Vikings’ Aaron Jones, handling career-high workload, ‘feeling pretty good’ after rib injury

After further medical evaluations on Monday, Vikings running back Aaron Jones’ rib injury is still not a concern for head coach Kevin O’Connell, which is good news for a surging rushing attack that got contributions from more than just their workhorse runner during Sunday’s win in Jacksonville.

“He came in today feeling pretty good,” O’Connell said Monday at the team’s Eagan headquarters. “He’s just day-to-day with the ribs and … might be limited early on in the week as we kind of let him get up, back on his feet. But feeling really good about having him this week [against the Titans].”

Against the Jaguars, the Vikings ran for season highs in both rushing yards, 169, and first downs, 10. Four different players — Jones, Cam Akers, Ty Chandler and quarterback Sam Darnold — moved the chains on the ground, leading to the Vikings’ dominant 42 minutes 19 seconds in time of possession. That was the biggest differential in a NFL game this season.

The collective effort is a good sign that perhaps Jones, who is averaging what would be a career-high 18.9 touches per game, could take a breather if O’Connell has other reliable options. His previous career-high workload came in 2019, when he averaged 17.8 touches per game. Jones, who turns 30 next month, has twice left games this season because of injuries.

Akers remained the primary backup for the second straight week, taking a season-high 13 carries for 38 yards and three first downs. It wasn’t always pretty for Akers, who missed some early holes, but he appeared to settle into a rhythm as his three first downs came within his last five carries of the game. Chandler, usurped by Akers on the depth chart, took four carries for 18 yards after Jones left with a rib injury.

“Cam finding some real space in there on some runs and showing some really good vision, really two weeks in a row now of doing that for us was really big,” O’Connell said. “And I thought Ty, you felt Ty coming in in the second half there and felt some explosiveness getting downhill. That group as a whole was a real positive for us on a day we needed to lean on the run game a little bit more than maybe we have up until this point.

“I was really proud of the way it was kind of a physical, grind it out, three, four, five-yarder kind of day,” he added. “We didn’t really have maybe some of the big hits that take it to a really, really significant day, but for the most part those guys all did a lot to find the space in there.”

O’Connell gave players the day off following the win, but left tackle Cam Robinson didn’t need to be made available to reporters to say that victory over his former team carried weight. Robinson, who started 94 games (regular season and playoffs) in 7½ seasons for the Jaguars, was benched in his last game for Jacksonville before being traded to Minnesota.

Robinson appeared fired up, delivering a penalized hit along the sideline when Jaguars safety Darnell Savage Jr. intercepted Darnold in the third quarter. Robinson was also flagged for illegal formation for lining up too far back, but O’Connell said that penalty came “without really a warning” that offensive tackles typically get first.

“Yeah, it meant something to him, clearly,” O’Connell said. “You spend that much time there, it was an emotional kind of exciting day for him to go back there, and I think he was really happy with getting the win.”

Tight end T.J. Hockenson continued to play a limited role, seeing 39 snaps (46%) in Jacksonville after playing a similar amount in his first game back last week. But this time, Hockenson was a featured part of the third-down passing attack. He caught five balls on third down, converting four for first downs, among his team-high eight grabs for 72 yards.

Hockenson is a focal point for the Vikings offense, but this big day in particular was due, in part, to a Jaguars defense focusing elsewhere.

“Some of those third downs, there’s a reason he’s catching it underneath the coverage,” O’Connell said, noting that “a lot of attention” was going to Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison.

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