Daily Norseman
I am hoping for a competitive game on Sunday and to see JJ McCarthy look the part provided he has ample protection. That would definitely portend well for the future of the Vikings. I have to believe he is going to thrive eventually just because I think KOC has a good eye for QBs. I am not giving up on the season even with a loss. This is the kind of game that a team can surprise especially when everyone is counting them out. The offense is going to need to sustain as long of drives as they can to keep Detroit’s offense off the field.
I realize that some folks still want to continue beating the Carson Wentz “story” so please, carry on.
Vikings’ Carson Wentz: Wanted to stay in TNF game despite pain
Carson Wentz took a dramatic step Wednesday to defuse the controversy over his painful final appearance as the Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback, saying he bears no ill will toward the franchise and making clear he did not want coach Kevin O’Connell to remove him from last Thursday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
“This isn’t my first rodeo,” said Wentz, who was placed on injured reserve this week and soon will have season-ending surgery to repair his left shoulder. “I’m not an idiot. I know what I was signing up for going out there. Nobody was forcing me, pressuring me, any of those things.”
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Wentz, the No. 2 pick of the 2016 draft, earlier this season set an NFL record by starting a game for a different team in six straight years. But he had not been a regular NFL starter since 2022, and Wentz said the prospect of playing in “meaningful” games drove him to stay in the Vikings’ lineup as long as possible.
“It’s fun,” he said. “I’m not going to lie. It’s fun. It’s what I grew up dreaming of doing. And when you lose it for a little bit, it’s hard to want to give it up. So even with pain, and all the things that I knew were going to come with it, [I wanted] to play. I want to be out there, and I want to be helping this team however I can.”
Though Wentz refused to ask out of the game, O’Connell has absorbed local and national criticism for not removing him before the final minutes. When asked if he thought O’Connell should have taken him out earlier, Wentz said: “Truthfully, no. I appreciate that everyone was checking on me and all this stuff — at the end of the day, coaches, trainers, no one really knows the level of pain or difficulty that I may be feeling. And I know TV copies can show stuff that people on sidelines don’t see, but I never once felt unsafe. I’ve said it a bunch, it’s just pain. It’s pain. It’s discomfort. I knew surgery was coming, I knew it needed to be fixed....
