Film Study: What went WRONG for J.J. McCarthy and the Minnesota Vikings Vs the Green Bay Packers

Film Study: What went WRONG for J.J. McCarthy and the Minnesota Vikings Vs the Green Bay Packers

All right, let’s talk about JJ McCarthy, who things seem to be getting worse here for the Minnesota Vikings. Back-to-back rough games for him. He has had some good games this season and good moments this season. And even in this game, there were some good moments. And we can even start off there if you want to. Definitely some uh you know, some rough stuff as well. So, let’s let’s get into all of it right now. first like the simple stuff, you know, play action running over the middle. The stuff you want to see McCarthy to hit hit on, watch as one uh, you know, he takes a snap, looks over the middle. This play does get open, the onscript play working. You have a window right here. Not a wide open window, though. Definitely, you have to make sure you put this on the money. That’s exactly what McCarthy does. They’re able to get the completion there. So, you have you have that uh which we’ve seen him be able to do consistently. Again, this is uh you know, I’m a little bit praising a fish for not drowning here, but ultimately, this is still stuff that you want to be able to see a quarterback be able to do. Not every young quarterback can do this right away. This next play, though, is just a legitimate good play. Again, it’s an onscript play of Justin Jefferson running around, you know, a minute left and a half, uh, trying to get into a gap in coverage further down the field. JJ McCarthy is going to take the snap right here. They do have a clean pocket. Throws down the field. And you see that there is a Packers player, you know, leaping up. He’s putting two hands up and what that means is he thinks he has a chance to intercept it, right? One hand up is when you try to deflect it. Two hands is when you try and intercept it. However, watch this throw from McCarthy. It’s just right on the money. Nice catch from Justin Jefferson on top of it. They pick up a big completion. So, like we do see those to say that there are zero positives from JJ McCarthy uh even in this rough stretch would not be an accurate statement. We do not see a ton of those. We just don’t. In fact, a little bit later on in the drive, a very close, you know, nearly identical play would happen. Again, Jefferson trying to get into a gap in coverage. You have two timeouts. Uh, you know, ideally they would like to get a touchdown here, but at least get closer for a field goal. Um, so, you know, if you can make the catch and get out of bounds, that could save the timeouts. JJ McCarthy is going to take the snap. Packers are blitzing here. I do wonder if the pressure, even if it didn’t actually get to him, just the threat of pressure is getting to him a little bit. You, you know, NFL pockets are different than college pockets. even if that pocket itself was fine on this play. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter. You have Jefferson who’s trying to get open and watch that throw just is it’s just off. I mean, Jefferson gives up on the play cuz it was too far off. It’s a bit of an optical illusion. It almost looks as though it was closer to where he was, but even if Jefferson laid out, he wasn’t going to touch that one. So, ultimately, not ideal there. And and the accuracy is just an issue. That’s something that has to get fixed. And I don’t know if it’s going to get fixed. I mean, Josh Allen fixed his accuracy issues. Maybe McCarthy can do the same, but that’s what you’re hoping for right now because he’s missing too many throws. Like even this play. So, it’s a third down and 10. They’re kind of on the outside of field goal range. This was just a couple minutes into the football game. Uh you’re in a situation where, you know, um I I think I often look at these things and say, “Okay, how does the coach view the quarterback?” That’s something I like to see because they have more information than we do, right? They see them in practice and all of that stuff. Uh and usually the coaches are making the decisions that make sense. It’s usually they’re smart. I trust Kevin Oonnell here. They’re going to go with a kind of a clever halfback screen, but still a halfback screen where it’s a play action and then they’re going to uh flip it to him. And I think you could argue alone this is not great for JJ McCarthy’s uh stock right here of if on a third down and 10, they do not trust him. That being said, you’re trying to get some yards to get in field goal range. Like you don’t want to lose yards. You understand why they’re doing this. Anyway, JJ McCarthy takes a snap. There will be pressure here, which is again kind of by design, right? You want to get these Packers players out of the way. So, what you do is you let them get close to the quarterback. Then the quarterback throws it and now you’ve taken defenders out of the area and you can run. Is this going to go for a ton of yards if this is thrown? Probably not. But still, JJ McCarthy’s throw was closer to being intercepted than caught on that one. Uh, that’s probably not fair. But it was, you know, kind of in between two players. It was not on target. And even if Jones made the catch, he would have been tackled behind the line because it was a bit behind him. And again, you’re like four yards away from him. like you have to make these throws. Some throws that he has to try and make are difficult. This was not one of them. This is a layup. You have to hit the layups. And that’s one of the biggest issues with JJ McCarthy right now. It’s just he’s just missing these throws. Also, this play. So, this is admittedly it’s a disastrous situation right now. They’re down 17 points, 23-6 in this spot. But still, you know, you’re playing it out. Who knows? Uh we’ve seen the Vikings pull off a big comeback with McCarthy, you know, back in week one. They even, you know, kind of pulled off the comeback against the Bears last week as well, even if ultimately the Bears then answered and scored to win it. But on this play, JJ McCarthy takes a snap. And this is just another issue is so first off, uh, you see Rashan Gary, who is a great player. The Vikings don’t play this very well. And Christian Darasaw got hurt in this game. That’s that’s just not good. Uh, you need him healthy. But ultimately, they try and chip Gary. Um, but the chip just pushes him too far. Gary’s able to get around back. And and this is just difficult for McCarthy where you know getting contacted it’s hard to feel the the contact when it’s coming behind you. Although ultimately again the contact is enough that it knocks the ball haywire ends up getting intercepted. Is that fair to blame him? Probably not. I I don’t think I would blame a different quarterback if it happens. So I probably shouldn’t blame him uh for something like this. I do think it’s fair to say though it does feel like the contact disrupts him more than maybe it does for other quarterbacks. This this example is probably not the best example of of showcasing that, but that does seem to be a thing that kind of does happen. So either way, with, you know, maybe the offensive line not being as strong as it was with Sam Darnold there, that could create more issues. But also heading over here, so this is prior to that play, this is a big deal as well. So it’s a 14-point game. It’s still a game at this point. You score a touchdown, it’s a complete one-score game, then it’s definitely a game, right? Um third down and 17 though at your own, you know, 11 12 yardd line. That’s going to make things difficult, but okay, you still got to run your offense, get the most value out of this play as possible, right? Third and 17 is going to be tough to get a conversion if you have an opportunity to do it. But ultimately, you know, you can’t guarantee success on this play. Just get what you can. JJ McCarthy takes the snap. It’s uh sort of a interesting three-man rush. Ultimately, pressure gets to him, but he gets out of it. So, here, okay, great scenario. You held on to the ball a little bit longer than you should have, but it’s okay. You kind of expect that on a third and 17. Sometimes you hold on to the ball for too long. He ultimately gets out of that initial pressure. And so what do you do in this spot if you’re JJ McCarthy? Well, down the field, nothing’s open. So, you would love to throw it down the field. That’s just not an option. And again, do you want to keep trying to buy time, buy time, and eventually have something work. You could do that if you want to, but again, there is a defensive lineman running right after you. So, it’s difficult really. Just just just throw it to a checkdown at this point. You see that there’s a check down on the screen that you can look at. Uh that could, you know, that is open. I believe that’s their fullback right there who’s running that route, which like okay, listen, is that going to go for much? No. But ultimately, it’s like I said, it’s the best play. It’s the right option on this play. And you know, I I’ll compare McCarthy to Bo Nicks. One thing I like about Bo Knicks as someone from the same draft class is he’ll do that. He’ll throw it to the checkdown even if it’s not going to get a ton of yards. And like you need to see McCarthy start to make better decisions cuz watch, he doesn’t do anything, which not making a decision is still a decision, right? That’s still a choice essentially of you want to see him. The way I view it is that he made the decision to stay in the pocket with pressure in his face, that’s not a smart idea. Throw the football, you know, even if you just gain five yards in that play and have to punt, it’s still better than having to punt, you know, back into your own territory, uh, making it difficult for the punter. Ultimately, when the Packers ended up uh getting the football, they were close enough to field goal range that even with only being able to gain a little bit of yards, 19 total yards on their drive, that was enough to kick a field goal, that makes it a three-score game with 7 and 1/2 minutes left. And that was ball game, right? I mean, you can kind of potentially survive down 14 with 7 and 1/2 minutes left. It’s going to take a lot, but you can survive. So, those little decisions don’t seem like a ton at the time, but those are big big. It’s a big deal, especially when you’re also turning the ball over and uh not making throws, then you got to at least make smart decisions and he’s not doing that either. So, a lot of issues. Again, listen, who knows if young quarterbacks, right? I’ve seen plenty of young quarterbacks struggle out of the gate and then look good. I’ve seen quarterbacks I thought for sure were I thought M. Jones was going to be great with New England, then he struggles and now he’s been weird with San Francisco. The book is still getting written on JJ McCarthy, right? But if I’m Kevin Oonnell, I’m focusing on the easy stuff right now. You hope the accuracy gets better. There’s not a ton you can do about that. Focus on the easy stuff. Get them to make better decisions and hope the rest starts to follow as well. That’s how I view all this. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below. Always love hearing from you. And of course, as always, thanks for watching.

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