MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold tossed aside his stoic demeanor for a moment after realizing he was on the videoboard, aggressively twirling a towel to further stoke the crowd’s fire after he had helped the home team pull away from counterpart Kirk Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons late in the game.
“I just felt the buzz. That was pure passion, pure joy, man,” Darnold said.
The seventh-year pro added yet another highlight to his brilliant first season in Minneapolis, passing for 347 yards and five touchdowns, both career highs, in a 42-21 victory over the foundering Falcons on Sunday to stretch the Vikings’ winning streak to six games.
“It just felt like it was one of those days to keep the gas pedal down,” said coach Kevin O’Connell, who enjoyed his team’s first 40-point game in three seasons on the job.
Darnold passed for 250 yards after halftime to help the Vikings (11-2) break a 21-all tie early in the fourth quarter and stay one game behind the NFC North Division-leading Detroit Lions with a final-week matchup looming between the teams. Jordan Addison had eight catches for 133 yards and three scores, and Justin Jefferson racked up seven receptions for 132 yards and two touchdowns after going the past six games without scoring.
“This is something that we want to do and we can do every single week,” Jefferson said.
Cousins, whose departure in free agency for Atlanta this past March prompted Minnesota to sign Darnold as a bridge to currently injured rookie J.J. McCarthy, threw two more interceptions without a touchdown in this unhappy homecoming after a mixed six-year run with the Vikings.
Booed as he took the field, Cousins and the Falcons (6-7) left with a fourth consecutive loss to tumble out of first place in the NFC South and fall one game behind the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Atlanta swept the season series with the Bucs, but that won’t matter if the Falcons are behind in the standings.
“When you’re playing well, you usually aren’t as good as people are telling you when they’re patting you on the back, and if you’re in a rut, you’re usually not as bad as people kind of leaving you for dead,” the 36-year-old Cousins said. “The reality’s usually somewhere in the middle. You just have to keep playing and see where the dust settles in January.”
Cousins was 23-of-37 passing for 344 yards for the Falcons, who crossed midfield on all nine of their possessions and finished with 496 total yards. He overthrew Ray-Ray McCloud III on fourth down in the first quarter, and the Falcons settled for short field goals just before and right after halftime.
Their fate was sealed when McCloud fumbled the kickoff at the 32-yard line after the Vikings went 70 yards in six plays for the go-ahead touchdown pass to Addison, who scored again seven plays later.
The Falcons handed the Vikings an earlier touchdown when Kentavious Street was called for defensive holding during a field-goal attempt late in the second quarter, giving Darnold a fresh set of downs before a 12-yard laser to Jefferson on a post route on third-and-6.
“You just can’t have the self-inflicted wounds and expect to win football games like we had today,” Falcons first-year head coach Raheem Morris said.
Bijan Robinson had 22 carries for 92 yards and a touchdown, and Tyler Allgeier rushed nine times for 63 yards and a score for the Falcons against the NFL’s leading run defense.
Cousins, who was picked off four times last week in a home loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, hesitated as he wound up to throw on first down from the Minnesota 47 in a tie game early in the second quarter and then inexplicably fired a pass straight to Josh Metellus as he sat in a zone in front of Drake London. Cousins has a NFL-most 15 interceptions.
With calls for rookie Michael Penix Jr. to start growing louder, Morris said he has no plans to bench Cousins in favor of the first-round draft pick.
“Everything is always discussed when you go watch the tape and do those type of things,” Morris said. “But Kirk Cousins is our quarterback. … We’ll do whatever is best to go win football games, and Kirk is definitely a part of that.”
Byron Murphy snagged an overthrow by Cousins for the second pick near the goal line with a 35-21 lead and 6:26 left. Darnold, who was 22-for-28 without a turnover-worthy play despite heavy first-half pressure, then directed a seven-play, 98-yard drive to seal it.
“I think we grew up a lot today offensively,” O’Connell said.
Addison and Jefferson became the first duo in Vikings history to each have 100-plus receiving yards and two-plus touchdown catches in the same game. Addison also became the first Minnesota player with three receiving touchdowns in a game since Stefon Diggs caught three scoring passes from Cousins in 2019.
Murphy has six interceptions this season, the most for the Vikings since Jimmy Hitchcock had seven in 1998.
Atlanta cornerback Mike Hughes was back in the lineup after missing two games due to a knee injury. Minnesota’s 2018 first-round draft pick returned an interception for a touchdown against Atlanta in his NFL debut in Minneapolis.
Both teams will have an extra day of preparation for their next game, a “Monday Night Football” doubleheader on Dec. 16: Atlanta visits the AFC West’s Las Vegas Raiders (2-11), and Minnesota hosts the Chicago Bears (4-9) in a division game.