Inside The Vikings

J.J. McCarthy doesn't shy away from owning his latest ugly performance

McCarthy wasn't nearly good enough in the Vikings' loss to the Bears, and he knows it.
Will Ragatz|
Nov 16, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) throws downfield during the first quarter against the Chicago Bears at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Nov 16, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) throws downfield during the first quarter against the Chicago Bears at U.S. Bank Stadium. | Brad Rempel-Imagn Images

In this story:

Minnesota Vikings

For the third time in three home starts, J.J. McCarthy simply wasn't good enough on Sunday. In the Vikings' 19-17 loss to the Bears, their young quarterback completed just 16 of 32 passes for 150 yards, a late touchdown, and two interceptions. It was a performance so sloppy that conversations about McCarthy's long-term viability as an NFL starter — and the Vikings' decision to hand him that job this past offseason — will be unavoidable over the days to come.

He's now 0-3 at home in his career with two touchdown passes and six picks. His passer ratings in those three losses have been 37.5, 54.5, and 47.7. For context, McCarthy came into this game with an NFL-worst 65.8 rating. No one else in the league is below 70.

After the game, McCarthy walked up to the press conference lectern and didn't shy away from owning his personal responsibility for the loss.

"I need to do a better job with my decision-making, the accuracy," he said. "It needs to change. I need to be better on doing my job at a higher level."

McCarthy's biggest issue continues to be the most important fundamental piece of playing quarterback: The ability to deliver accurate throws to open receivers. He left passes short for Jordan Addison and sailed passes over Justin Jefferson's head. He led receivers too far — or not far enough. Up until a late drive where he completed 6 of 8 passes for 76 yards and a TD, McCarthy was 10 for 24 for 74 yards and two picks. An offense can't function with those numbers.

"I think it's just growing, at the end of the day," he said of his accuracy. "There's a lot of things that I have to improve on, and accuracy's one of them. And I promise you I'm gonna wake up tomorrow and get ready to go to get working on that."

The missed throws started on the Vikings' first drive of the game and continued throughout the entire afternoon. Late in the second quarter, he threw two interceptions in a span of three minutes of game time. On the first one, he tried to find Justin Jefferson, but Bears safety Kevin Byard dropped into a zone to make the play.

"Just have to be aware of that guy," McCarthy said. "Another great learning lesson against a coverage like that. Should've just checked the ball down to C.J. Ham and kept it moving."

On the ensuing possession, McCarthy tried to hit Addison for a touchdown up the left sideline, but the ball was slightly underthrown and lanky cornerback Nahshon Wright — who had the pick-six off of McCarthy in the season opener — elevated to make a great catch.

McCarthy's frustration with himself may have peaked in the third quarter. After a false start moved the Vikings back five yards, his throw sailed wildly over Jefferson's heads, leading to another punt. McCarthy instantly reacted by putting both hands on his helmet and running off the field.

"You just can't miss those," McCarthy said. "This league is too hard. There's three or five decisions, plays, that I want back more than anything, and that's one of them. It's an opportunistic concept against an opportunistic defense, and I have to deliver. So I put that completely on me, obviously."

After that miss, McCarthy and the Vikings' offense were booed off the field by the home crowd, which he said he understood.

"We've got the greatest fans in the world," McCarthy said. "And they expect a lot more out of us, and rightfully so. I feel like it's just a reminder to us that we better get going and we better figure this out. Obviously, we don't got a whole lot of games left, so the urgency is at an all-time high. We just gotta be better for the fans, especially at home."

McCarthy missed far too many throws on Sunday, but his teammates also let him down with at least five or six drops over the course of the day, which impacted his numbers. Addison had a brutal early drop on a potential 40-yard gain over the middle of the field, then had another one later on. T.J. Hockenson and Aaron Jones also had drops. So this wasn't entirely on McCarthy's shoulders.

Despite the passing game's struggles, the Vikings hung around and hung around. And when they needed it most, McCarthy put together a drive that at least gives him some positive momentum heading into next week's trip to Green Bay. He stacked some completions together in two-minute mode, including a great throw to Jalen Nailor and a touchdown pass to Addison that gave the Vikings an unlikely lead with 50 seconds to play.

Ultimately, it wasn't enough, as a big kickoff return set up Cairo Santos' game-winning field goal as time expired.

"The way we can operate as an offense when it does look like that is a lot of fun," McCarthy said. "I just need to do a better job of making sure the rhythm stays there throughout an entire 60 minutes. There's definitely things that we did well today, but how can we amplify those things and how can we eliminate the mistakes? I take full responsibility for those mistakes, and I gotta make sure we come out tomorrow ready to get better."

McCarthy said his right hand, which he banged up in last week's loss to the Ravens, wasn't an issue. He said he felt "extremely prepared" coming into the game. On Friday, Kevin O'Connell said McCarthy had finished the week with two of his better practices throwing the football. It just didn't translate to success in a critical game.

McCarthy has now made five career starts and has mostly struggled to play effective football. With the Vikings' playoff hopes likely dead, the final seven games of this season will be about whether or not he can make enough progress to show that he should remain Minnesota's starter in 2026.

All McCarthy can do is take things day by day, figure out what's going wrong, and do everything in his power to try to fix it.

"I'm obsessed with the process," he said. "I'm obsessed with growing and getting better. KO's the same way. This entire group's the same way. We just need to make it click on all three phases for 60 minutes. At the end of the day, this group is so tight-knit and so determined to make sure we get to that point, something we can be proud of every single Sunday when we leave the stadium. We're not there yet, especially as an offense, and I take full responsibility to help make sure we get there."

More Vikings coverage

Published
Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI, who also covers the Twins, Timberwolves, Gophers, and other Minnesota teams. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.

Share on XFollow WillRagatz
Home/News