David Levine
Posts: 79226
Joined: 7/14/2007
From: Las Vegas
Status: online
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"Krauser" is the one commenter at DN that I like to read. Seems to know his stuff:
Great win, so much fun.
Notes from rewatching:
McCarthy was surprisingly accurate. Of the 7 incompletions, 2 were batted down, 1 was hit as thrown (Odeyingbo hit his arm), 3 were drops or receiver failures (Jefferson x2, Thielen -- placement was iffy on the 2 to JJ but he could've and probably should've caught them both), and the 7th was the pick 6, which was accurate but a bad decision. The only other times the ball hit the ground were penalties (2 DPI, one of which was iffy on Nailor, 1 roughing the passer, and 1 illegal hands to the face on the first 2-pt try). He completed 15 throws including the two completions on 2-pt attempts, and they were all well placed -- no bail out catches needed. Downfield accuracy was good: the over route to Nailor just before half was a dot in stride, the deep TD to Jones was dropped into a hole in the coverage, and he hit Jefferson in the hands (though high) in the 4th quarter.
JJM's mobility was a plus, and almost an even bigger plus. Two of the sacks, he got just barely tripped up as he was about to scramble to convert a 3rd down. He did have a successful scramble on the first FG drive, plus the read option TD where he finished through contact to score. He did a nice job of climbing the pocket and resetting to avoid pressure, especially on the TD to Jefferson where he slid to his right as a tackle twist dented the pocket up the middle, before firing a strike to the end zone.
Even aside from the drops, the receivers didn't do nearly as much as we'd expect to help the passing game. Jefferson settled short of the sticks and got tackled short on a 3rd down. Oliver got cut down short of the goal line on the 2-point attempt.
The run game showed some nice variety. They hit their groove in the 4th quarter with some power/counter concepts -- pulling Hockenson and Jackson to the right (on what's probably called a G-H counter) on 2 big runs by Mason. Earlier in the game, they were trying more misdirection and lateral movement that wasn't working but at least it wasn't just duo and mid-zone on repeat. Still, I would've preferred leaning in more to the power run game in short yardage and goal line situations (the 2 point tries). One too many misdirection pass plays, including the 3rd and 1 bailout flag on the DPI vs Nailor, which was supposed to be an orbit-return screen to Jefferson but he slipped trying to change directions at the snap, on the terrible Soldier Field turf. A QB sneak or two wouldn't have hurt.
Both running backs made big plays. Mason was the better runner but Jones played well too, and was excellent as a receiver. Pass blocking in blitz pickup was solid.
The OL was excellent, aside from Skule who was terrible in the first 3 quarters and then pretty good down the stretch. Donovan Jackson hardly allowed a single pressure (PFF charted him with zero, but I thought he was at fault for Odeyingbo hitting JJ's arm, as he came through on a stunt inside) and pushed people around in the run and screen game. Kelly and Fries were solid too. Bears front isn't great but they have a lot of good players, who were fired up in front of the home crowd -- Vikings shutting them down as well as they did was a very good sign. Once Darrisaw gets back to full strength, this could be a top 5 OL in the league.
The DL was excellent too -- aggressive and violent. Hargrave did in fact play nose tackle, and the run defense didn't suffer. Loved the play in the 4th quarter where Redmond stood up Swift at the line and throw him back. Run defense from the edge rushers was very good, including from Turner where that was a weakness last year.
PFF charted Hargrave with 7 pressures, and Jon Allen with 6. That's the impact you want from the expensive free agent signings. LDR and Redmond flashed upfield a couple times, and TID batted a pass. The edge rushers didn't get a lot of clean wins, but if you know what you're watching you'll see they were mostly contain rushing after the first couple of drives -- Caleb burned them (especially Greenard) repeatedly for getting out of their lanes, including on the last near-TD in garbage time. So they were more often trying to push the OL back into Caleb's lap than beat them to either side. And they did that repeatedly especially in the second half -- there were at least 5 plays where Caleb was throwing from an awkward angle with his arm getting hit or nearly so because of the pressure in his face. So while the pressure totals weren't great -- 7 for Greenard (though some of those led directly to negative plays as Caleb broke contain), 2 for Turner, 1 for Van Ginkel -- the pass rush was very effective as the game went on, and helped turn the tide.
Pass coverage was fine for the most part aside from a couple of mistakes downfield in zone (Byron Murphy coming down to the flat and allowing the intermediate completion over his head early, Rodgers dropping the coverage down the sideline to Moore that should've been a TD on the 2-minute drive). Okudah got outmaneuvered by Zaccheus' pre snap movement on one 3rd down in man coverage. He missed a tackle on the lateral play and gave himself a concussion in the process. There were some holes underneath in zone coverage but that's what you get when you blitz a lot, and Caleb was doing great work getting the ball out quickly at unusual angles (especially the pass over the middle in the 4th quarter that he threw sidearm around his center). Theo Jackson had a rough night as a tackler but made a nice play to close in cover 2 in the 4th quarter.
Special teams was unusually good. Wright shanked a punt, Jay Ward took a penalty on a kickoff and the coverage team allowed a couple of decent returns including one as the half ran out. But every other punt was well hit, and coverage was good especially by Felton who had 3 tackles. Wilson partially blocked a punt, after they'd come close to blocking a few Bears punts before that. Reichard made his 59 yarder, while Santos missed from 50 -- that was the difference in the game. And Myles Price looked great as a returner -- quick and decisive, able to make the first man miss.
Coaching also gets a gold star from me. O'Connell showed yet again that he knows how to win close games. He managed the rookie QB through the rocky start and got a great performance out of him down the stretch. Flores dictated to Ben Johnson and Caleb, much more than the other way around. And Daniels had the special teams flying around and playing with an edge.
Team looks even more talented than last year and they're well coached. If JJ can build up his game as the season goes on, they can be a contender.
https://www.dailynorseman.com/minnesota-vikings-2025-season/90542/three-impressive-stats-j-j-mccarthy-nfl-debut-minnesota-vikings
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