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REWATCH : Vikings-Bears on NFL+ Premium
McCarthy settles in and delivers. For three quarters, J.J. McCarthy , the Vikings’ chosen quarterback of the future, looked much like his lack of experience suggested: green. The speed of the game appeared to be too much for McCarthy to handle in his first NFL start and the same was true of his responsibilities as the conductor of the offense. Minnesota’s offense was a no-show, reaching the fourth quarter with just 85 total yards while struggling with the basic pre-snap operation on nearly a play-by-play basis. Then, a questionable pass interference penalty and a much-needed simplification of the Minnesota offense sparked McCarthy, who took the electricity and detonated Chicago’s defense. Those who watched McCarthy at Michigan would recognize this version of the quarterback, as he fired accurate, fearless passes that included his first scoring toss through a tighter-than-usual window, delivering a strike to Aaron Jones for another score and then taking off on a 14-yard run to give the Vikings a 10-point lead in seemingly the blink of an eye. The turnaround was stunning, and much of it depended on McCarthy’s intestinal fortitude. After three ugly quarters, the fourth showed us why Kevin O’Connell was confident that McCarthy was his man.
Bears run out of gas on the freeway. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a high-flying team reach the fourth quarter of a game they’d dominated only to realize they’d prematurely exhausted their fuel, but we saw it Monday night. A Chicago defense that was manhandling Minnesota’s offensive line in the first half wilted in the fourth quarter, and save for Montez Sweat ‘s bat down of a McCarthy red zone pass, Chicago’s front — which had harassed McCarthy for much of the night — disappeared. Conversely, Minnesota’s defensive line — which had pressured Caleb Williams but wasn’t consistently causing issues in the first half — suddenly looked as if it had been injected with superhuman strength, owning the interior and denying the Bears of any chance to move the football while they clung to their lead. That shift in one quarter was enough to completely flip the script of a game that seemed to be in Chicago’s control, leading to a heartbreaking — and shocking — defeat. There are things to like, but the result is a bitter pill to swallow for a fanbase that was having a whole lot of fun for the first 45 minutes of action.
Around the NFL will have more from Nick Shook shortly.