In the midst of a disheartening performance in the NFC Wild Card game, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy eviscerated Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold.
Throughout the regular season, Darnold’s story of a backup quarterback that took the Vikings to a 14-3 record was inspirational as the Minnesota signal caller was able to overcome expectations and take his team to the playoffs.
But it was in their first playoff game against the Los Angeles Rams that the Vikings quarterback laid an egg as Darnold could not handle the pressure of the LA pᴀss rush and was unable to make significant gains on offense.
Portnoy took to X, formerly Twitter, and slammed Darnold’s performance on the evening.
Some of that anger might have been because he placed an $11,000 five-leg parlay bet on the game – with one of the legs requiring Vikings wide receiver to score a touchdown at any point in the game (which did not happen).
‘3 weeks ago people were asking whether JJ McCarthy was on the market. What a difference a couple weeks make. Darnold looks horrific again,’ Portnoy posted on Monday evening.
Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy ripped into Vikings QB Sam Darnold after his rough performance
Portnoy put out a series of tweets criticizing Darnold during his losing effort in the playoffs
Read More Matthew Stafford and his Rams teammates pay tribute to LA firefighters at win over the Vikings 
Darnold wasn’t supposed to start this season after the Vikings selected McCarthy 11th overall in the NFL Draft out of the University of Michigan. Portnoy is a Michigan alum and a huge fan of the Wolverines’ football team.
Portnoy took to the social media platform again to roast him later in the game,
‘There was a guy quite literally with nobody within 20 yards of him there. My god Darnold sucks.’
Later, he ridiculed Darnold yet again after the Vikings quarterback was strip sacked – which led to a Rams fumble recovery by defensive end Jared Verse that was run back for a touchdown to add to LA’s lead.
Portnoy put two more tweets out during the game – one highlighting another open receiver Darnold didn’t see, and another simply saying, ‘Vikings quit. Can’t say I blame em.’
While it could be said that Darnold was overwhelmed by a team playing for civic pride in the aftermath of a tragedy, that doesn’t exactly cover how poor his play was.
Darnold completed 25-of-40 pᴀsses for just 245 yards, one touchdown and one interception and a fumble.
But it was the nine sacks that Darnold took that truly put the game out of reach for the Vikings.
Darnold was sacked nine times, tying a record for most sacks a QB has taken in a playoff game
One of those sacks was a strip sack (above), leading to a fumble recovered for a touchdown
Darnold’s counterpart, Matthew Stafford, struggled too – but completed two TD pᴀsses
Read More Bill Belichick gives his verdict on controversial Matthew Stafford call during Rams-Vikings game 
Darnold is now tied with Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and former Houston Oilers quarterback Warren Moon for the all-time record for the most sacks taken by a quarterback in a playoff game.
He wasn’t that far off from the most sacks taken by a QB in any NFL game – a record co-held by Moon and Donovan McNabb when they both were sacked 12 times.
The Vikings ground game didn’t fare much better as they were led by Aaron Jones who rushed 13 times for 48 yards.
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford didn’t fare much better in terms of pᴀssing yards (only managing 208), but his two pᴀssing touchdowns were enough to put the game out of reach.
The Rams defense was by far the best unit of the night – with the relentless pressure forcing three Minnesota punts and two turnovers on downs. Add to that the strip-sack touchdown and Los Angeles can walk into the next round confident in their play on Monday evening.
Next up for Los Angeles is an NFC Divisional round matchup on the road against the Philadelphia Eagles.
