EAGAN, Minn. — Aaron Jones, Sr., was concerned he let his friend down.
“I know he really hadn’t had the ball all game, and so I got to the sideline, and I just put a towel up,” Jones recalled, apologetically hiding his face. “And I’m like, ‘Bro, I can’t even look at you. It’s my fault.’ “
Justin Jefferson inquired, “What do you mean?”
Minnesota was unbelievably close to embossing an exclamation point on its wire-to-wire Week 14 win. The offense drew up a play on the sideline mid-game and got the defensive look it desired to execute it.
Except, Jones “lunged a little bit,” he said, and could only chip ageless wonder Bobby Wagner instead of squaring up the linebacker in pass protection. Thus, Wagner blitzed through the middle of the offensive line and forced young quarterback J.J. McCarthy off his spot. Forty-five yards down the field, Jefferson stuck his right arm in the air like a windmill, then 360ed in slow motion as a sure-thing TD turned into a 16-yard QB run.
The Vikings went ahead by 31 points eight plays later, prompting Jones to return to the bench cautiously.
“When you go back and look at that play,” the running back reiterated to Jefferson, “it’s my fault.”
The reply to his accountability was revealing: “He said to me, ‘No, you’re good, bro. I’m more worried about winning than stats. This is when I’m having the most fun. This is what I want to see on the sideline — guys smiling’ ” Jones reflected on Jefferson’s selfless attitude. “He made that moment not about him. He made it more about the guys than himself — and it’s never about him. It’s always bigger than him.”