Rollercoaster Ride Continues for Vikings and J.J. McCarthy
The Vikings followed up last week’s season-best win in Detroit with another ride down on the roller coaster in Sunday’s disappointing loss to the Ravens. It’s the third home loss this season, and it felt similar to the Eagles loss in that it was a winnable game against a quality team, but too many miscues cost the Vikings.
J.J. McCarthy’s rookie campaign has felt like a thrill ride — flashes of brilliance mixed with growing pains as the Vikings chase balance and belief.
Baltimore turned three turnovers over 11:32 of game time in the second and third quarters into 13 points as they went from trailing 10-6 to leading 19-10. The Ravens won their third straight game to improve to 4-5 and climb within one game of the Steelers in the AFC North. The Vikings dropped to 4-5 and now have a must-win home game coming up on Sunday against the 6-3 Bears.
Vikings Fall to Ravens after Game Goes Off the Rails
Lamar Jackson and his offensive mates, along with the Ravens defense, also capitalized on an undisciplined Vikings team that was hit with 13 penalties for 102 yards, including a ridiculous eight false starts, the most for an NFL team in a home game since the Rams in 2009. The offensive penalties derailed a productive run game due to longer down-and-distance situations.
J.J. McCarthy’s wild up-and-down season hit another downturn. He started hot with a great opening drive highlighted by a perfect 62-yard pass to Jalen Nailor, but McCarthy threw two interceptions (one a badly forced throw intended for Justin Jefferson, who was double-covered, and the other a critical 3rd-and-1 pick when Jefferson got tripped up while in single coverage).
McCarthy also had multiple passes knocked down at the line of scrimmage, often held the ball too long, and missed too many open receivers. His protection wasn’t great as he was hit 12 times and sacked once, and Jefferson dropped a TD pass on a third-quarter drive that ended in a field goal.
McCarthy kept fighting and made several big plays on the fourth-quarter drive to pull the Vikings within one score, but the final drive was a mess, with too much pressure from the Ravens’ pass rush, inaccurate throws, and poor clock management.
We saw the future promise McCarthy provides with several tremendous plays, including the first quarter 62-yarder and the fourth quarter TD pass to Nailor, along with an outstanding escape from pressure before the 28-yard completion to Nailor on 4th-and-10 as a key play on the fourth quarter TD drive. He again showed his running ability on a 26-yard scramble on the final drive before things unraveled after that play.
McCarthy has to eliminate the bad plays and become a much more accurate passer (his 53.6% completion rate ranks last among starters).
Here are my other reactions from the Vikings’ loss to the Ravens:
1. The Vikings defense played decent overall and probably well enough to win: they held Jackson to 176 passing yards and deflected several passes, including one by Andrew Van Ginkel that was a near pick late in the game.
The D held Derrick Henry to 75 rushing yards (3.8-yard average), but Henry had 47 yards on the fourth-quarter drive that put the Ravens up 27-13 on Jackson’s 2-yard TD pass to Mark Andrews. Keaton Mitchell also had a 22-yard run on a late second-quarter drive to help set up a field goal.
The run defense and pass rush were not as effective after Jonathan Greenard left the game in the third quarter with a shoulder injury (that Kevin O’Connell says does not appear to be serious, and he may be available for the Bears game).
The Vikings’ D deflected several Jackson passes, but didn’t get any lucky bounces to come up with a pick. And on the last Ravens drive, Zay Flowers bobbled a handoff, but the ball bounced back up to him.
2. Dallas Turner must learn to roll to the side when he sacks the QB to avoid the body-weight roughing penalty he incurred against Jackson. That made for an easier field goal late in the first half, bringing the Ravens within one point at 10-9.
3. Brian O’Neill and Justin Jefferson must play better: they’re both Pro Bowl players, and O’Neill had three false starts of the Vikings’ eight, and Jefferson had a false start and dropped a TD pass. He also should’ve avoided getting his feet tangled up with Humphrey on the interception. Jefferson was also missed by McCarthy several times when he was open. He had only four catches for 37 yards on 12 targets.
Jalen Nailor had a terrific game with five catches for 124 yards, including the 62-yarder and two great catches on the Vikings’ fourth quarter TD drive, including the 10-yard TD on a 4th-and-Goal from the Baltimore 10 when he did a great job staying inbounds at the back of the end zone to bring the Vikings within 27-19 in with 3:23 left.
4. McCarthy is still having trouble connecting with T.J. Hockenson. In McCarthy’s four starts, Hockenson has only eight catches for 46 yards, including two catches for eight yards against the Ravens. Part of the problem is that Hockenson had to pass protect more with Josh Oliver out for the last two weeks due to a foot injury, but O’Connell said he is expected to practice this week and may play on Sunday.
5. Myles Price had a bad game: after his great game in Detroit, Price’s fumble early in the third quarter on a kickoff return was a negative turning point and perhaps the biggest play of the game. It set up the Ravens with a short field at the Vikings’ 23, leading to a quick drive to a TD and a 19-10 lead. Price also fumbled the following kickoff, but Ben Yurosek made the recovery. He must do a better job of protecting the ball, as teams will be going after it now more than ever.
6. It’s a shame a good running game was not used more: Aaron Jones followed up his excellent game in Detroit with 47 yards on nine carries against Baltimore. Jordan Mason had four rushes for 25 yards. The Vikings averaged 6.7 yards per rush (including McCarthy’s 48 yards on five carries), but the penalties hurt the run game significantly by forcing more passing situations.
Around the NFL Observations from Week 10
1. The Lions bounced back from their home loss to the Vikings with a dominant win in Washington to avenge last season’s divisional playoff loss. Jared Goff threw three TD passes and Jahmyr Gibbs ran for 142 yards and two TDs as the Lions had 546 total yards. The Commanders were without QB Jayden Daniels (elbow). Detroit is at Philadelphia next Sunday night in a marquee Week 11 game.
Chicago is surprisingly tied with Detroit at 6-3. The Bears beat the Giants 24-20 on a late 17-yard TD run by Caleb Williams. They were trailing in the fourth quarter as Giants rookie QB Jaxson Dart was having a big game (242 passing yards and 66 rushing yards with two TDs on the ground) before he had to leave the game with a concussion. The Bears then rallied for the win.
The Vikings offense should be able to move the ball on the Bears D, which was gashed for 42 points in Week 9 at Cincinnati (a game the Bears also won against the lousy Bengals defense).
2. In other key games, Buffalo was upset 30-13 in Miami while New England knocked off the Bucs in Tampa to open up a 1.5 game lead in the AFC East.
Matthew Stafford enhanced his MVP chances by throwing four TD passes in the Rams’ 42-28 victory in San Francisco. Stafford has thrown 20 TD passes and no interceptions over the last six games with L.A. 5-1 during that stretch.
Seattle easily handled Arizona 44-22 with 198 rushing yards as Sam Darnold only threw 12 passes (completing 10 for 178 yards, one TD, and one interception). The Seahawks face the Rams on Sunday, with first place in the NFC West on the line. These two teams will meet again in Seattle on a Thursday night in Week 16. The Vikings have a Week 13 date in Seattle against their former QB.
Another MVP candidate—Jonathan Taylor—had another huge game with 244 rushing yards and three TDs in a 31-25 Colts win over the Falcons in Berlin. Taylor leads the league with 1,139 rushing yards for 8-2 Indianapolis, who lead the AFC South by 2.5 games over Jacksonville (a 36-29 loser in Houston as Texans backup QB Davis Mills led the victory with C.J. Stroud out due to a concussion).
You must be logged in to post a comment.