The Minnesota Vikings fell short against the Denver Broncos on the road on Sunday night. Here are some of the notes that came from the 21-20 road loss and Kevin O’Connell’s Monday press conference…

Kareem Jackson suspended

While Denver safety Kareem Jackson was not penalized for lowering his helmet and slamming into Josh Dobbs on the opening drive of the game, Jackson was hit with a big suspension on Monday. The NFL announced that he will sit the next four games without pay due to a “serious violation of the rules,” according to NFL Compliance Officer. He had previously been suspended for multiple instances of lowering his helmet and being ejected.

Since 2018 the NFL’s “command center” in New York has been allowed to look at plays that could result in an ejection but NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero noted that the league is not allowed to step in unless there is a penalty flag thrown on the play.

Following the game head coach Kevin O’Connell expressed that he felt Jackson should have been penalized on the play, which caused Dobbs to fumble and sent the QB to the injury tent

“It seemed like a pretty direct helmet to helmet type of hit but I’m sure they saw it differently on the play,” O’Connell said.

It’s hard to make sense of the league not being able to step in when a play so blatantly should have been penalized for unnecessary roughness and possibly could have resulted in an ejection. Those plays are very difficult to determine in the moment for referees and often impact the game significantly, as it did on Sunday night. Not only did the Broncos produce a field goal off the turnover but Jackson remained in the game and played 74 total snaps for Denver’s defense.

In the loss to the Broncos, Josh Dobbs finished with 20-for-32 passing for 221 yards, one touchdown and one interception. There was a significant gap between his performance when given a clean pocket and when under duress.