Totally agree with your observation on the holding. It was really bad and I do wonder where the refs decide to draw a line between allowing physical play and just outright allowing one team to gain an advantage by cheating. That 2009 NFC Championship game against the Saints was the same thing. The Saints teed off on Favre all game with several hard hits that were objectively late and yet the refs allowed them to do it. And then to later find out that the Saints actually had a bounty out to reward players for those hits should have been a wakeup call for the refs at that level. The rules allow for some physical play within 5 yards of the LOS post-snap but past that defenders cannot hold or grab a receiver, and yet the Lions blatantly did just that all game and nothing happened to them.Cliff wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 8:58 am Another thing that I saw a lot of in the last game against the Lions that the Rams copied was being super physical to the Vikings receivers to the point of holding. A lot. Basically saying "we'll go ahead and take the 5 yard penalties when we get caught because it's worth it to jam up the passing game".
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I thought the Rams copied that ideology and got away with it as well. Disrupting the flow of the plays and forcing Darnold to "think" more about what to do next (definitely not his strong suit) led to holding the ball and all those sacks.
So yes, I agree with you that was incredibly unfair not only to the Vikings, but to Darnold as well as receivers who might normally have been able to get quick separation couldn't and I'm sure that did impact Sam.
Funny how neither of those teams (the Lions or the Rams) got far after beating the Vikings. Maybe a little Karma there but that is definitely a mitigating factor in my criticisms of Darnold.
And I do want to stress again that I thought Darnold had a great year with the Vikings. He was a huge reason they were even in the playoff picture and I was really sad to see how those last two games went for him because up to that point he'd played really well.