Five extra points: Justin Jefferson OK with another slow day ‘as long as we get the win’

A week after catching two balls for a career-low 4 yards and dodging reporters, Justin Jefferson caught two balls for 11 yards and was all smiles after Sunday’s 31-0 victory over Washington at U.S. Bank Stadium.

“As long as we get the win,” said Jefferson, comparing Sunday’s feeling to the previous week’s 26-0 loss at Seattle. “That’s all that matters.”

Coach Kevin O’Connell vowed to continue searching for ways to get Jefferson the ball. “We actually created a play [for Jefferson] on the sideline to put an exclamation point on the day,” O’Connell said. It was a go route on first-and-10 from the Vikings’ 34-yard line with 1:18 left in the third quarter. Jefferson got free and was wide open downfield, waving his arm in the air. But quarterback J.J. McCarthy “got moved off his spot,” O’Connell said, and opted to run, gaining 16 yards.

“I just wanted the ball at that point,” Jefferson said when asked how he felt when McCarthy didn’t pull the trigger. “It was a great play call. But it just didn’t come to me. It is what it is. It’s not something I’m really affected by or overly thinking of. We won.”

Jefferson was more irked by O’Connell taking him out early with the outcome decided. “He did not play 60 minutes today,” O’Connell said. “That was a tough conversation. He tried to avoid me and run out on the field with about 7 or 8 minutes left in the game. It was a collective group effort between myself, [receivers coach] Keenan [McCardell] and a couple of other folks, maybe Dave Korus, our security guy, as well, because Justin did not want to come out of the game.”

O’Connell went on to praise Jefferson’s leadership as a captain through these tough times. “The smile he has on his face right now,” said O’Connell, “he just wants to win.”

Riding a three-game home losing streak and a four-game losing streak overall, the Vikings needed a quick start to avoid having the home crowd turn on them. Fullback C.J. Ham should have gotten a game ball for the best block of the day — a key blitz pickup that turned what might have been a safety into what became the longest and best drive of the season – a 19-play, 98-yard touchdown march that took 12:01 off the clock.

McCarthy escaped and ran for 7 yards and a first down. McCarthy converted three more third downs — passes of 12 yards to Jalen Nailor on third-and-9 with Ham picking up another block for McCarthy, 21 yards to Jordan Addison on third-and-8 and 13 yards to Jefferson on third-and-12 — before Jordan Mason bulled in from a yard out on third-and-goal to make it a 14-0 game. The five third-down conversions in that one drive were 2½ times as many as the Vikings had in the entire loss at Seattle.

“It was great to get in a rhythm early and just go play,” Ham said.

The Commanders were trailing 7-0 when they ran the ball down to the Vikings 2-yard line and then got too cute, threw three straight incomplete passes and turned the ball over on downs. Vikings cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. admitted he got a little luck on second-and-goal when Brandon Coleman beat him off the line. Coleman is a 6-6, 320-pound guard. He was a tackle eligible on that play.

“Biggest man I ever saw,” said the 5-11, 190-pound Murphy. “He came off the snap blocking me, and I’m like, ‘I got to set the edge against this guy?’ He’s my guy to cover, but I didn’t think he would run a route. But he did.”

Fortunately for Murphy, as he was catching up to Coleman, Vikings linebacker Eric Wilson was pressuring Jayden Daniels into throwing the ball away over Coleman’s head and through the back of the end zone.

Harrison Smith’s first interception of the season led to a Vikings touchdown, a 24-0 lead and a good reason to text Packers Hall of Fame safety LeRoy Butler.

“I got to talk to LeRoy last year,” Smith said. “He’ll text me now and then, especially when we’re playing the Packers.”

The active leader in career interceptions, Smith moved into a tie for 91^st place in NFL history with his 38^th pick on Sunday. One of many players he’s tied with is Butler, who reached the Hall of Fame in his 16^th year of eligibility in 2022. One of the many players Smith moved ahead of as he jumped from a tie for 104th is another Hall of Fame safety, Brian Dawkins.

“I don’t think about that stuff and where I rank while I’m playing,” Smith said. “But I’m aware of it for sure. Just to be amongst those names is pretty cool.”

Smith and Butler not only have the same number of interceptions, but they also have the same number of sacks (20.5). Dawkins had 26 sacks. Butler had one pick-six. Dawkins had two. Smith has four. Sunday was Smith’s best game of the season. He fooled Marcus Mariota on the interception.

Former Vikings linebacker and team radio analyst Ben Leber was walking into U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday when he predicted, “If J.J. doesn’t turn the ball over, we win.” The Vikings not only won the turnover battle 3-0, but McCarthy did better than just not mess up. His first pass showed how dialed in he was to O’Connell’s plan. “Really, it was a matter of him being decisive,” O’Connell said.

The first pass of the day — second-and-7 on the game’s second snap — was called for Jefferson. “They took it away,” O’Connell said of the Commanders. McCarthy quickly pivoted and found backup tight end Ben Sims. It was Sims’ ninth career catch and first as a Viking.

“That was a big play to give us a new set of downs,” O’Connell said.

McCarthy completed his next three passes on that opening drive to three different targets for two more first downs and the first of two touchdowns to tight end Josh Oliver. The completion to Sims “allows [McCarthy] to be in quote, unquote decisionmaking rhythm,” O’Connell said. “He can be decisive.”

The 18-yard touchdown pass to Oliver came against a single-high safety look with the Vikings running a four-vertical concept. “J.J.’s going to have a chance at either one of those tight ends in the big grouping there or check the ball down,” O’Connell said. “We have to be able to call some of those plays and give him a chance to play quarterback and maintain possession of the ball.”