J.J. McCarthy played free and took a huge step forward for the Vikings

J.J. McCarthy needed a day like that.

The outside noise had gotten awfully loud during his extensive struggles in recent losses. Six games into his career, his numbers were historically poor. He needed a game like the one he put together on Sunday to serve as a proof — to the country, to his teammates, to himself — that he's capable of playing quarterback at a high level in the NFL.

McCarthy delivered the cleanest, best performance of his young career in a 31-0 win over the Commanders at U.S. Bank Stadium. He completed 16 of 23 passes for 163 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions. His completion percentage, passer rating, and touchdown passes marked career highs. The zero turnovers marked a first-time career low.

This week, the talking point around McCarthy was that the Vikings wanted him to play loose and free, to focus on doing his job and making good decisions more than worrying about his mechanics. It's just one game against a very bad Commanders defense, but that approach seemed to pay off on Sunday.

"I felt like I just wasn't thinking as much," McCarthy told FOX's Kristina Pink after the game.

For not only their young quarterback, but the Vikings' entire team, the message this week was to play for their 16-year-old self — to go out and have fun, even in a season that hasn't gone the way they hoped.

"I think it was just playing," McCarthy said in his press conference about what made a difference for him today. "The big message of last night's team meeting was play for that 16-year-old version of yourself. Understand what got you into this game, what made you fall in love with this game, regardless of the record, regardless of where we are this season. Just go out there, have fun, play fast, play free, and I feel like we all did that today."

Did he feel like his 16-year-old self on Sunday?

"I did a little bit, yeah," he said with a smile.

J.J. McCarthy — Brad Rempel-Imagn Images

The Vikings wanted to start fast, so they elected to receive the opening kickoff after winning the coin toss. From there, they were off and running. McCarthy started his day with four straight completions, including a decisive 18-yard strike to Josh Oliver for a touchdown pass.

Minnesota's next drive began on its own 2 after a turnover on downs. McCarthy scrambled to move the chains on an early third down, then converted three more third downs with his arm to Jalen Nailor, Jordan Addison, and Justin Jefferson. A 19-play, 98-yard drive ended with a fifth third-down conversion on a Jordan Mason touchdown run.

"I thought J.J. had some phenomenal plays on third down," Kevin O'Connell said. "And then just continued to play within himself. Decision-making was gonna be the priority today, and felt like he played a very clean game, protected the football, ran the show. Very proud of him."

McCarthy completed 9 of 11 passes in the first half and continued to play well after the break, tacking on short touchdown passes to Oliver and T.J. Hockenson where he made the read and got the ball out when he needed to. All day long, he looked calm and in control of things in the pocket.

"When J.J.'s at his best, there's conviction," O'Connell said. "His fundamentals and technique pair together because he's got conviction on what he's gonna do with the ball.

"He's very much a guy that wants to play the mental game within the snap. Sometimes, he can simplify it for himself within just the play that's called and setting his feet and eyes to (read) No. 1 and then progressing with great fundamentals from there and being accurate. I thought there were some really good examples of that today, and now we just gotta build on it."

To be clear, this was just one game where a lot of things worked in McCarthy's favor. The Commanders' defense might be the NFL's worst. The Vikings never trailed, and they had 28 designed runs versus 26 dropbacks prior before kneeling the ball out at the end. Nonetheless, it was exactly what the Vikings wanted — needed — to see out of their quarterback.

"Regardless of statistics or anything like that, he played winning football," O'Connell said. "He protected the ball, he made throws situationally, made some chunk throws on some of the early downs. The ball just kept going forward, for the most part."

If there were any doubts from McCarthy's Vikings teammates that he was capable of putting together a game like this, those were answered. That element of it had to feel good for McCarthy, who got the monkey off his back with his first home victory and will now look to build on this outing over the season's final four weeks.

"It's just something that I feel like should've happened a lot earlier," he said. "I absolutely love those guys for the grace and patience they've had with me, but we gotta continue to do it again. You're only as successful as your last successful act, and we're gonna get to work and keep this thing rolling."

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