J. J. McCarthy Week 2 QB Grade: Vikings vs. Falcons

Week 2 was extremely rough no matter how you try to look at it. McCarthy struggled in just about every area. Accuracy was off, he took bad sacks, passed up open receivers and over just looked lost in the pocket. In 32 total plays he had just 5 plus plays as the Minnesota Vikings could not find that 4th quarter magic again as they were stifled in their home opener by the Atlanta Falcons. How bad was it? Let's take a look at the breakdown.

Basics (Season Average in Italics)

C/A: 13/20 (65.0%) | 11/21 (52.4%)

Yards: 143 | 158

aDOT: 7.8 | 12.6

Touchdowns: 3 | 0

Turnovers: 1 | 3

QB at Fault Sacks: 2 | 3

Passer Rating: 98.5 | 37.5

True Passer Rating: 107.7 | -26.7

Time to Throw: 2.89s | 3.06s

Time to Pressure: 2.65s | 2.51s

Pressure Rate: 26.67% | 36.67%

Poor Play Rate / Big Play Rate: 9.7%PPR / 16.1%BPR | 21.9%PPR / 3.1%BPR

Breakdown

• It was not a pretty game for McCarthy, and by extension, anyone, on the Vikings offense. The OL struggled, the ground game struggled, but most of all J.J. McCarthy struggled. And it would be unfair for me to say that some of those other struggled didn't impact J.J. As a Bears fans I know better than most how badly an OL can effect your QB.

• But as for J.J. he struggled especially in the intermediate and deep, completing just 5/10 throws and both his interceptions coming in this area. He did make an Elite throw in that area, however, his only deep completion hitting a wide open Justin Jefferson for 50 yards, setting up a field goal before the half.

• He struggled all day with accuracy, and the offensive game plan really just seemed to be having him hit Outs are various levels of the field, unfortunately when your inaccuracy and behind your WR on an out, that leads to turnovers, which is exactly what happened on his first interception.

• Even one of his completions in the intermediate was graded as "Ungraded" as it required Nailor to make a jumping fingertips catch while being wide open to complete the pass.

• His back to back good throws in the 1st half come off the back of running essentially the same play with 2 different players, a deep out to Thielen for 19 then 17 more to Nailor right after. Legitimate carbon copy routes and throws. This of course doesn't take away from the throws, they both were on time and accurate, I just think it speaks to the level of offense KOC wants McCarthy running.

• Unfortunately it looks like a high ankle sprain will delay McCarthy's ability to put up a comeback game, as he has already been ruled out for week 3. He scored a -1.95/-3.05/-5.00 which charts as a "Poor" game grade, and the second worst grade thus far this season, second only to Jayden Daniels' week 2 against the Packers.