Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said after Monday night’s loss to the Rams that quarterback Sam Darnold has a “special place in my heart” because of his play this season. But he acknowledged Darnold wasn’t good enough in the final games of the season.

“I just want to say that it’s very important that we all reflect on all of Sam’s work, what he did this year when not many people thought he could lead a team to 14 wins,” O’Connell said . “In the end it didn’t work out and I think Sam would be the first to tell you: could he have played better tonight? I’m sure he would tell you he could have done it. Could I have trained better? I’m sure I could have.”

For most of the season, Darnold was outstanding and played by far the best football of his career. But the last two games were a 31-9 loss to the Lions in the regular-season finale and Monday night’s 27-9 loss to the Rams in the wild-card round of the playoffs. In these games, Darnold repeatedly faltered under pressure. O’Connell said it wasn’t all on Darnold, but the offense wasn’t nearly good enough in the two biggest games of the season.

“Far too many negatives. “There have really been too many negative plays over the last two weeks that have put us behind,” O’Connell said.

O’Connell said he was proud of the Vikings’ season, even though they came up short in the end.

“It’s a very tough feeling in the locker room at the moment,” O’Connell said. “This team did a lot of special things this year, but we didn’t play well enough to win this football game.”

Now the Vikings have a big offseason ahead of them — one in which Darnold will be a free agent, first-round quarterback JJ McCarthy gets healthy and the team has a big decision to make at quarterback.