By Matthew Coller
CHICAGO – It only took one game for JJ McCarthy to create the same type of JJ McCarthy lore that we have all heard about from his high school and college days.
It wasn’t just that he led the Vikings to a comeback fourth quarter victory in his first game or that he became the first player in NFL history to have two 10+ yard passing TDs and a 10+ yard rushing TD in the fourth quarter of any game or that he is the first starting QB with a 10+ point 4th quarter comeback in his NFL debut since Steve Young in 1985.
It was where it happened. It was how it happened. It was why it happened.
The Vikings’ starting quarterback, playing in his home town in front of between 200-250 of his friends/family, had a miserable opening half Monday night’s matchup at Soldier Field against the Chicago Bears. His team failed repeatedly on third down and couldn’t gain any sort of sustained drive. The operation was slow, the gameplan timid. Then less than three minutes into the second half, the Vikings got into field-goal position down 10-6 and McCarthy threw the ball right into the hands of Chicago corner Nahshon Wright for a pick-six. Rather than be down 10-9, it was 17-6.
As you might have seen written in a couple of places over the last 600+ days since he last played football, one of the reasons McCarthy was so highly regarded as a quarterback was his resilience. The Vikings had seen signs in the draft process and his first two preseasons/training camps of all the cliche stuff. Moments were never too big, calm through the storm and all that. They felt that he wouldn’t get rattled when the waters got rocky.
Suddenly all that stuff came to life.
After the interception, McCarthy went to his teammates on the sideline and acknowledged his brutal error. He told them that it wouldn’t happen again and they would get back on track.
In the huddle, McCarthy offered the offense the first inspiring thought that came into his head. He shouted out a phrase that he’s never used before in such a situation.
“Where would you rather be?” McCarthy said, (probably unknowingly) channeling Hall of Fame head coach Marv Levy.
“I've never actually said that before, but I feel like it was at the perfect time,” McCarthy said. “Guys were just in their head a little bit, and I feel like…a smile goes a long way. So there was a lot of smiles after I said that, and just a little bit of a perspective shift. Yeah, things weren't going our way, but we're here doing this together and the boys, they responded perfectly.”
His words resonated with the huddle.
“I’m like, you’re F’ing right there’s no place I’d rather be,” running back Aaron Jones said. “I dreamed of this as a little kid so you’re right, let’s F’ing go now.”
“It juiced us up, honestly, to have our quarterback have those words in that way, it was something that we needed,” receiver Justin Jefferson said. “It’s not every time you hear JJ be that type of guy but today when the lights are shining he knows how to come to work and have that dog mentality. He never gave up. He kept going.”
In the fourth quarter, the offense finally clicked.
Following a missed field goal by the Bears that kept the door open for a comeback, Jordan Mason rumbled for runs of seven and 18 yards, setting up a play-action throw to Justin Jefferson for 17 yards that put the Vikings in scoring position in an eye blink. Three plays later he threw his first NFL touchdown.
His follow-up drive ended with a 27-yards touchdown pass to Aaron Jones.
“That’s something we’ve been working on since training camp, I’m just glad they called me and trusted it in that situation,” Jones said. “When they called it, my eyes got big. I’m like, ‘OK!’ And JJ was like, ‘I’m going to give you a chance on this, go make a play.”
The cherry on top to McCarthy’s breakout quarter was a 14-yard touchdown run that gave the Vikings a 10-point lead and proved to be the game-winning score. His teammates went ballistic. His coach trusted his speed and athleticism to make a big-time play.
“JJ's a very, very good athlete,” O’Connell said. “And the look presented itself, where we felt pretty good about TJ [Hockenson] being able to kind of lead him in from there…he was reading the play, and he made a great play.”
“Coach McCown actually brought it up in his little pregame speech at the hotel and he was talking about how he was running [the QB run play] in 2013 and I was probably running in seventh grade somewhere but I was actually 10 at the time… it was just perfect play call. The offensive line did a great job TJ with that block.”
Throughout the three scoring drives, teammates said that nothing about McCarthy’s demeanor changed. One play at a time, just like his coach preaches.
“He was that constant voice of faith even when things weren’t going our way,” guard Donovan Jackson said.
Jackson, of course, already knew what McCarthy was capable of on the big stage having attended Ohio State.
“Unfortunately, I wasn’t surprised,” Jackson said, laughing.
O’Connell made his own core memory on Monday night by showing his belief in McCarthy. At halftime, he went to his QB and had a message for him: You are going to bring us back to win this football game.
“The look in his eye was fantastic,” O’Connell said.
“That guy is one of the best, if not the best head coach, in my opinion, in the National Football League, so any kind of compliments or belief like that, that means the world,” McCarthy said. “And that just gave me all the confidence to go out there and just execute the plays.”
In the end, McCarthy finished 13-for-20 with 143 yards passing, two TDs, one INT and a 98.5 QB rating.
The first impression of McCarthy from his teammates under the most pressure-packed situation was that he could rise to the occasion. The value of that going forward can’t fit in a box score.
“Talk about meeting the moment regardless of circumstances,” O’Connell said. “There's no way to deny we don't win this game unless JJ plays the way he did in the second half and most importantly kept the belief of his football team behind him.”
Of course, there’s no way the Vikings win this game if a bunch of other players didn’t step up as well.
Here’s a couple of performances that stood out:
— It’s hard to judge the performance of a guard in real time but it appeared Donovan Jackson was ready for the challenge of his first NFL action. He talked with Purple Insider after the game.
“My parents and mentors said, ‘hey, take a moment to look around and appreciate how far you came and then lock back in,’” Jackson said. “I had that little moment running out of the tunnel. I was like, wow, I’m wearing purple and gold, Vikings on my chest. This is where you dream of being. As soon I got back to the sideline, it was, hey, let’s go win a football game.”
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.