Confident McCarthy dominates Dallas
JJ McCarthy has the best game of his career on Sunday night
By Matthew Coller
That was the JJ McCarthy game that everyone has been looking for.
Through the first seven contests of the young quarterback’s career, we saw a lot of stops and starts, flickers, flashes and flounders. A moment in Chicago, a collapse against Atlanta. A moment in Detroit, a demolition in Green Bay. Last week against the Washington Commanders, McCarthy cruised to victory without much pushback from the indifferent Washington defense and his team was way up from the outset. It was an easy afternoon.
On Sunday night against the Dallas Cowboys, McCarthy went tape-to-tape with a very strong performance while Dallas’s offense was pushing back with long drives and points.
McCarthy opened the game with a batted interception and had a handful of dirtballs and overthrows along the way but he was mostly confident, aggressive and accurate enough to make it work. He flipped a 50-50 ball to Nailor early in the game that the No. 3 receiver turned into a brilliant touchdown. That seemed to get him going.
It was a pretty good sign when he scored on a fake handoff and danced into the end zone. That’s not the look that we saw just a few weeks ago.
But the second half is where he was most impressive. He fired a seam pass that hit TJ Hockenson on the numbers. He converted a third down to Nailor with back-shoulder touch. He delivered another conversion downfield to Hockenson for a big gain.
This was the type of QB play the Vikings expected from McCarthy this season. At times, imperfect. At times, chaotic. But brazen enough and in-command enough to move the ball up and down the field.
Sunday night looked like a growing quarterback who is seeing things click truly for the first time.
There do need to be some asterisks around the performance. The Dallas defense entered as the second worst in the NFL. They have been every bit as bad as the Commanders, if not worse in some ways. The Cowboys essentially never pressured McCarthy. The Dallas secondary seemed like they were allergic to tight coverage. Many of the throws came under the easiest circumstances he’s ever faced.
Grade on a curve as we might, the win over Dallas feels like a potential watershed moment. McCarthy may have just needed to see the ball go through the hoop against Washington to be reminded that he’s pretty darn gifted as a top-10 pick. He said as much following the win over the Commanders. It appeared to have carried over.
There’s nothing trickier than figuring out whether a performance like that is the truth or a single night where almost everything went his way except for connecting with Justin Jefferson (who had a TD catch nullified by penalty and dropped another one).
Did he just turn a corner and it took a little longer than we thought? Did Kevin O’Connell find answers that weren’t there before? Or was it a favorable defense that couldn’t stop a nose bleed?
We probably won’t get to find out that answer next week as McCarthy plays the New York Giants. Or even the following week when he goes against the Detroit Lions. Or maybe even Week 18 versus Green Bay, who now doesn’t have Micah Parsons.
Even if the competition is easier, you’re supposed to shred the bad teams and that’s exactly what he did on Sunday night. It leaves the door open to the young kid making significant progress as the season goes along and giving some confidence to the idea that he can take his game to another level in 2026.
That’s all we can really say. It’s open.
On the defensive side of things, it’s hard not to be impressed again by Brian Flores’ gameplan, even if Dallas was able to move the ball pretty consistently in the middle of the field, they toughened up over and over when it mattered most. Dak Prescott, rarely thrown off, was not able to convert big third downs because of Flores blitzes.
With most things coming together against a fairly competitive Dallas team, it’s hard not to wonder what this whole season might have looked like in a different world — maybe one where McCarthy could turn a corner earlier because he didn’t hurt his ankle. Maybe one where the defense and O-line was this healthy (though they were missing Darrisaw on Sunday) for the majority of the season.
Alas, since the Vikings were officially eliminated on Sunday, that’s in the past. But they are suddenly trending toward being a team that finishes strong and looks like they will have a lot to work with next year. That’s the best case scenario considering all that happened. They just need to get there.
Here’s how it went down…
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