How Christian Darrisaw’s Gains in Pass Blocking Showed up

EAGAN, Minn. – Christian Darrisaw didn’t allow a single pressure on Sunday.

The second-year lineman played 72 snaps at left tackle for Minnesota and protected quarterback Kirk Cousins well on each one, according to Pro Football Focus.

The analytics site issued an overall blocking grade of 89.4, which ranked second among all tackles in Week 3 behind Philadelphia’s Lane Johnson (91.2). PFF called the Vikings comeback defeat of the Lions “perhaps the best game of [Darrisaw’s] young NFL career.”

Worth noting is that the impressive outing included some matchups with this spring’s No. 2 overall draft pick, Aidan Hutchinson.

Darrisaw spoke with Twin Cities media members via videoconference Monday and reacted to his performance.

“We stepped up to the challenge. We watched the tape,” he said. “[Hutchinson is] a great player. He’s going to be a great player, for sure, and we know what he’s capable of. From me and Brian [O’Neill], from the tackle perspective, we stepped up to the challenge and we dominated.

“I feel like I’ve been playing very well. Especially from last season and coming into this season, I feel like there’s been way much more improvement in my game,” Darrisaw said. “And there’s still room for improvement. I’m still watching the film today. But definitely I feel like I took that step to become the player that I want to be, and I’m getting there day by day.”