As quarterback Sam Darnold returned to the sideline on Sunday afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium, his teammates realized that he seemed rather undeterred by the interception he had thrown.

Though it proved costly for the Vikings as the Green Bay Packers immediately turned it into points, Darnold refused to let that play send him into a downward spiral. Instead, he quickly turned the page, stepping back into the huddle confident he was going to respond.

That’s what happened as Darnold completed 5 of 5 passes for 55 yards on the next possession. He capped off the 8-play, 70-yard drive by finding running back Cam Akers for a touchdown that proved to be the difference for the Vikings.

The ability to bounce back has been a calling card for Darnold this season as he has guided the Vikings to a 14-2 record.

Whenever he has made a mistake, big or small, he has consistently found a way to move on without it affecting him too much.

In some ways, it’s a microcosm of his journey through the NFL, as his time with the New York Jets, Carolina Panthers and San Francisco 49ers helped prepare him for this moment.

“I definitely feel like I’ve been able to move on a lot faster later in my career,” Darnold said. “Just being able to understand that it doesn’t really matter. It obviously matters in the course of the game. If it already happened, though, there’s nothing I can do to change it.”

That mental fortitude has allowed head coach Kevin O’Connell to stick with the game plan, because he knows Darnold is capable of separating the forest from the trees.

“You can really go game by game,” O’Connell said. “He has responded in a way where I don’t even think twice about the play I’m going to call after a turnover. There’s no like, ‘Hey, let’s make sure he’s all right.’ There’s none of that.”

His teammates have noticed that about Darnold when adversity pops up. It doesn’t matter if he’s thrown an interception or lost a fumble. He’s going to come back out with the confidence in himself to let it rip.

“He’s so resilient,” running back Aaron Jones said. “There’s never any doubt. He’s always confident. Even after he threw the interception, it didn’t rattle him. He came out and led us right down the field and we scored.”

“He doesn’t think about the past,” tight end T.J. Hockenson said. “If something like that happens we’ve got his back, and we know exactly what’s going to happen on the next drive. We talk about it on the sideline, like, ‘Let’s go score.’ He’s a guy we love having in that huddle.”

It also helps that Darnold’s teammates are more than willing to pick him up if he needs it.

“It’s all about the next play, the next drive, the next opportunity,” Justin Jefferson said. “He’s human. He’s going to make some mistakes. It’s up to us as his teammates and as a team in general to be right there behind him and back him up and tell him it’s all good.”

That symbiotic relationship between the signal caller and his offensive playmakers has helped the Vikings remain potent regardless of circumstance.

“We’re going to stay aggressive as a team,” O’Connell said. “We can do that because of Sam.”