What the Bears should really expect from Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy in Week 11 as national takes on his development miss the mark
Is Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy getting closer to a breakout performance?
The Chicago Bears are heading into a divisional game for the first time since Week 2 on Sunday when the team travels to Minnesota to take on the Vikings in a rematch opportunity after the late-game loss the Bears took in the regular season opener.
A lot has changed for both teams but the story still centers around the development of two young quarterbacks playing under bright offensive-minded head coaches.
On Chicago’s end of things, quarterback Caleb Williams is starting to find his groove running head coach Ben Johnson’s offense leading to six wins in the last seven games, but the team is still looking to play a full complete game on that side of the ball.
As for Minnesota, the Vikings got quarterback J.J. McCarthy back in the saddle in Week 9 after a five game absence due to a high ankle sprain. Since defeating the Bears in his first career start, McCarthy has gone 1-2 as the Vikings’ starter with two bad losses but one solid game against the NFC North leading Detroit Lions.
As we all know, quarterback development is not a linear process and as the Bears look ahead to Sunday’s game in Minnesota, it’s hard to gauge what to expect from McCarthy in his fifth game as a starting quarterback.
What’s really going on with J.J. McCarthy’s development heading into his second matchup vs. Bears?
Looking back to Week 1, it’s as if the Bears played against two different quarterbacks. Through the first three quarters, Chicago had McCarthy flustered but in the fourth quarter, the Vikings young quarterback came alive and lead the team to a comeback win.
In the games since, McCarthy has had an up and down performance when he’s on the field making some rookie mistakes but also making some high level plays that showcase the confidence the team has in him being the guy. From the outside, the national media has been very critical of McCarthy when it comes to the week-to-week development he’s shown leading this offense.
To learn more about how the quarterback has really looked this season since Week 1, I spoke with Tyler Forness of A to Z Sports to get some insight for what the Bears should expect.
“The short answer is that the Vikings are never covered normally. There were real reports out there that the Vikings were seriously considering going with Carson Wentz the rest of the season when he was not playing well. The reporting around him has been crazy, including the Mike Silver piece over at The Athletic. Plus, he’s in year two, but not having played a single snap until this year has really warped people’s brains as to what his development has been.
The reality with McCarthy is that we still don’t know anything about what he is or could be. The highs have been incredible, as you got to see in Week 1, but the lows have been a little bit rough. Where I think people don’t get McCarthy comes down to this: they are looking at the box score stats versus trying to understand what he’s doing on the field. His mental processing is very good, but the footwork and mechanics are all over the place. When he’s playing under control, it looks great! Problem is, it doesn’t look that way for more than a couple of drives per game. Fixing that will be the key to unlocking his potential long-term.
Right now, the key is to be patient and let him develop, something that nobody seems to be allowing him to do.” – Tyler Forness, A to Z Sports Minnesota
Chicago fans can relate to that last part. A lot of people on the outside of things aren’t having patience when it comes to letting young quarterbacks develop, and even some people inside the building around the league can feel that way.
For Minnesota, the onus is on McCarthy to lead a team that finished with 14 wins last season with a different quarterback running the offense, there’s a lot of pressure that comes with that. In Week 1, McCarthy showed some positive signs late in the game against the Bears and Chicago learned he’s not a quarterback you should underestimate at any point in the game.
Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen gave McCarthy some fits early with the disguise coverages and blitz packages he was calling up, but Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell was able to adjust and put McCarthy in better situations to attack the Bears defense in the second-half.
On Sunday, the Bears will have a chance to come out on the other end of things against a quarterback who’s still inexperienced and trying to put all the pieces together. For Chicago, it seems like Williams is starting to put those pieces together on his end and should give his team an advantage in that regard. The head-to-head comparison with the rest of the roster is what can make this matchup another close game in Week 11.
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