Minnesota Sports Forum

Terrific third down throw by JJ! Not an easy catch for Nailor, but it worked. Big win for the Vikings, especially with the Packers losing.

Hey we still won, miracle win.

It kind of flew under the radar, but the O-line did a nice job of giving JJ time today, which was not something he had in the first two games. Having 4/5s of the starting O-line available was a part of that. And the defense was pretty good, too. Nice win.

60WinTim wrote: ↑Sun Nov 02, 2025 8:15 pm It kind of flew under the radar, but the O-line did a nice job of giving JJ time today, which was not something he had in the first two games. Having 4/5s of the starting O-line available was a part of that. And the defense was pretty good, too. Nice win.

Yeah, I think both of our lines looked a lot more like I thought they would at the start of the season. JJ did have more time for sure, but I also thought he did a good job of evading pressure when the pocket broke down...I was surprised to see he was sacked 5 times. The Lions were a beat up team yesterday, but it was still a very good win. And JJ soared in the NFL QB ratings...he's now 40th out of 44 with a rating of 73. He wasn't great yesterday, but he only had one interception and recovered his only fumble. If we stay healthy and our lines continue to play like they did yesterday, a performance like JJ gave us yesterday may be good enough.

My Youtube feed is filled with all sorts of JJ McCarthy fawning (haven't watched any of it). One of them has a title of "JJ McCarthy is the comeback player of the year!". Seriously!?

I think we like to romantizize the idea of somewhat underskilled prospects making up for it because they're "winners". It reminds me of all the love Tim Tebow got from a few pundits for a very brief stretch of his NFL career after a couple of dramatic wins. Well, the unskilled part eventually caught up to him.

I'm glad JJ McCarthy helped lead the team to victory, but he has a long ways to go still and it's hard seeing him mature into a deep playoff QB this season.

Meanwhile in Seattle.....

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Mon Nov 03, 2025 9:36 am My Youtube feed is filled with all sorts of JJ McCarthy fawning (haven't watched any of it). One of them has a title of "JJ McCarthy is the comeback player of the year!". Seriously!?

I think we like to romantizize the idea of somewhat underskilled prospects making up for it because they're "winners". It reminds me of all the love Tim Tebow got from a few pundits for a very brief stretch of his NFL career after a couple of dramatic wins. Well, the unskilled part eventually caught up to him.

I'm glad JJ McCarthy helped lead the team to victory, but he has a long ways to go still and it's hard seeing him mature into a deep playoff QB this season.

Meanwhile in Seattle.....

I'm not sure where the "underskilled" angle comes from. As I recall, the biggest knock was the lack of sample size because Michigan rarely needed him to throw the ball. Here's Dan Campbell's brief comment:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-jGVpQ9jSbM

If Darnold didn't implode in the last two games for the Vikings last year, I imagine there might have been a different conversation at Vikings HQ... But I think if you watch the interviews and how each of those guys carry themselves, JJ radiates leadership much more than Sam.

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Mon Nov 03, 2025 9:36 am My Youtube feed is filled with all sorts of JJ McCarthy fawning (haven't watched any of it). One of them has a title of "JJ McCarthy is the comeback player of the year!". Seriously!?

I think we like to romantizize the idea of somewhat underskilled prospects making up for it because they're "winners". It reminds me of all the love Tim Tebow got from a few pundits for a very brief stretch of his NFL career after a couple of dramatic wins. Well, the unskilled part eventually caught up to him.

I'm glad JJ McCarthy helped lead the team to victory, but he has a long ways to go still and it's hard seeing him mature into a deep playoff QB this season.

Meanwhile in Seattle.....

It's just so ridiculous now how week to week a player is trash or a future HOFer (CLickbait). Can we slow the roll a bit? I think JJ played fine overall. His INT was even questionable. Not a great pass, but could easily have been ruled a catch too, then the JJ (drop???) that was overturned also. His arms were under the ball, sure it might have barely touched the ground but I saw nothing at all to overturn it. Just bizarre.

I guess things didn't exactly go great but we won. Our defense and special teams did well. I didn't think we could score 40 and we didn't, had the defense given up 40 we lose. So much credit to them for playing pretty well. Detroits a legit offense for sure.

60WinTim wrote: ↑Mon Nov 03, 2025 10:25 am

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Mon Nov 03, 2025 9:36 am My Youtube feed is filled with all sorts of JJ McCarthy fawning (haven't watched any of it). One of them has a title of "JJ McCarthy is the comeback player of the year!". Seriously!?

I think we like to romantizize the idea of somewhat underskilled prospects making up for it because they're "winners". It reminds me of all the love Tim Tebow got from a few pundits for a very brief stretch of his NFL career after a couple of dramatic wins. Well, the unskilled part eventually caught up to him.

I'm glad JJ McCarthy helped lead the team to victory, but he has a long ways to go still and it's hard seeing him mature into a deep playoff QB this season.

Meanwhile in Seattle.....

I'm not sure where the "underskilled" angle comes from. As I recall, the biggest knock was the lack of sample size because Michigan rarely needed him to throw the ball. Here's Dan Campbell's brief comment:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-jGVpQ9jSbM

If Darnold didn't implode in the last two games for the Vikings last year, I imagine there might have been a different conversation at Vikings HQ... But I think if you watch the interviews and how each of those guys carry themselves, JJ radiates leadership much more than Sam.

I don't trust Sam to revert back to complete trash when the games matter most. He looked completely inept in our last two games. Sure you win 14 games, but then what? Suck ass when you could get the 1 seed and then suck ass in the playoff game? I guess it's a small sample, but then you have to look at his history of sucking ass too and maybe he's very prone to sucking ass?

So it made no sense to me to resign him when we could go with JJ / another retread backup (Wentz wasn't good enough).

60WinTim wrote: ↑Mon Nov 03, 2025 10:25 am

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Mon Nov 03, 2025 9:36 am My Youtube feed is filled with all sorts of JJ McCarthy fawning (haven't watched any of it). One of them has a title of "JJ McCarthy is the comeback player of the year!". Seriously!?

I think we like to romantizize the idea of somewhat underskilled prospects making up for it because they're "winners". It reminds me of all the love Tim Tebow got from a few pundits for a very brief stretch of his NFL career after a couple of dramatic wins. Well, the unskilled part eventually caught up to him.

I'm glad JJ McCarthy helped lead the team to victory, but he has a long ways to go still and it's hard seeing him mature into a deep playoff QB this season.

Meanwhile in Seattle.....

I'm not sure where the "underskilled" angle comes from. As I recall, the biggest knock was the lack of sample size because Michigan rarely needed him to throw the ball. Here's Dan Campbell's brief comment:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-jGVpQ9jSbM

If Darnold didn't implode in the last two games for the Vikings last year, I imagine there might have been a different conversation at Vikings HQ... But I think if you watch the interviews and how each of those guys carry themselves, JJ radiates leadership much more than Sam.

I guess my point is JJ seems a bit underskilled right now simply based on his QB rating. That doesn't mean he can't get more skilled as time goes on and become a good or even great QB. I honestly don't have an opinion on what his trajectory is, but it feels way premature to declare him the comeback player of the year or the Vikings starting QB for the next 10 years.

I get it on Darnold's postseason flop last year, but man, he looks good right now.

"Like a dog in a street!"

Darnold would have never done this! Skip to the 2:50 mark of KO's locker room speech...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6SfATsFtHc