His interception came at a bad spot, handing the Lions the ball back close to midfield with three timeouts shortly before halftime, but Minnesota’s defense responded with a timely three-and-out.
What McCarthy maybe lacked in grandeur statistics, he made up for tenfold in big moments.
He kickstarted the afternoon in the Motor City zealously, releasing a beautiful, front-pylon deep ball to Addison on his first pass attempt since Sept. 14. Although Addison didn’t hang on, it foreshadowed the young quarterback’s ability – and confidence – to let it rip when Minnesota needed a spark offensively.
As well as when the Vikings were in a fairly predictable scenario on the third-and-5 that iced the game.
“I’m happy that we got the win, but I’m not proud, to be honest with you,” McCarthy offered. “There’s a lot of meat on the bone, and I feel like I could have played a lot better. But coming into this environment and controlling my emotions, controlling kind of my temperament going into it – I was proud of that.”
McCarthy cited fewer self-inflicted mistakes, procedural penalties to be specific, as a positive takeaway, even if more items can be cleaned up. Additionally, he was sacked five times, granted a couple were the result of him inaccurately gauging the closing speed of defenders and holding onto the ball outside the pocket.