J.J. McCarthy Has a Weird Saturday Against the Ravens

J.J. McCarthy and the Minnesota Vikings fell to the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium by a score of 13-3 in a very boring contest.

It was a defensive bout on both sides, as the first touchdown didn’t come until late into the third quarter when Ravens QB Joe Fagnano found LaJohntay Wester near the sideline on a busted coverage in the Vikings’ secondary. As a sidenote, Joe Fagnano out of UConn looked pretty good. He showed poise in the pocket, delivered balls on time, and wasn’t afraid to take a hit to deliver the best pass possible.

The Vikings technically outgained the Ravens in total yardage, putting up 299 total yards to Baltimore’s 242. Unfortunately, Minnesota turned the ball over twice, whereas the Ravens kept their offensive possessions clean. Both Vikings turnovers came in the fourth quarter, the first being a fumble after Jeshaun Jones caught a pass from Max Brosmer and was stripped. Brosmer himself then threw an interception on Minnesota’s final drive.

There are plenty of takeaways from the contest that we’ll cover in the coming days, but of course, we have to start with the talk of the town, J.J. McCarthy.

J.J. McCarthy Continues to Struggle in Game Action

Unfortunately for J.J. McCarthy, the play that most will remember was a very bad missed throw near the goal line to a wide-open Myles Price for what would’ve been a touchdown.

Before the miss, McCarthy heaved a 1-on-1 ball downfield to Tai Felton, who made a great catch for the completion. McCarthy deserves some credit there, putting the ball high and in a place where Felton could make an adjustment to make the grab, but then came the story of the day with the miss to Price. He also displayed some nice navigational skills of the pocket.

The miss to Price was an inexcusable one. It would be more excusable, and we could chalk it up to “one bad throw” if McCarthy hadn’t already given us a Roladex of missed easy throws to choose from so far in his short career. It did look like McCarthy had to adjust the angle of the pass because of a Ravens defender jumping up and blocking a passing lane, but that’s where the main knocks with McCarthy come in: lack of touch or anticipation.

A lot of NFL QBs understand to take some heat off of the ball, as Myles Price had no one in the same zip code as him. That’s not saying that McCarthy had to throw a rainbow ball to Price, but it didn’t need to be thrown at a million miles an hour. That has been a constant detriment to J.J. McCarthy’s game.

McCarthy had a couple of other rough throws and didn’t really do anything to support his cause to be the team’s QB2, let alone the QBOTF. He finished the day 5 of 10 for 81 yards, no touchdowns, and no interceptions. To be fair to the kid, he has been under some pretty consistent pressure, but that comes with the territory.

J.J. McCarthy Only Played One Quarter For Some Reason

The real head scratcher was the decision to play McCarthy for only the first quarter. The kid needs reps, so it’s hard to understand Kevin O’Connell’s rationale there if there was no injury. However, in his post-game press conference, he mentioned that McCarthy got “a little hobbled” and that they had planned for him to get at least another drive.

J.J. McCarthy will likely get more reps next week than he did against Baltimore, unless there is a legitimate injury. He got basically an entire half of play in the first game against the Giants, so it’s hard to think they will trend his play on the field down on the whole when he needs to experience.