Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell praised quarterback J.J. McCarthy for his gutsy comeback win against the Chicago Bears.
“The thing is, I felt poised from the very beginning,” O'Connell said.
“I told [McCarthy] at halftime, ‘you are going to bring us back to win this game.’ And the look in his eye was fantastic. And the best thing is just the belief I felt from the team, the unit. And ultimately that doesn’t get done without him in the second half.”
McCarthy led the offense to a field goal in the beginning of the second quarter and another just before halftime, but otherwise failed to produce any sustained drives for the first three quarters. At the beginning of the third quarter, he threw an interception to Bears cornerback Nahshon Wright that was returned for a touchdown to put the Bears up 17–6.
The Bears rushed with seven defenders on that play. O‘Connell noted that McCarthy actually saw the blitz coming and adjusted his pass protection correctly. But McCarthy threw a deep out route at the boundary on the opposite side of the field, and Wright simply stepped in front of wide receiver Justin Jefferson to pick the ball off. O’Connell noted that there was likely another receiver open who may have been able to run for a touchdown, but maintained that McCarthy did everything right. He praised Wright—who played for the Vikings in 2024—for following his coverage assignment and watching McCarthy’s eyes the whole play.
“When you have a pick-six, the way the first half went, normally, that’s enough for a lot of teams to go ahead and pack their stuff up and head home,” O‘Connell said. “So I just told him just like the whole day, ’one more, let’s just keep playing the next snap together and I promise you we‘ll find a way’ ... And he just kept his belief and his trust in himself.”
In the first half, Chicago’s defense made life hard for McCarthy by throwing out looks defensively that the Vikings had not scouted or seen on film, O'Connell said. Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen spent the previous ten seasons with the New Orleans Saints, and the Vikings were working off his tendencies; but those unscouted looks—likely due to several injuries to key players on Chicago’s defense—kept Minnesota’s offense off-balance. It also led to some miscommunication on offense as he and McCarthy had to adjust.
In addition to the pick-six, McCarthy was sacked 3 times, hit 5, and had 5 passes batted down; the Bears’ defense also had 6 tackles for loss. O'Connell praised the second-year signal-caller, and the rest of the offense, for continuing to battle through those difficulties.
“[F]or a while there, it just felt like everything that could go wrong kind of did, and many times teams will wilt in those circumstances, and ours did not,” he said. “It’s a credit to our players. It’s a credit to what they have built in that locker room.”
McCarthy turned it on in the fourth quarter. On the Vikings’ first possession, he threw a strike to Jefferson between two defenders for a touchdown to bring the score to 17–12; they missed a 2-point conversion attempt. On the next drive, McCarthy found running back Aaron Jones on a go route out of the backfield for another score; this time he converted the 2-point attempt on a pass to receiver Adam Thielen to take a 20–17 lead. Finally, McCarthy led the offense down the field, then took off on a bootleg to the right side and dove under a block from tight end T.J. Hockenson to make it a 27–17 game.
“[T]here’s no way to deny—we don’t win this game unless J.J. plays the way he did in the second half,” O'Connell said. “And most importantly kept the belief of his football team behind him, and now we know it’s possible. [We] hope to not be in these circumstances very often. But this team’s made of the right stuff. Players have built something special within that locker room and on that sideline, and I’m just very, very proud of them and you have to be so proud of J.J. leading the group back.”
