J.J. McCarthy looked on track for a disastrous first NFL start before leading the Minnesota Vikings to a stunning 27-24 comeback win over the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field.
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Tuesday’s prime time game was must-watch television, with the expectation that Bears quarterback and former first overall pick Caleb Williams could have a breakout season with offensive guru Ben Johnson as his new head coach.
McCarthy, meanwhile, was selected 10th overall by the Vikings and had a redshirt rookie season after underdoing surgery on his torn right meniscus.
Given how Sam Darnold performed in his absence, the hope was that McCarthy could follow suit working under one of his smartest head coaches in the league in Kevin O’Connell.
Instead, McCarthy endured a horror opening to his first game only to recover and become the first quarterback in their NFL debut to lead a comeback from 10 or more points down to start the fourth quarter.
It was an underwhelming start to the McCarthy era in Minnesota as the Vikings went three-and-out on their first drive, with the second-year quarterback sacked on third-and-2.
It was a different story for Williams and the Bears, however, with the former No.1 pick going 4-of-4 for 27 yards before firing an absolute bullet off platform on 3rd-and-5 to Rome Odunze as Chicago kept its opening drive going.
Williams looked confident and poised, a stark contrast to his rookie season, and later scrambled to beat the Vikings defence for the first rushing touchdown of his NFL career.
It was a dream start for Johnson, with the offence looking far more functional than the one that failed to score a single opening-drive touchdown last season.
McCarthy, on the other hand, continually found the pocket collapsing around him on third downs and was sacked again on Minnesota’s next drive.
Williams had a lot more trust in his revamped offensive line and in comparison to his rookie year was much more willing to stand in the pocket and started the game with 10 straight completions — the longest streak by a Bears quarterback to start a season since 1978.
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The Vikings eventually got on the scoreboard early in the second quarter after a pass interference penalty on Nahshon Wright set up Minnesota to settle for a 31-yard field goal.
But the next drive it was back to another quick three-and-out, although Williams was also struggling to get the same easy completions he had earlier in the game.
Both teams added field goals before halftime, leaving the score at 10-6, which was a win for the Vikings considering the Bears had looked the far more cohesive and effective unit on offence.
O’Connell, on the other hand, seemed to have put training wheels on for McCarthy in his first start with relatively conservative play-calling.
McCarthy was certainly looking tentative and struggled with play-clock issues, but up until that point he hadn’t made a major mistake.
That was, until he stared down Justin Jefferson and threw a pick-six to Wright, who was starting with standout Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson inactive.
It all started to go downhill from there, with a delay of game on the next drive leaving McCarthy facing a 3rd-and-18 and in a sign of just how little confidence O’Connell had in his young quarterback at that point, he drew up a run up the middle on the next play.
As shaky as McCarthy looked, it wasn’t even always on him as veteran Adam Theilen failed to come down with the catch on a key third down later in the quarter.
Yet, even if the Vikings looked to be going nowhere, the Bears were still ever so slightly leaving the door open and a missed field goal attempt from Cairo Santos gifted Minnesota strong field position.
Finally, McCarthy had his first NFL touchdown as he fired a perfect pass to Jefferson. A failed two-point attempt left the score at 17-12 with plenty of time left in the fourth quarter.
Suddenly, momentum was in Minnesota’s favour as Williams was sacked on the following drive in a quick three-and-out for Chicago.
The Bears’ offence continued to stall with six-straight third down stops for the Vikings defence as Brian Flores started to turn up the heat.
McCarthy, meanwhile, was only growing more comfortable the longer the game went on and first found Aaron Jones for the go-ahead touchdown before extending the lead to 27-17 with a rushing score after a brilliant play call by O’Connell with the fake handoff.
Chicago was able to reduce the difference to a field goal after a late Rome Odunze touchdown, but Minnesota was able to milk the clock to close out a dramatic win after Santos failed to kick a touchback with the two-minute warning looming.
With Tuesday’s defeat, the Bears now have four losses since 2022 after leading by double digits entering the fourth — the most in the NFL during that span.
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