Daily Norseman
This Sunday, the Minnesota Vikings will battle the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. The Week 12 matchup holds the fate of the 2025 Minnesota Vikings season. At 4-6, there is little room for error if the Vikings want to have a chance of vying for a playoff spot. A win against the Green Bay Packers would go a long way, and improve the Vikings’ division record to 3-1.
The only thing that is keeping Minnesota afloat in the playoff rankings is that divisional record, which could have a tremendous impact in determining tie breakers at the end of the season. Minnesota is currently in last place in the NFC North Division standings and 11th overall in the NFC behind the 4-5-1 Dallas Cowboys. If the season ended today, the Vikings would hold the 12th pick in the 2026 NFL draft.
According to NFL.com, the Minnesota Vikings currently have a 6% chance of making the playoffs. With a loss, that drops to a 2% chance, and a win could double their chances to 12%. Slim-to-none would be how I’d categorize their shot to make a run at the playoffs. The Vikings have some winnable games down the stretch and have the opportunity to be a trap game for the Seattle Seahawks.
However, before we can even start talking about playoff chances, the focus needs to be on the Green Bay Packers. In order to pull off a win in blustery Green Bay, J.J. McCarthy needs to put together his first complete game of the season. In order to do that, he needs some help from his coaching staff and veteran teammates.
I still believe J.J. McCarthy is our franchise quarterback. In this world of instant gratification, people seem to just not have the patience to allow things to develop. As the old saying goes, good things come to those who wait. I understand that expectations were high, but as Vikings fans, we know expectations rarely coincide with reality when it comes to the purple and gold. As an organization, the Vikings have been dealt a tough hand but have also not done McCarthy any favors.
Maybe this is a hot take, but J.J. McCarthy’s issues stem from one thing: being behind schedule. Sam Darnold was always going to be the starter last season, and McCarthy would have time to work on his fundamentals, such as posture in the pocket and maintaining his base. It’s clear that “mental reps” could not possibly replicate the value of physical ones.
If we lived in an alternate reality where McCarthy had an entire season of practice reps with a full offseason, things would look very different than they are now. This is speculative, of course, but I believe the narrative would be much different had more things gone right for McCarthy. However, there are some ugly truths about McCarthy’s game.
With all...
