J.J. McCarthy had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at Lambeau Field on Sunday.
The numbers are the numbers. McCarthy completed 12 of 19 passes for 87 yards, no touchdowns, and his third consecutive outing with two interceptions. He was sacked five times. His expected points added (EPA) per play was a shockingly low -0.65. The physical punishment McCarthy took as the Vikings were clobbered by the Packers unfortunately landed him in the concussion protocol.
It was a performance so rough and non-functional that it has sparked major online discourse about McCarthy's viability as a starting NFL quarterback moving forward. He's only 22 years old and six games into his career, but the results have been historically bad so far. Panic time has arrived.
With all of that said, it's always worth taking a look at the tape to try to get a sense of how much blame falls on the quarterback's shoulders and how much might have been out of his control. Let's go over what we learned from doing just that.
McCarthy's first dropback of the day resulted in a good, in-rhythm throw to Justin Jefferson for a 15-yard gain on a dig route. It was mostly all downhill from there. His next three throws on the Vikings' opening possession fell incomplete. The first was a throwaway under quick pressure from Micah Parsons, who gave Christian Darrisaw one of the worst games of his career. The next two were failed screen passes. The latter was an inaccurate throw, but neither play seemed to have much of a chance at success regardless of McCarthy's execution.
A 3rd and 9 on the Vikings' next possession was a particularly troubling rep for McCarthy. He had good protection and open receivers, but he didn't seem to trust what he was seeing and wound up throwing a late checkdown short of the sticks to T.J. Hockenson, who was immediately lit up by a defender. It would've required a great layered throw to the sideline, but McCarthy could've ripped the corner route to Justin Jefferson as his first read. More concerning is that as he went to the backside of the progression, he didn't see a wide open Jordan Addison for what should've been an easy first down.
3rd and 9 in the first quarter. First read is Jefferson, who is open by NFL standards. McCarthy then progresses to the backside and has Addison wide open, but chooses to get Hockenson lit up on the checkdown instead. pic.twitter.com/LkNXehOxaQ
— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) November 24, 2025
There were no real notable reps from McCarthy on the Vikings' run-heavy third possession, which ended with the failed Hockenson QB sneak on 3rd and 1 and a stuffed run — caused by poor blocking — on 4th and 1 in the red zone. That was a game-changing sequence.
Late in the second quarter, McCarthy made his best throw of the day. Even if he stared down Jefferson on the play, it was the one flash of high-level arm talent he showed in the game.
It feels pretty meaningless on a day where like 80 percent of McCarthy's dropbacks went poorly, but...this was a dime pic.twitter.com/IATKyETc2Y
— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) November 24, 2025
That was followed by a miss where Jefferson appeared to slightly stumble coming out of his break. Then, on second down, McCarthy took his first sack of the day. This was one where he needed to maneuver the pocket by stepping to his right and hitting his checkdown to Hockenson. It was a brutal sack to take, although Will Reichard bailed out his QB by hitting a 59-yard field goal two plays later.
The second half is where everything became a complete mess. Once the Vikings went down 17-6 after Myles Price's special teams gaffe, the Packers' pass rush pinned its ears back and started to dominate. It all went off the rails for McCarthy, who was sacked four times after the half and eventually threw two late interceptions. You've probably seen the stat that the Vikings had -1 net yards of offense after halftime.
McCarthy contributed to some of the sacks he took by holding onto the ball too long. But some of them can be credited to great plays by Parsons and the Packers' pass rush (and rough plays for the Vikings' offensive line). A couple came on third-and-very-longs with the Vikings backed up near their own goal line, where McCarthy was trying to extend the play and make some unlikely magic happen. Also, on his first interception, backup LT Justin Skule was beaten to the edge and McCarthy's arm got hit as he tried to make an in-rhythm throw.
Here are the five sacks of J.J. McCarthy and the interception where his arm was hit.
He obviously needs to be better with pocket movement and getting the ball out. But some of these are just clean wins by the pass rush with no obvious place for McCarthy to go with the ball. pic.twitter.com/r9mNOIj5UN
— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) November 24, 2025
"There was a couple where, in some good-on-good matchups, we just got beat, where I don't think J.J. had much of a chance," Kevin O'Connell said on Monday of the sacks. "And then later on in the game, where we became a little more one-dimensional, just some zoning coverage looks where I think it's a combination of 'Are we using the help up front when we try to give those guys the help to maximize the chance of having a clean pocket to get a couple hitches off?'
"And then for J.J., just the efficiency of understanding that, even in a game like that, it's still about completions, it's still about putting the ball in play, it's still about trying to find a way to continue to stack completions together and then the (opportunities) will come."
It all seemed to snowball on McCarthy in the second half, with drive after drive going backwards. Pressure was a constant. There was a drop by Adam Thielen mixed in. Late in the game, while trying to make something happen, he wound up perhaps hitting his head on back-to-back plays (hence the concussion protocol). That led to one of his worst throws of the day on his final pass attempt, which sailed on him down the seam for another interception.
Feels safe to assume McCarthy's concussion symptoms stemmed from one of these plays. These are the third- and second-to-last snaps he took, prior to sailing the second INT. pic.twitter.com/Y8XsHnkIvs
— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) November 24, 2025
The overall conclusion is that while McCarthy obviously played poorly, it maybe wasn't as much of an utter quarterback meltdown as it seemed to be in the moment. Trailing in the second half against Parsons and the Packers, on the road, is a very difficult position for a young quarterback to be in.
It's still too early to give up on McCarthy entirely. The issue is that he looks like a guy whose confidence is gone. And for that reason, having him take a step back and giving Max Brosmer an opportunity this weekend in Seattle might've been a good idea even if McCarthy hadn't wound up with concussion-like symptoms. He could probably use a mental reset before returning to action and trying to generate some positive momentum down the stretch of this season.
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