J.J. McCarthy has an easy task on paper in the Dallas Cowboys, but one crucial element could spell disaster for the Minnesota Vikings
The next step for quarterback J.J. McCarthy will be to take down the Dallas Cowboys, and it goes against Kevin O’Connell’s tendency.
Sunday afternoon was one to remember for Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
He had his best game of the season against the Washington Commanders, with an EPA/play of 0.39 on 16-23 for 163 yards and three touchdowns. He looked significantly more comfortable running the offense, and that came from head coach Kevin O’Connell loosening things up for him.
“But there’s another layer to it. With J.J. in certain times of the season, you would get a response of, ‘I thought this player was going to do that, speaking about a defensive player. Or, ‘Hey, I played with Mike Sainristil still at Michigan. He’s real instinctive.’ Stop,” said O’Connell during his appearance with Paul Allen. “Just quiet your mind, and let’s not overthink anything other than what is my job on the play and making good decisions.”
Cowboys new defensive strategy could spell disaster for J.J. McCarthy
When you look at the Dallas Cowboys’ defense, they are very up-and-down. Matt Eberflus’ unit ranks 29th in EPA/play and 30th in EPA/dropback. Things haven’t gotten much better with the additions on defense with the trade deadline on an overall level, but they have brought a new wrinkle to the table: five-man fronts.
That could be a major factor on Sunday night, so I asked our Cowboys beat writer Mauricio Rodriguez about it, and it won’t be a ton of exotic looks, but that five-man front has been impressive.
“Not anything too exotic. This is a very Matt Eberflus type of defense, to a fault. That is to say, I don’t expect them to do anything too aggressive like blitzing frequently or playing man coverage. They’ll simply line up and play.
“As long as the Vikings allow them to, however, I do expect Dallas to try to get into their 5-man defensive front as much as possible and find ways to isolate Quinnen Williams on whoever they believe to be the Vikings’ weakest link up front. The Chiefs and Lions tried to counter this with quick throws to the flat, and it mostly worked. When the Cowboys defense has played its best football, it’s when opponents have failed to protect the pocket. But if they succeed in that area, there’s not much Dallas will be able to do, unfortunately.”
The quick throws as a strategy makes a lot of sense, especially horizontally. However, that hasn’t been the strategy of the Vikings’ offense this year, or any year under O’Connell. This past week was the closest they had come to a shallow passing game with McCarthy’s aDOT at 6.7 yards.
If the Vikings are ready to truly counter the five-man front, they could have a really nice game on Sunday against the Cowboys.
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