The Minnesota Vikings snapped their four-game losing streak with a 31-0 beatdown of the Washington Commanders on Sunday.
For the first time season the season opener, Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy showed glimpses of the player who went 27-1 as a starter with the Michigan Wolverines. The second-year QB completed 16 of 23 passes for 163 yards, three touchdowns, and zero interceptions.
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And while McCarthy delivered the best game of his brief career, the same can’t be said for star wide receiver Justin Jefferson.
The four-time All-Pro wideout logged just two catches on four targets for 11 yards, and this comes one week after he totaled two receptions on six targets for just four yards in a 26-0 blowout loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
It was the latest in a string of bad games by Jefferson, who’s scored just two touchdowns this season and hasn’t found the end zone in his last five games. He’s also topped 50 yards receiving just once in his last five outings as well.
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With Minnesota up big in the second half, head coach Kevin O’Connell decided to sit Jefferson toward the end of the fourth quarter to avoid risk of injury — a decision he says Jefferson tried to fight, prompting the team’s security detail to get involved.
“We’re going to find ways to get Justin the ball,” O’Connell told reporters. “He did not play 60 minutes today. That was a tough conversation. He tried to avoid me and run out on the field with about seven or eight minutes left in the game.
“A collective group effort between myself, Keenan, and a couple other folks, probably Dave Corse, our security guy as well, because Justin did not want to come out of the game. If Justin has demonstrated anything this year — the leadership, the smile on his face right now — he wants to win.”
O’Connell’s tongue-in-cheek delivery signaled the incident was somewhat lighthearted, and most would agree that O’Connell made the right call in keeping his superstar receiver on the sideline.
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