3 Vikings to blame for early playoff flameout: Sam Darnold, offensive line and more

After starting the season on a five-game winning streak, the Minnesota Vikings took back-to-back losses to the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams in Weeks 7 and 8.

Following those two defeats, Kevin O'Connell & Co. reeled off nine straight victories before dropping their Week 18 rematch with Detroit, a loss that cost them the No. 1 seed in the NFC and forced them to hit the road for a Wild Card Round matchup with the Rams.

And just like it went back in Week 8, the Vikings couldn't get the job done against the Rams.

The difference is that back in November, Minnesota was at least competitive. But that wasn't the case on Monday night in Glendale, as the Vikings took an embarrassing 27-9 defeat to a Rams team that only got into the postseason by winning a rare strength-of-victory tiebreaker over the Seattle Seahawks.

The Vikings will now enter the offseason with plenty of issues to address on both sides of the ball. One of those issues, of course, is what to do with quarterback Sam Darnold, who gave the Minnesota front office a lot to think about throughout the season with a Pro Bowl campaign but likely played himself out of town with a dreadful performance on Monday night.

And it's there where we'll kick things off as we look at the Vikings to blame for this early exit from the postseason.

Sam Darnold

After what was easily his worst performance of the season against the Lions in the regular-season finale, Darnold looked just as bad against the Rams.

To be fair, it wasn't all his fault, as his offensive line was atrocious, which we'll address in just a moment. But Darnold undoubtedly deserves much of the blame for this loss.

Not every sack he took can be put on the O-line, as the seven-year veteran failed on several occasions to simply step up in the pocket to avoid pressure. And he held onto the football far too long way too many times, giving the LA defenders more time to take him down.

While Darnold completed 25 of 40 pass attempts, he missed plenty of easy throws that could have changed the trajectory of the game. Furthermore, the turnover issues that he was seemingly past resurfaced.

In addition to throwing an interception, he lost a fumble that Jared Verse returned 57 yards for a touchdown, which ultimately gave the Rams a 17-3 lead.

To his credit, Darnold took full responsibility for his poor play afterward, but he's likely played his final game in a Vikings uniform, as Minnesota will almost certainly move on and hand the reins to J.J. McCarthy next season.

The entire Vikings' offensive line

While Darnold certainly deserves some blame for the nine sacks he took on Monday night, which tied an NFL postseason record, the Minnesota offensive line has to be held accountable as well.

Time after time, Rams defenders were in Darnold's lap within about a second or two, making the quarterback's job that much more challenging throughout the evening.

The O-line was one of the biggest weaknesses for the Vikings throughout the season, especially after Christian Darrisaw was lost for the year, and O'Connell acknowledged in his postgame presser that changes must be made this offseason.

""We've got to find a way to solidify the interior of the pocket. ... There could be a 1,000 excuses made, but for me, it's the foundation of the interior of the pocket that we're going to have to take a long look at."

Kevin O'Connell

While we could blame a few Vikings defensive players here for allowing Matthew Stafford and the LA offense to do pretty much anything they wanted in the first half, we're going to use this last entry on Kevin O'Connell himself.

While Brian Flores and the Minnesota defense made some adjustments at the half and only allowed the Rams to score three points in the final 30 minutes, O'Connell, who calls the plays for the offense, failed to do the same.

Things clearly weren't working for the Vikings in the first half, but the offense looked almost exactly the same coming out of the locker room.

Furthermore, there's simply no excuse for how complacent Minnesota looked in the fourth quarter. While the likelihood of this team overcoming an 18-point deficit was low, the fact that the Vikings showed no urgency whatsoever was not a good look, and that falls on O'Connell.