Minnesota Sports Forum

Ugh! I am still in Switzerland and it's another 7:00 pm start, which means 2 am here. But I will probably get up and check the game out to see if JJ can continue to prove FNG wrong!

Ha, I really want to be wrong about this one and have JJ turn out to be a star! There's so much to like personally about him, and his leadership skills appear to be strong. And he's always been a winner. But I thought of him as mostly a "game manager" (and a good one) at Michigan, and he played that role largely again Monday. Michigan won because they had dominant line play and running game, and didn't need JJ to pass very much. He ranked 69th in the nation his senior year in passing yards per game with 199.4...in contrast his opposing QB tonight threw for 327 yards per game! But he also had the 9th lowest interception rate in the country that year. My hope is that we are a pro version of Michigan this year...so strong in the lines that we don't need JJ to do too much other than complete the open pass and protect the ball. And maybe we will be. Or even better. I'd love for JJ to be much more than that, and to live up to all the great things KOC is saying about him. If he rises to that level, we may have a Super Bowl contender this year.

FNG wrote: ↑Sun Sep 14, 2025 10:32 am Ha, I really want to be wrong about this one and have JJ turn out to be a star! There's so much to like personally about him, and his leadership skills appear to be strong. And he's always been a winner. But I thought of him as mostly a "game manager" (and a good one) at Michigan, and he played that role largely again Monday. Michigan won because they had dominant line play and running game, and didn't need JJ to pass very much. He ranked 69th in the nation his senior year in passing yards per game with 199.4...in contrast his opposing QB tonight threw for 327 yards per game! But he also had the 9th lowest interception rate in the country that year. My hope is that we are a pro version of Michigan this year...so strong in the lines that we don't need JJ to do too much other than complete the open pass and protect the ball. And maybe we will be. Or even better. I'd love for JJ to be much more than that, and to live up to all the great things KOC is saying about him. If he rises to that level, we may have a Super Bowl contender this year.

Fun Stat McCarthy had a slightly higher yards per attempt at Michigan than Penix did.

To be honest when I evaluated the QBs in that draft the biggest gap between Penix and McCarthy was age and the injury concerns for Penix. He might end up being just fine but you simply can't be like well he will be fine now. Of course then McCarthy was the guy that ended up getting hurt first. Regardless I still had McCarthy as a guy I liked more than Penix as an actual QB. There are physical traits that I saw that it seemed like other people didn't give him credit for.

To me the BIGGEST things about QBs are.

1. Having the mental capacity to play the game make throws etc. I don't care how good you are throwing the ball shake off tackles if you can't figure out where to throw the ball.

2. Putting in the time working your ass off and all that stuff which also makes you a leader. QBs have to have a higher bar in this regard. You can be a good QB and not be seller in this area but a guy that does EVERYTHING he can to je better for himself and his teammates makes a difference. Cousins isn't a greatest of all time QB but that guy put in the time on his mind and his body. I sense you are gonna get all of it from McCarthy. Meanwhile you have Shaduer Sanders trying to prove people wrong about him picked in the 5th round and he has 2 speeding tickets before the season even starts.

It may also be worth noting that the talent Penic and McCarthy were throwing to might be different. If we are just going by the draft you have Penix throwing to a top 10 draft pick and 2nd rounder. McCarthy's top target got picked 84th. It's not like Washington didn't have a running game either.

Honestly at this point we have actual NFL games in front of us for data points to evaluate him. Let's see what results we have instead of looking back at college stats. Game 1 was a mixed bag but with some legit context of players around McCarthy and lack of NFL game play. Let's see what week 2 brings.

60WinTim wrote: ↑Sun Sep 14, 2025 1:37 am Ugh! I am still in Switzerland and it's another 7:00 pm start, which means 2 am here. But I will probably get up and check the game out to see if JJ can continue to prove FNG wrong!

You are still in Switzerland!? I miss the carbs there.

FNG wrote: ↑Sun Sep 14, 2025 10:32 am Ha, I really want to be wrong about this one and have JJ turn out to be a star! There's so much to like personally about him, and his leadership skills appear to be strong. And he's always been a winner. But I thought of him as mostly a "game manager" (and a good one) at Michigan, and he played that role largely again Monday. Michigan won because they had dominant line play and running game, and didn't need JJ to pass very much. He ranked 69th in the nation his senior year in passing yards per game with 199.4...in contrast his opposing QB tonight threw for 327 yards per game! But he also had the 9th lowest interception rate in the country that year. My hope is that we are a pro version of Michigan this year...so strong in the lines that we don't need JJ to do too much other than complete the open pass and protect the ball. And maybe we will be. Or even better. I'd love for JJ to be much more than that, and to live up to all the great things KOC is saying about him. If he rises to that level, we may have a Super Bowl contender this year.

They won the National Championship. Ultimately could they have thrown a bit more and still won? Maybe and probably, but they didn't have to. Jim Harbaugh loves to run the ball also. Even Andrew Luck at Stanford wasn't guns blazing under Harbaugh. 214 and 256 YPG under Jim in 2009-2010. Very good but not even leading the Pac-12 and he was a consensus #1 pick and eventual elite pro of course. JJ's senior year even eclipsed Luck slightly in comp. percentage and YPA, of course he led the Nation at 72% completion so however it got done he did it.

I guess the ultimate bottom line is they didn't have to throw a ton to win. They were leading most games and the running game was effective. Do you blame JJ for that? The goal is to WIN. They did and he was still a huge part of that. Watching him dice up my Bama team in the semis got me more convinced then ever. He was clutch and made some nasty plays like I've never seen. If you can't beat him join him I guess.

I will say it now, within 5 years we will see JJ win a SB with the Vikes. I still doubt it's this season, he's still only 22 and first year starter, so hopefully next year or the year after. You just hardly ever see a year one guy go on to great success. Brady and Big Ben maybe were two, I can't think of any others. Marino maybe, I think that was year two.

I'm a little concerned with all our injuries this week. Missing like 5 starters, maybe 6 (haven't looked up to see if Harry is playing). That sucks for this early in the season. We'll see if the guys step up. I know last year we were pretty dang healthy (not talked about much), knock on wood we can get guys back and stay healthy when they do. I think we win this one, but I'm not super confident.

I'm watching this one live. Caught some of the pregame and omg this is why I just watch games later. My wife or cat may have had better insights than what I heard. Ok that's probably too harsh my wife can be insightful even when she doesn't know much about a subject. My cat does not care at all what is on the TV.

I missed the pregame stuff, but I was up in time to witness our defense being run over. Thank goodness for hometown noise! Feels fortunate to only give up 3.

I miss my cat…

Looks a lot like last week so far. Now, let’s see if Flores adjusts again. Think he will.

FNG wrote: ↑Sun Sep 14, 2025 7:45 pm Looks a lot like last week so far. Now, let’s see if Flores adjusts again. Think he will.

Well this is a lot like last week only maybe worse. I thought McCarthy got that first down on 3rd in the first drive but anyways.

The defense has kept them in the game. Wright's punt saved them from that bad kickoff return and penalty.