Newly minted All-Pro Justin Jefferson needs a playoff win with the Vikings next on his list of feats

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Justin Jefferson has smashed all kinds of NFL receiving records over his first five seasons, and he was just voted as an unanimous selection for first team All-Pro.

Winning a playoff game with the Minnesota Vikings is the next — long overdue — feat on his list. A performance matching his superstar status would go a long way toward getting that done.

“It’s definitely important to have those moments," Jefferson said after practice on Friday. "It’s win or go home. You have those moments, or you miss those moments and you wish had those moments after the season. So you definitely don't want to have those type of conversations.”

For all the spectacular aspects of Jefferson’s career, he has only taken part in one postseason. The Vikings won the NFC North at 13-4 in 2022, but they lost at home in the wild-card round to the New York Giants.

The next opportunity comes on Monday night in Arizona, where the Vikings, as a 14-3 wild card team, will face the NFC West champion Los Angeles Rams in a game moved because of the Southern California wildfires.

The Vikings entered playoff mode one week early, with their game at Detroit that decided the NFC's No. 1 seed and the division title. The experience can do nothing but help despite the 31-9 loss to the Lions, during which quarterback Sam Darnold turned in his worst game of the season at the worst time.

“Our entire operation needed to have a reflection and a time period where we acknowledged what happened," coach Kevin O'Connell said. "We tried to identify the things we absolutely need to fix, and that’s individual players like Sam and many others, and that’s coaches."

Darnold went 18 for 41 overall and just 3 for 9 when targeting Jefferson, resulting in the second-lowest catch percentage of Jefferson's career.

“It’s just a matter of me being able to trust the throws, trust my feet, trust my eyes, and just letting it rip,” said Darnold, who sailed several passes too high and out of reach of his receivers in an uncharacteristic display of inaccuracy. “I think that’s the biggest thing, when I see the throw there, just being able to let it rip and don’t think twice about it.”

There was no more frustrating sequence for Darnold, Jefferson and the Vikings in Detroit than midway through the second quarter, when an interception by Ivan Pace gave them the ball at the 3-yard line. Three straight passes from Darnold to Jefferson yielded three straight incompletions and forced O'Connell to settle for a short field goal.

The first one was too far inside and nearly intercepted. The next too were too high.

“It happens. Everyone is not perfect. There are going to be some times where we have that adversity,” Jefferson said. “It’s all about just bouncing back.”

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