Minneapolis – The final stats and score of Minnesota’s 23-13 win at Tennessee in Week 11 are a bit misleading. Sam Darnold finished 20-for-32 with 246 passing yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, playing his cleanest game in weeks as he spread the ball to nine different players and dazzled with his ad-libbing.

“We have so much trust in that guy,” Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson said after the game at Nissan Stadium. “What a great player, what a good dude. We’re just trying to have his back at every point.”

Darnold starred with a taped pinky on his throwing hand, a consequence of attempting to make a tackle after his third pick at Jacksonville last week. He was unaffected by it – and his recent string of turnovers.

Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell said Darnold did a really good job marrying his eyes and feet Sunday. He admired his quarterback’s resilience after mistiming and fumbling a pitch on the third offensive play and presented him with a game ball after Minnesota improved to 8-2 in 10 games with Darnold as its starter.

“I think it speaks to kind of where he’s at right now, and I’m just really proud of the way he played,” O’Connell said. “I mean, how we played in [certain] moments was a huge indicator of a guy that put the work in and was confident and just going out there and doing his job on a lot of plays, and then also [he] overcame some things around him to make some plays, which was critical for us, especially in those moments where we’re able to, kind of, once we got the two-score lead, or the double-digit lead, at least, we were able to kind of continue to extend it back out when they when they maybe got a little closer.”

In Weeks 9 and 10, Minnesota’s offense functioned well overall, amassing 817 yards on 153 plays, but was snakebitten by turnovers in the red zone – Darnold tossed three interceptions inside the Colts and Jaguars 20-yard lines – and kept skidding to an abrupt stop when good things were happening.

This time, Darnold was the catalyst of many good things, and repeatedly made smarter decisions.

In the initial 30 minutes, Justin Jefferson got into a groove with four receptions, including one for 31 yards, and Jordan Addison torched Tennessee’s secondary on a 47-yard catch-and-run touchdown.

On the scoring play, Darnold faked a handoff, hitched forward, sensing pressure, and delivered a pass to Addison in stride. The connection constituted Addison’s second-longest play this season (51-yard catch against Detroit) and topped full-game yardage totals in five of his previous seven games this year.

“No matter if it’s a dagger throw or another type of route coming into a window against zone defense,” Darnold said, “it’s always kind of feeling that space and feeling very confident and being able to rip it.”

Addison figured he was going to walk in for six points because he noticed the backside safety had fallen.

“It was an odd defensive structure with [defensive lineman Jeffery] Simmons dropping and [Tennessee] bringing kind of double-edged pressure,” O’Connell said. “That was something where maybe a year ago, we wouldn’t have been able to get a touch out there … but the execution [was] there and then once I saw the space in there, the only question was whether [Addison] was going to score or not. And he did.”

Darnold’s strike to Addison happened right after Tennessee was flagged for defensive pass interference. The sequence contrasted Minnesota’s first possession, when after the Titans were charged with unnecessary roughness, shoving Darnold once he was out of bounds on a scramble, they recovered a fumble on a toss-gone-wrong to Aaron Jones, Sr. That Vikings turnover led to Tennessee’s first field goal.

It wasn’t just Darnold’s arm that turned heads. His legs wowed, as well.

Darnold’s athleticism jumped tiers at Tennessee – from “sneaky” to “straight up problematic” – on the second Vikings touchdown drive, a brilliant 16-play, 84-yard escapade that chugged 8:07 off the clock.

First, Darnold spun away from pressure, moved off the spot and converted a third-and-6 pass to Trent Sherfield, Sr., for a gain of 16. Later, he shrugged off a missed facemask in the pocket, stepped out of a tackle, pump-faked to pause a defender and tucked the ball for 6 yards on third-and-7 at the Titans 18.

The Vikings raced to get set on the ensuing play, and Darnold was stopped trying to move the sticks on a QB sneak – but the Titans were out of sorts; Minnesota’s urgency caught Tennessee’s defense offsides.

It was the first of two failed fourth downs saved by a penalty in a matter of five snaps.

Titans safety Mike Brown was penalized for unnecessary roughness on a fourth-and-1 throw to Addison, who was running across the middle of the end zone paint and contacted in the upper-chest/neck region. Two officials threw flags, ruling that Brown launched himself and led with his helmet.

Penalties were an Achilles heel for the home team and flowed steadily on the east bank of the Cumberland River. The Titans were tagged with 13 infractions for 91 yards; the Vikings had three for 35.

O’Connell isn’t naïve, knowing scrutiny is part of officiating. The Vikings are familiar with both sides of it.

“Penalties are a critical, critical stat, and I know there were some impactful ones to either extend drives or take away some explosives for them,” O’Connell stated. “Although maybe those went heavily in our favor today, I’ve had some dialogue about some other plays over the last few weeks, as well, albeit more than likely surrounding our quarterback and things like that. So I’ve learned whatever I say really does not matter. They’re trying to do the best they can. The game’s happening fast out there.”

Fittingly, Darnold capped the marathon drive with his first rushing touchdown this season. Although it speaks to a lack of involvement and success between the tackles by Jones (6 rushes) and Cam Akers (3), Darnold paced the Vikings ground attack in the first half with a season-high seven carries for 16 yards.

Akers and Jones never got rolling against a stout Titans front-seven – Akers had a long run of 12 yards and totaled 13 on nine other carries; Jones didn’t pop one longer than 5 and averaged 2.6 on 15 – but they ran hard and helped set the tone, softening the defense for underneath shots in the passing game.

Food for thought: Minnesota’s backfield ran behind a different right guard for the first time this year, with veteran Dalton Risner making his first career start on the right side in place of 41-game starter Ed Ingram. Risner had 70-plus starts in the NFL under his belt, but none previously to the right of the center.

“It was a tough challenge to have Dalton’s first start on the right side be against Simmons and [T’Vondre] Sweat,” O’Connell said. “That’s two of the best interior guys right now playing in this league. They’re a huge part of how they’re able to play all that shell coverage and really eat up combinations and all those things.

“We’ll look at the tape and see how Dalton did,” O’Connell continued. “I just felt his play style. I felt him totally into the game. And at the same time, I was proud of the way Ed handled the week as well.”

Darnold and the offense in the second half mostly stayed on their Ps and Qs.

In response to Will Levis’ 98-yard heave to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine halfway through the third quarter, Darnold played extra gritty. On one dropback, he got intimate with Sweat, who is listed at 366 pounds but didn’t flinch, flicking it 25 yards to Jefferson. He was wrapped up a couple plays later by Simmons (6-foot-4, 305 pounds) but bailed out by yellow laundry – illegal contact in the secondary – and took advantage of the second chance, syncing with Josh Oliver for 21 yards, Jefferson for 10 more and then dumping off to Akers in the flat for a touchdown and 23-10 lead. It’s like Darnold had tunnel vision.

O’Connell sent for a knockout punch early in the fourth frame – the Vikings were a squeeze away from sending Titans fans scurrying to Broadway – but execution was imperfect. Darnold dropped a line from the heavens to Jalen “Speedy” Nailor … and the ball slipped through Nailor’s grasp in the end zone.

“We got a little lackadaisical,” admitted Hockenson, who had a rare quiet day. “It’s good when you come away with a win and you still learn from these games, and that’s what we’ve done throughout the season.”

Hockenson was one of Darnold’s 10 targets and one of nine with a catch. He, along with Oliver, Sherfield, Brandon Powell, Johnny Mundt, and Akers added 10-plus yards to Minnesota’s receiving total. Addison had 61 yards before exiting the game with cramps; Jefferson had 81 in another record-breaking game.

Powell made the best catch of the game, stretching and pinning the football with one hand to his helmet on a low throw early in the fourth quarter. O’Connell challenged the ruling of an incompletion and won.

“Everybody definitely had a little hand in this one,” Jefferson said, adding some perspective. “No defense is just going to give us anything. So every single play, every single drive, we’ve got to come and execute our plays. We don’t know who the ball is going to go to. It really doesn’t matter as long as we’re going out there and extending those drives and putting points on the board. That’s all that really matters.”

As the Vikings close the door on their impeccable AFC South tour and prepare for next weekend’s NFC North matchup at Chicago, the always humble O’Connell is leaning into the mindset that’s worked so far.

“The same way I’m old enough to remember when nobody thought we were very good,” O’Connell stated, bringing the belief in his team full circle, “the same way that I answered that question, I’ll answer it now: We’ve just got to continue to get better and improve [because] 8-2 means absolutely nothing.”