Winners and Losers from Vikings Win over Cowboys
The Minnesota Vikings climbed to 6-8 on Sunday night with a thunderously entertaining win over the Dallas Cowboys on the same day the Chicago Bears eliminated them from playoff contention. These are the winners and losers from the event.
From Jalen Nailor’s breakout to a much-needed jump by J.J. McCarthy, we sort through the Vikings’ best performers and biggest disappointments from their win over Dallas.
Minnesota notched its first back-to-back wins in about one year. Enthusiasm about the future, even if the postseason is not an option in 2025, has returned.
Heroes and Villains from the Vikings’ Sunday Night Win in Dallas
The guys who stood off the page, and those who will need to rebound next week,
Winner: Jalen Nailor
Before Sunday night, Nailor had never caught multiple touchdowns in a game. That drought ended at AT&T Stadium.
Somehow J.J. McCarthy’s favorite target this season, Nailor snapped out of a three-game funk under the lights of primetime, delivering 3 receptions for 47 yards and 2 touchdowns. It wasn’t quite Randy Moss on Thanksgiving 27 years ago, but it did the trick to take down Dallas.
Nailor’s contract expires when the season ends, and he banked another performance to show that he deserves an extension, especially with McCarthy finding him time and time again with big plays.
Teammate Justin Jefferson on Nailor after the 34-26 dub: “I love it. I love to see him bloom and to perform the way we all knew he could perform. I mean, he’s been getting open all season. He’s been winning those one-on-one matchups, and when his opportunities come, he knows how to make the most of them.”
“So, I’m proud of him. I’m proud to see one of my guys in the group go off, and it definitely was his time coming.”
Loser: Theo Jackson
Jackson didn’t play. Jackson was a starting safety for the Vikings as recently as three weeks ago.
Instead, Jay Ward saw a little bit of action on defense, and Minnesota called on cornerback Fabian Moreau for passing down coverage. Josh Metellus and Harrison Smith, of course, patrolled the secondary as the primary safeties.
Jackson was supposed to be the guy who replaced Camryn Bynum, and 15 weeks into 2025, he has evidently been benched, at least for a while.
Winner: Kevin O’Connell
O’Connell’s rushing offense netted 2.8 yards per carry. That’s terrible. Some playcallers, O’Connell included, would fold up shop with the rushing offense in that situation, but he did not. Finally realizing that he has an inexperienced quarterback, O’Connell remained committed to the ground game, though it proved futile most of the time.
McCarthy won’t win many games as a 22-year-old by throwing the ball 40 times, so O’Connell’s commitment to run more than he passed kept the game balanced and the time of possession reasonable.
Minnesota ran the ball 28 times and threw it 24. That’s what the offense needs until McCarthy is ready to become a high-volume passer.
Loser: The McCarthy-Jefferson Connection
There’s always something wrong with the connection between McCarthy and Jefferson. Sometimes, McCarthy will flagrantly overthrow Jefferson; other times, Jefferson will drop McCarthy’s laser passes.
Then, in the redzone on Sunday night, McCarthy finally connected with Jefferson for a touchdown, and a penalty nullified the transaction.
Penalties, overthrows, and dropped passes always plague McCarthy + Jefferson. The madness must stop at some point, and when it does, the Vikings’ offense will explode because of Jefferson’s normal boost.
Winner: J.J. McCarthy
McCarthy’s night didn’t start clean — the tipped-ball interception was a gut punch — but from that moment on, he played like a quarterback who finally found the dimmer switch and cranked it all the way up. He went 15-of-24 for a career-best 250 yards, tossed two touchdowns, added another on the ground, and chipped in 15 rushing yards as Minnesota controlled the game’s tempo for about two and a half hours.
Crossing the 200-yard threshold isn’t a banner accomplishment by itself, but for McCarthy, it marks a shift. Earlier in the season, he’d drift through stretches and need late-game heroics to correct the ledger. This time, he was steady throughout — efficient, intentional, and in command of the offense instead of trailing behind it.
His efficiency metrics backed it up, too. McCarthy posted an 85.6 ESPN QBR — an elite number for any quarterback, let alone a rookie — and finished sixth leaguewide in EPA+CPOE for Week 15. That wasn’t a fluke; he held the same ranking the week prior. Two straight weeks in the NFL’s upper tier is no longer a blip.The trend is blossoming.
McCarthy is maturing before your eyes and appears to be on his way to a helluva quarterback. The “he needs to figure out” request is occurring. Perhaps McCarthy will grow even more in six days in New York.
You must be logged in to post a comment.