing in a soft-spoken veteran locker room that has adopted coach Kevin O’Connell’s mantra of “going 1-0 this week.”
Thanks to the Philadelphia Eagles‘ loss Sunday to the Washington Commanders, the Vikings will clinch the NFC’s No. 1 playoff seed if they go 2-0 over their final two games — or, in their parlance, 1-0 followed by another 1-0.
On Sunday, O’Connell offered only the slightest glimpse into how he views his coalescing team.
After smiling and saying “you can’t go 2-0 without going 1-0 first,” O’Connell turned serious.
“I mean it,” he said. “I know it’s fun to laugh about. But it is very critical. I think our team understands how we got to this point. It’s a mature team that can be dangerous, I do believe, if we continue to just understand what got us to this moment from the first day of training camp.”
The Vikings were largely in control of Sunday’s game at Lumen Field, where they had won only one other time in franchise history, before the Seahawks took a 24-20 lead on Geno Smith‘s 4-yard touchdown pass to tight end AJ Barner with 4:21 remaining.
Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold then led a quick drive to regain the lead, pushing through a two-play sequence when the battery pack on O’Connell’s headset died, forcing Darnold to run to the sideline for one play call and then leaving him to call his own play on another. Then, on first down with 3:51 remaining, Darnold moved up in the pocket, saw Jefferson adjust his route toward the end zone and hit him for a 39-yard score.
“Absolutely the play of the game,” O’Connell said, “and maybe even, considering the moment and the circumstances, the season as well.”
Jefferson finished with 10 catches for 144 yards and now has tied his career high of 10 touchdown receptions in a season. Darnold, meanwhile, finished with at least a 100 passer rating for the 12th time in his 15 starts, a threshold that O’Connell said is a “very, very significant number in our offense and in our system, what has become Sam’s offense.”
Darnold already has set career highs this season in nearly every statistical category, including yardage (3,776) and touchdown passes (32). One of the few things he has left to prove in a career-changing season is whether he can lead the Vikings on a deep playoff run.
“I’m not going to get into what we’re capable of,” Darnold said. “We know exactly what kind of team we have and we know exactly the kind of guys we have in that locker room.”
And then, for the few who didn’t know what he was going to say next, Darnold added: “It’s just for us to continue to go 1-0.”
