by: Nick Geddes 46 minutes ago NickGeddesNews
Monday night is J.J. McCarthy ‘s first start since Jan. 8, 2024, the night he led Michigan to a 34-13 win over Washington in the College Football Playoff National Championship game. McCarthy, who missed his entire rookie season with a torn meniscus, is under center for the Minnesota Vikings’ Week 1 road contest against the Chicago Bears.
There was a lot of anticipation to see how McCarthy would fare in his NFL debut. So far, McCarthy has struggled — the Vikings’ offense as a whole has struggled. McCarthy got his welcome to the NFL moment early in the third quarter when Bears cornerback Nahshon Wright picked him off and returned it 74 yards for six.
Peyton Manning and Eli Manning offered their critiques of what went wrong on the play. Peyton said it looked like a timing issue between two players who haven’t played with each other in the regular season.
“It’s a good concept versus cover 0,” Peyton said. “You’re going to have inside technique by the corners when it’s cover 0 because they’re protecting the middle of the field and they don’t have any help there from the safety. But we’ve got to get our depth at receiver, quarterback has to throw it on time. It just looked like it was a little bit off, which you would expect.