You could see the relief on the face of veteran running back Aaron Jones after the Vikings escaped with a 23-22 comeback win over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Though he scored the touchdown in the final minutes that proved to be the difference, Jones was clearly still irked by the fact that his fumble in the early stages of the game put the Vikings in chase mode.

“It was a rollercoaster for me,” Jones said. “I’m thankful for these guys in this locker room for keeping my head up.”

This is uncharted waters for Jones. He has never had an issue with ball security and now has put the ball on the ground in back-to-back-to-back games. He vowed to clean up the fumbling issues as soon as possible.

“I’m going to figure out what’s going on and correct it,” Jones said. “That’s not me. It’s happening more than I’d like it to happen. I’ll get that fixed.”

There were repercussions for Jones as he saw his playing time decrease during Sunday’s game.

Though coach Kevin O’Connell noted the benching was largely to give Jones a chance for a mental reset, he also made it clear that he won’t stand for fumbling issues moving forward.

“We’ve got to find a way to fix it,” Jones said. “We’ve had too many times that the ball does end up on the ground early on in games.”

After struggling for prolonged stretches throughout the game, Jones leaked out of the backfield on the final drive, caught a pass from quarterback Sam Darnold, and took it into the end zone for a touchdown.

“I’m going to continue to trust him and throw him the ball,” Darnold said. “He’s a heck of a player and he does a lot of good stuff for us.”

It’s clear that O’Connell feels similarly, considering he dialed up a play for Jones with the game on the line.

“There’ a reason why I called the play I did in the end,” O’Connell said. “He’s one of our best players and he’s going to continue to be one of our best players. There’s not a guy in the locker room that doesn’t absolutely love playing with Aaron Jones. We’ve got his back without any hesitation or question.”

Gilmore leaves game

It’s worth keeping an eye on the injury report this week after veteran cornerback Stephon Gilmore left the game with a hamstring injury and did not return.

After the Vikings lost Gilmore, they replaced him with veteran cornerback Fabian Moreau, and the Cardinals immediately started to pick on him.

Asked about Gilmore postgame, O’Connell seemed pretty optimistic about the prognosis.

“I’m hoping we avoided a longer term issue there,” O’Connell said. “He was thinking about possibly coming back in.”

Ingram doesn’t dress

After being benched last month in favor of Dalton Risner as the starting right guard, backup guard Ed Ingram was inactive for the game between the Vikings and the Cardinals.

Though it seemed like an indictment on Ingram at first glance, O’Connell explained postgame that it had more to do with numbers since staring left tackle Cam Robinson was dealing with a foot injury and the Vikings wanted to have rookie left tackle Walter Rouse available in a pinch.

“As we get healthy, I would anticipate Ed being back up,” O’Connell said. “It has absolutely nothing to do with anything larger picture or anything than that.”

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