Everything that went right and wrong for the Vikings vs. Bears
By Matthew Coller
Well, the Minnesota Vikings are now 4-6 after a loss to the Chicago Bears at US Bank Stadium.
Let’s have a look at everything that went right and wrong for them in the defeat..
What went right
McCarthy on the final drive
If there is something you woke up trying to hang onto after a 16-for-32, two-INT performance by JJ McCarthy, you were probably focusing on the final drive where the young QB led the Vikings to a go-ahead touchdown.
One thing that stood out most is that he threw underneath with success. A short throw to TJ Hockenson went for 21 yards and he converted a fourth-and-4 off a Bears all-out blitz.
The most straight forward of the plays was an 8-yard completion to Justin Jefferson on a standard mesh concept. In a 2x2 formation, McCarthy waits until Jefferson crosses in front of the linebackers and then dumps the ball down to him for a successful play.
There is nothing special about this play whatsoever but that’s pretty much the point. He hasn’t always been taking the routine stuff that is there in front of him. In this instance, he did and it worked.
His touchdown pass was impressive in terms of its velocity and finding Jordan Addison in the end zone but the most “pitch and catch” play was a 16-yard completion to Jalen Nailor that set up the TD.
The Vikings have a 2-on-3 on McCarthy’s right side. They send Addison to the end zone and Nailor breaks off an out route at about 15 yards from the line of scrimmage. The defenders double team Addison, making it an easy choice for McCarthy. His feet get set, his timing is good and the throw glides right over the defender and into Nailor’s hands.
It’s plays like this that cause a lot of folks to talk about KOC’s offense being easy to play in. There is nothing complex about this. It just requires straight forward technique of throwing accurately and on time.
It should also be noted that the blocking on this play is terrific. CJ Ham was a monster all day against Chicago blitzes and watch Donovan Jackson sort through the stunt patiently and shut down the rush.
We can’t take single plays or drives and isolate them and say: “See, he can do it!” But plays like this do suggest that if he can do these things consistently, the plays will be there to be made. Also, O’Connell’s late-game play calling set up the QB for success. That’s something that has happened a lot over the last few years.
Pass protection
It’s not an exaggeration to say that this was the best pass protection game of the KOC era.
Jackson in particular shined. The rookie gave up zero pressures and had an 82.9 PFF pass blocking grade. He has now moved up to 17th in pass blocking grade in the NFL — a terrific mark for one of the toughest positions to translate from college to the pros.
On this play, probably JJ McCarthy’s best throw of the day, the Vikings run play-action that brings Jackson into a one-on-one battle with 340-pound nose tackle Jonathan Ford. He not only takes the punch from the large man, he sticks him in place and gives McCarthy all the space in the world to throw.
Ham, again, was a big part of the blocking scheme here. He lined up at tight end, motioned into blocking the edge rusher and took care of business. Brian O’Neill also took out the blitzer Tremaine Edmunds and center Blake Brandel kept his defender miles away from McCarthy while guard Will Fries pulled to sell the run.
The Bears gave the Vikings a bunch of different looks and the QB did a good job of getting protections right pre-snap.
Here is another Ham play. The Bears run a stunt on McCarthy’s right side and Fries and Brandel do an excellent job of patiently sorting through it. Brandel ultimately ends up blocking the edge rusher and Fries stops No. 99 in his tracks. Also look at the other side, where Jackson has pushed his guy to Minnetonka.
You simply cannot ask for better than this. McCarthy was pressured on nine drop-backs (28.1%, 7th best in Week 11).
The fact that this offensive line is built to last with Darrisaw, Fries and O’Neill under contract and Jackson in his first year is very promising going forward.
Run blocking and execution
It wasn’t just the pass pro where the O-line shined. Fries had his highest graded game of the season by PFF as a run blocker. On the game’s best run, he took out veteran run-stuffer Andrew Billings, turning him to create a massive hole for Jordan Mason.
Also pay attention to the effort from Justin Jefferson here. That’s a winning play from a dude who was very frustrated on Sunday.
In total, the Vikings gained 115 yards on 22 carries.
Certainly the Bears’ shortcomings played into the total dominance by the Vikings O-line but it’s clear that they are going to be able to run the ball with this unit blocking.
Dallas Turner in the Greenard role
The second-year outside linebacker had five pressures and the second highest PFF grade of all Vikings defenders on Sunday.
Maybe it was a favorable matchup but he did look more comfortable rushing from the right OLB position. This was his most impressive rush of the game, where he drove the offensive tackle right back into Caleb Williams’ lap as he was converting speed to power.
He needs to get the sack there but Williams is an absolute freak when it comes to elusiveness.
Turner still had six coverage snaps, one of which was a very impressive stop in the backfield. The Bears try to run a screen to Luther Burden and Turner sniffs it out and then accelerates before the tackle can reach him and makes the tackle.
It was an all-around game for Turner, with four run stops tacked onto his quality rushing.
Overall, it was probably the best game of Turner’s career so far. He’s up to 24 QB pressures on the year. He’s 41st out of 121 starting/rotational edge players in PFF’s Pass Rush Productivity stat that weighs sacks/hits/hurries. Is that elite? No. But it’s also in the same ballpark is some other quality rushers so he is showing signs of development.
Cornerbacks in sticky coverage
The Vikings got strong showings from Isaiah Rodgers, Byron Murphy Jr. and Fabian Moreau. Combined, they allowed just 3-for-8 passing for 23 yards into their coverage and Moreau had a quality pass breakup. Considering the receivers they were facing, that’s a high quality day.
What went wrong
The ‘easy’ throws
On Monday, O’Connell described some of the mechanical issues as McCarthy making things harder on himself. There are plenty of examples of that as some of the throws McCarthy missed were startling.
This throw toward a wide open TJ Hockenson couldn’t have been set up much better. Jefferson runs a fake screen to occupy the corner and Nailor clears out the safety, leaving Hock in wide open spaces. The throw just isn’t close.
It’s hard to diagnose exactly what happened but it seemed like the fake to Jefferson was a little behind and then he had to speed up the pass to Hock. Timing was a consistent issue.
The next throw was the worst miss of the day. As straight forward as it gets. The Bears line up everybody at the line of scrimmage and McCarthy does a great job of setting the protection. CJ Ham hands the outside rusher, Hockenson helps on the edge and the O-line stonewalls the attempt at a game on the edge. Beautiful work.
On McCarthy’s right, Nailor runs a deep route with the safety over top and Jefferson matches up against the only man left in coverage with the Bears blitzing: Linebacker Noah Sewell. He’s wide open. It’s a 10-yard out route. You can’t make it any easier than this and the throw goes flying over Jefferson’s head.
McCarthy’s reaction says it all.
There are lots of theories about how you miss a throw like this. Was it confidence waning after other misses? Or trying to feel out the pass like a struggling golfer? Or is this just who he is as a passer: Inconsistent.
He finished the game with a completion percentage over expected of -14.4%
Through five games, McCarthy’s completion percentage adjusted for drops is still 36th of 40. He is 40th of 40 in clean-pocket completion percentage at 54.8%. The top 25 are all above 70%.
Deep passing
McCarthy threw more than 20 yards downfield on four occasions. One of them was a drop by Addison and the other three were… not very close to the target.
The most worrisome of the downfield passes was another that KOC drew up perfectly for the coverage. The Bears play single-high safety with an underneath zone and both Jefferson and Addison end up wide open.
Jefferson is one-on-one on a crossing route and easily defeats his man. The ball looks like it should be headed his way as soon as McCarthy hits his back foot. The protection is good. Yet.. he doesn’t throw it. On the other side, Addison beats his guy on a double move and has a shot at a 30-yard gain if the ball is thrown up over his shoulder but McCarthy waits too long and the safety reads the play and breaks on it. The throw is late, floated up in the air and two defenders run into each other trying to pick it off.
There isn’t much else to say about that one.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Purple Insider to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.