Last Sunday, Kevin O’Connell asked J.J. McCarthy to focus on decision making over mechanics. He also reminded the entire team that their 16-year-old selves would give anything to play in the NFL. The Minnesota Vikings responded with a 31-0 win over the Washington Commanders, and McCarthy had his best performance to date.
“I thought J.J. had some phenomenal plays on third down, and then just continued to play within himself,” O’Connell said after the win. “Decision making was going to be the priority today, and [I] felt like he played a very clean game, protected the football, and ran the show. [I’m] so very proud of him and a lot of guys, for that matter.”
Earlier in the week, McCarthy admitted that trying to execute O’Connell’s offense while playing with clean mechanics was sapping his mental bandwidth. O’Connell has a complex scheme, and he was overhauling McCarthy’s footwork and throwing motion a year after he missed his rookie season with a meniscus tear.
“Coach O’Connell and [quarterbacks coach Josh] McCown [said], ‘Hey, let’s worry about that stuff in the offseason. Go out there, play your ball, just execute the play,’” McCarthy said. “And that just frees up a lot of space mentally to be instinctual, react, and respond to what the defense is giving me.”
McCarthy responded by going 16 of 23 for 163 yards, with three touchdowns, and no interceptions. His 129.2 passer rating is his highest this season, and the only time he’s had a passer rating north of 100.
“He was decisive. He owned the plan,” said offensive coordinator Wes Phillips. “A couple times where he was able to use his legs and steal us a couple first downs were big plays early in the game. And, yeah, he just went out and played quarterback.”
McCarthy has always been at his best when he was playing loose. He accounted for three touchdowns in Minnesota’s Week 1 game at Soldier Field. However, McCarthy scored all three in the fourth quarter, salvaging a game where the Vikings couldn’t move the ball for 45 minutes.
However, he followed that performance up by going 11 of 21 for 158 yards and throwing two picks against the Atlanta Falcons. McCarthy had a 37.5 passer rating against Atlanta, a 4-9 team entering Week 15, his second-lowest passer rating this season.
McCarthy suffered a high-ankle sprain in the Falcons game, further setting back his development. Still, upon his return, he played well enough against the Detroit Lions that the Vikings could have stayed in the hunt had he maintained that level of play.
His 82.6 passer rating in Detroit is his third-best this season, behind the Commanders game on Sunday and Week 1 in Chicago (98.5). That made it all the more perplexing that the Vikings had eight false starts at home against the Baltimore Ravens the following week.
“I take full responsibility for the pre-snap, procedural penalties,” he said.
McCarthy threw for a season-high 248 yards against the Ravens. However, he finished 20 of 42, a season-low 47.6 completion percentage, a touchdown, and two interceptions.
Still, the procedural penalties were more concerning. McCarthy had struggled to get in and out of the huddle quickly in Chicago and against Atlanta, but he had cleaned that up in front of a raucous crowd in Detroit. In terms of managing the huddle, McCarthy regressed at the worst possible time.
However, O’Connell was also at fault in the 27-19 loss to Baltimore. He had his first-year quarterback throw it 42 times and only called 18 running plays. After McCarthy’s pick on third-and-one, the Vikings started to lose control of the game and their season. Aaron Jones had had a 17-yard and a five-yard run earlier in the drive.
Everything fell apart from there. The Vikings lost to the Chicago Bears a week later on a special teams blunder. Following that game, McCarthy had the worst performance of the season in Lambeau, all but ending Minnesota’s playoff hopes. A shutout in Seattle sealed it.
O’Connell only let McCarthy loose and leaned on the run game after Minnesota’s playoff odds had diminished below 1%. On Sunday, O’Connell had McCarthy run an offense similar to the one Jim Harbaugh ran at Michigan. The Vikings ran it 55.7% of the time against Washington, the highest rate under O’Connell, including on third-and-short.
O’Connell had McCarthy focus on decision making to help his development. Still, he may have only let McCarthy play free because the Vikings didn’t have much to lose. Would he have run the ball as often in a more meaningful game? Or does he trust in the pass instinctively, even with a first-year quarterback?
We won’t know the answer until next year. Until then, there’s no reason to stray from that formula from now until the end of the season.
