Cowboys Single Out One Vikings Player for Kudos
The Minnesota Vikings are expected to lose to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night, but it won’t be because Dallas’ coaching staff overlooked J.J. McCarthy.
The Vikings’ next opponent came away impressed by one player in particular, with the Cowboys coaching staff praising the Vikings’ quarterback.
Cowboys skipper Brian Schottenheimer commended McCarthy this week after the 22-year-old delivered the best performance of his career in Week 14. Schottenheimer and Co. won’t take McCarthy’s Vikings lightly.
Brian Schottenheimer Impressed by Vikings QB1
Rare praise for the youngster.
Schottenheimer on McCarthy
Dallas media asked Schottenheimer about McCarthy’s Week 14 performance, and he replied, “Played great, the little bit I saw from the game, just flipping through the different games and things like that. I thought McCarthy played great.”
“Looked very comfortable. Very talented young man. I won’t speak too much into it, but I’ve heard amazing things about him as a leader and what he brings to that locker room.”
Before Week 14, no opposing coach said such things about McCarthy. The young passer was the subject of memes, in fact.
A Big Game Does Wonders
McCarthy had been dragged for weeks — mocked, memed, dismissed as a wasted pick, and treated like a walking interception highlight reel.
Sunday shifted the conversation.
With three touchdowns, zero giveaways, and 163 passing yards, he didn’t light up the yardage column, but he stayed clean. That mattered more than anything. He operated within the plan, trusted the run game, and stayed composed instead of freelancing himself into trouble. That’s the blueprint — a quarterback who dictates tempo instead of chaos.
By Monday morning, every metric backed it up. McCarthy ranked sixth in EPA+CPOE among Week 14 quarterbacks. No qualifiers and no caveats. He earned that standing, and for the first time, it looked like the Vikings might have something they could build on instead of defending.
Cowboys Defense Up Next
McCarthy will face a sweet and sour Cowboys defense this weekend. Dallas’ defense ranks 29th in the NFL per EPA/Play, also known as fourth-worst. The sweet part for Dallas? It’s not quite as terrible as it was two months ago, before the franchise finagled a trade for defensive tackle Quinnen Williams.
Micah Parsons, of course, does not work in Dallas anymore — he’s a Green Bay Packer who the Vikings get to see twice annually — but the Cowboys’ defense still has some heavy-hitters.
McCarthy has actually played better on the road than at home this season, so perhaps he’ll bring that moxie to Sunday Night Football.
According to DVOA, Dallas owns the NFL’s second-worst defense. In theory, McCarthy should cook in Texas if he brings his A-game.
McCarthy Must Include Justin Jefferson
How to cook? Easy — start getting Justin Jefferson the damn ball. McCarthy undeniably improved last weekend against Washington, but he still struggled to feed his best player. It’s just that the Vikings won by 31 points, and not too many folks, outside of fantasy football managers, care about wide receiver stat lines when the team is authoring 31-0 shutouts.
McCarthy gift-wrapped the three touchdowns last Sunday — all to tight ends. Two to Josh Oliver, one to T.J. Hockenson.
Jefferson, meanwhile, has 63 receiving yards in the last three games, a criminal statistic for the man who won the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year award in 2022. The next step in McCarthy’s development is finding a way to feed Jefferson. The request is simple. Give the best player the ball.
Schottenheimer on O’Connell
Schottenheimer is evidently a great guy, as he couldn’t stop praising the Vikings’ personnel.
He said about McCarthy’s coach, Kevin O’Connell: “I coached Kevin O’Connell in New York. He was one of our backup quarterbacks. Love Kevin. I think he’s an incredible coach. He’s an expert in developing quarterbacks. I’ll say that about Kevin. I think the future looks very bright for J.J. I remember a lot.”
“I really remember him when we were in the division against the Patriots, and we would go back and forth. Kevin had been in New England with Tom and knew a lot of the answers. He would get with Rex and the defensive staff every time we played the Patriots and basically become a defensive coach that week.”
Because of his playing career and jobs as a coach, O’Connell’s ties to coaches and players are all over the place. Schottenheimer is yet another example.
Schottenheimer continued, “He gave a great look to the scout team, helped them come up with blitzes and ways to attack things. If you’ve ever been around the guy, he’s very personable, very football-intelligent, and he’s a leader of men. So I was not surprised when he became a head coach. I was not surprised to see his success because every time I’ve been around him, I’ve been impressed by him as a man — a husband, a father — all those things.”
“Again, he really helped us be a really good team a number of times when we were facing off against the Patriots.”
Schottenheimer’s team is expected to down O’Connell’s squad by five or six points in Week 15.
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