All right, all right; everyone calm down....
TV cameras zoomed in on J.J. McCarthy’s face for a closeup as he walked off the field. His helmet did nothing to hide the inferno taking place underneath.
His eyes could’ve stared directly into a person’s soul. His mouth was pursed into a snarl. He was a quarterback in job title but a heavyweight fighter looking for a knockout in appearance.
“That’s kind of how I roll,” he said.
Vikings players, coaches, fans and NFL observers all got a first glimpse of McCarthy’s blistering intensity as a game-day competitor in Monday’s 27-24 victory over the Bears in Chicago. His debut as a starting quarterback at age 22 revealed intangibles that cannot be measured by statistics or Pro Day metrics.
He showed resolve when things looked bleak. He didn’t get rattled by mistakes, including his pick-six interception that might have buckled the knees of young quarterbacks. He displayed fieriness reflective of someone who isn’t used to losing and had no intentions of losing that game.
Forget the historical stats that McCarthy recorded in the final quarter at Soldier Field to completely rewrite the narrative of his first NFL game. The best part — other than the win, of course — was the demeanor that a young quarterback exhibited in a performance that turned from dud to dynamic in a blink.
“Game day, when the lights are shining,” Justin Jefferson said, “he knows how to have that ‘dog’ mentality.”
Competitors earn that form of flattery by how they perform when things aren’t operating smoothly.
McCarthy has lost three games as a starting quarterback across high school, college and NFL. Three losses combined at those levels. Winners find ways to persevere when negative situations occur.
The first three quarters of his first start were a mess. Nothing went right. McCarthy looked antsy at the line of scrimmage and in the pocket. Coach Kevin O’Connell saw “sloppiness” from the entire offense.
The response was most impressive. McCarthy didn’t get rattled by the circumstances, which would have been understandable given all the attention on his debut, his return to his hometown and legitimate expectations of a veteran team built to win now.
That’s a lot of pressure on a young leader. And when things started poorly, particularly after his errant pass that was intercepted and returned for a touchdown in the third quarter, one couldn’t help but think “Uh-oh.”
McCarthy didn’t flinch. He continued to project confidence and positivity.
“I always he’s different up here,” veteran running back Aaron Jones said, pointing to his head. “It’s just his mentality. He’s a special guy.”
Coaches and teammates have raved about McCarthy’s maturity and makeup for months. But it’s one thing to show it in the relatively low-stress environment of practice and something entirely different to be trailing by double digits on the road on “Monday Night Football” in the season opener when all eyes are fixated on the new guy who holds the keys to the organization in his hands.
“We all believe J.J. is made of the right stuff and we all believe he would respond in those moments,” O’Connell said. “But that’s an accurate statement to say we hadn’t actually seen it.”
McCarthy’s response to that predicament should be the biggest takeaway. His first season will have more tough moments, more youthful mistakes, more adversity. He seems well-equipped to handle rough spots emotionally and mentally.
He credits meditation for giving him the tools to “control the controllables” and not get derailed by whatever has happened previously in a game, good or bad.
“Stay present, stay calm and really just worry about operating the next play,” he said. “It’s really simple but hard to do.”
In sports, this is called having the “It” factor. Impossible to define, easy to recognize in competition.
McCarthy gave a snapshot of it when he walked into the huddle during a TV timeout with his team trailing by 11 points, looked at his teammates and delivered a quote that is destined to get printed on T-shirts: “Is there any place else you guys would rather be?”
“A smile goes a long way,” he said. “There were a lot of smiles after I said that. Just a little bit of a perspective shift. Yeah, things weren’t going our way, but we’re here doing this together.”
The snowball was gaining steam at that point. McCarthy made clutch plays to engineer a spirited comeback. Emotions poured out of him, resulting in emotions pouring out of his teammates and coaches.
His debut was a wild ride. The young quarterback remained undeterred by all of it. In his words, that’s how he rolls.
STRIB
Hurry-up Vikings, we ain't getting any younger!
His response was reminiscent of what happened in his first extended play against the Raiders last summer. Threw a bad pick and then came back and led two TD drives with big completions downfield.
The kid doesn't seem to get rattled by mistakes. If that's the case, we're going to win a lot of games with him as our QB.
Lets keep it rolling the next 2 games at home:
FAlcons
Bengals
Then they're off in Europe for 1/2 a mos
Not home again till 10/19 vs SB Champ Eagles
Hurry-up Vikings, we ain't getting any younger!
MAD GAINZ wrote:
His response was reminiscent of what happened in his first extended play against the Raiders last summer. Threw a bad pick and then came back and led two TD drives with big completions downfield.The kid doesn't seem to get rattled by mistakes. If that's the case, we're going to win a lot of games with him as our QB.
Agree. And that is the key we've been talking about for over a year. Every QB plays poorly at times. Every QB in the NFL has thrown a pick six. Bad QBs go into a shell; good QBs forget about it and stay aggressive. We now have three pretty good examples of JJ doing exactly that.
The pick against the Raiders, followed by a sensational performance that included several gorgeous passes and two TDs; day one of the joint practices with the Pats where he struggled, followed by a second day where he clearly took what he learned and played almost flawlessly; the Bears game where the offense was dysfunctional for three quarters, followed by a fourth quarter where JJ led the team on a furious, record-breaking comeback to pull out the W and NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors.
So much of the game is psychological. And the fact that JJ doesn't ever seem to curl up inside his head bodes well for the future.
MaroonBells wrote:
Agree. And that is the key we've been talking about for over a year. Every QB plays poorly at times. Every QB in the NFL has thrown a pick six. Bad QBs go into a shell; good QBs forget about it and stay aggressive. We now have three pretty good examples of JJ doing exactly that.
The pick against the Raiders, followed by a sensational performance that included several gorgeous passes and two TDs; day one of the joint practices with the Pats where he struggled, followed by a second day where he clearly took what he learned and played almost flawlessly; the Bears game where the offense was dysfunctional for three quarters, followed by a fourth quarter where JJ led the team on a furious, record-breaking comeback to pull out the W and NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors.
So much of the game is psychological. And the fact that JJ doesn't ever seem to curl up inside his head bodes well for the future.
The Patriots joint practices really opened up the coaching staffs eyes reportedly. The Patriots game planned for the first practice and the Vikings didn't. It showed in how the offense performed Day 1. Then Day 2 Vikings coaches game planned and JJ McCarthy executed it flawlessly. THAT gave them a ton of confidence that this kid can be coached and execute adjustments in a short period of time.
It's going to be fun to watch him grow this year.
MAD GAINZ wrote:
The Patriots joint practices really opened up the coaching staffs eyes reportedly. The Patriots game planned for the first practice and the Vikings didn't. It showed in how the offense performed Day 1. Then Day 2 Vikings coaches game planned and JJ McCarthy executed it flawlessly. THAT gave them a ton of confidence that this kid can be coached and execute adjustments in a short period of time.
It's going to be fun to watch him grow this year.
Last year for me was just enjoy the ride, with whatever Sammie brought to the party...14 wins was fun, till it wasn't.
I think (at the bold) is spot on, this is probably not a SB run of a year. But just enjoy seeing the growth of a 22 year old QB and hope for some fun (and wins) along the way.
Hurry-up Vikings, we ain't getting any younger!
purplefaithful wrote:
Last year for me was just enjoy the ride, with whatever Sammie brought to the party...14 wins was fun, till it wasn't.
I think (at the bold) is spot on, this is probably not a SB run of a year. But just enjoy seeing the growth of a 22 year old QB and hope for some fun (and wins) along the way.
You can't count it out. This roster is good enough to make a deep playoff run. But yes, I don't think we should have Super Bowl expectations right now... we can check back on that in Week 10 though... might change. :-D
MAD GAINZ wrote:
You can't count it out. This roster is good enough to make a deep playoff run. But yes, I don't think we should have Super Bowl expectations right now... we can check back on that in Week 10 though... might change. :-D
Expectations? Of course not. But a legit reason for hope? You bet. Even with our weakish secondary, I'd put our roster, with the exception of QB, up against anyone's. And if JJ plays well, watch out. The Lions lost significant pieces, as did the Eagles, who didn't look particularly good against the Cowboys. Green Bay looked good, but was that about them or the Lions? Maybe we'll find out more tonight. And wait until you see our front seven against a more traditional offense. Obviously, we have a few things to clean up, but so does every other team in the NFL. Either way, it's going to be a fun year.
MaroonBells wrote:
Expectations? Of course not. But a legit reason for hope? You bet. Even with our weakish secondary, I'd put our roster, with the exception of QB, up against anyone's. And if JJ plays well, watch out. The Lions lost significant pieces, as did the Eagles, who didn't look particularly good against the Cowboys. Green Bay looked good, but was about that them or the Lions? Maybe we'll find out more tonight. And wait until you see our front seven against a more traditional offense. Obviously, we have a few things to clean up, but so does every other team in the NFL. Either way, it's going to be a fun year.
That secondary is going to be the death of us by the end of the season. Lots of open receivers on Mon night...a better QB would have capitalized.
'Yeah, this guy is a gamer': Vikings not surprised by J.J. McCarthy's eye-opening NFL debut
EAGAN, Minn. -- J.J. McCarthy was one of the first Vikings players to reach the locker room at halftime Monday night. So he turned around and walked upstream through the Soldier Field tunnel, smacking teammates on their shoulder pads and telling them he would turn around what had been an anemic first-half offensive showing against the Chicago Bears.
If anyone felt compelled to roll their eyes or otherwise recoil from a scene that plays out more often on lower levels of football than in the NFL, they kept it to themselves. Asked about it later, veteran defensive tackle Javon Hargrave shrugged his shoulders, smiled and said: "He was saying that he's got us. And he did."
McCarthy followed up his words with action, accounting for three touchdowns in the fourth quarter of a 27-24 victory. The third score, a 14-yard run off a surprise read-option play, caused what coach Kevin O'Connell called an "eruption" on the sideline -- an emotional release among players, coaches and staffers after the quarterback they waited 16 months to see had finally worked his magic.
"All the stories about how much of a maniac J.J. is, all those stories came true," former Vikings safety Cam Bynum said on the Kay Adams Show. "He made those stories be real. People may call those stories, 'OK, he's just putting on an act.' But when he went out there and did what he did in the fourth quarter, it's like, 'Alright you can't say nothing about J.J. McCarthy's mindset.' It was beautiful to watch."
It would have been human nature to withhold judgment on McCarthy. He was perhaps the biggest projection of the 2024 quarterback class, having thrown an average of 22.1 passes per game during his final season in Michigan's run-based scheme, the fourth fewest by a first-round quarterback in his final full college season over the previous 20 years. His draft stock was boosted by his association with a national championship and the vibes of his competitive spirit, and since then he had proved nothing about his capacity to play at the professional level.
After recovering from surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee, which sidelined him for the 2024 season, McCarthy relied on his youthful instincts during OTAs and training camp as he took over the Vikings offense. It was common to see him moving through groups of players in between drills, delivering high-fives and hugs. His verbal encouragement in the huddle could be heard regularly by fans and observers on the sideline.
During an interview this summer, McCarthy's Chicago-based quarterback trainer compared McCarthy to P.J. Fleck, the University of Minnesota's high-energy coach, saying: "He's almost, like, too happy sometimes. It can almost look obnoxious."
He looked the part and certainly acted like it. But could he play? O'Connell pushed hard this summer to look past that question.
During his radio show on KFAN-100.3 this week, he acknowledged that it's commonplace in the NFL to expect players to prove themselves on the field before fully accepting them. But, O'Connell said, "That's not the way I have ever operated, and hopefully no team I coach ever will."
Instead, O'Connell encouraged players and the entire organization to utilize the equity they had built in compiling a 34-17 regular-season record while playing with five different starting quarterbacks during the past three seasons. McCarthy would be ready to play, just as Kirk Cousins, Jaren Hall, Joshua Dobbs, Nick Mullens and Sam Darnold were before him.
"I've just tried to lean on the fact that a lot of the guys have the belief they do and had it before we took the field on Monday night," O'Connell said Wednesday when asked to elaborate. "They hopefully have reasons beyond just the fact that we all believe J.J. is made of the right stuff, and we all believe he would respond in those moments.
"It's an accurate statement to say we hadn't actually seen it. But that's my hope with a lot of things, not just the young quarterback. That's my hope with our football team, where we can start to really believe and deep down inside, believe and expect good things to happen based upon how we prepare, how we have prepared with training camp and the whole offseason to make sure in those moments we shouldn't be shocked by it. We should be expecting it."
O'Connell began his tenure in Minnesota expressing similar belief in Cousins, whose career at the time was at a crossroads. During an early team meeting, he showed players video of Cousins delivering a pass in the face of a heavy pass rush. Cousins later said that O'Connell was about "building people" and "not just building a football team."
Vikings running back Aaron Jones Sr. recalled a similar dynamic in Green Bay, when he was part of a Packers team that elevated quarterback Jordan Love prior to the 2023 season.
"It's the same thing with J.J.," Jones said. "The confidence is there. He's a gamer. I didn't have to play football with him to say, 'I'll suit up with this guy any day.' We could play kickball, and I'd say, 'Yeah, this guy is a gamer. I want him on my team.'"
As a result, McCarthy said he didn't enter Monday night looking to prove himself to the team.
"I feel like it was more proving it to myself," he said, "because I feel like this team, their belief in me is something I tremendously appreciate. ... Being able to really show who I am in the biggest moment was something that was really cool, but it was more just about proving it to myself."
ESPN
Hurry-up Vikings, we ain't getting any younger!
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