Daily Norseman
The Minnesota Vikings won an ugly 16-13 affair in the swamps of Jersey against the New York Giants to improve to 7-8 on the season.
Another injury to J.J. McCarthy overshadowed the victory, this time to his throwing hand. The good news appears to be that there are no broken bones, but his availability for the Christmas Day game on a quick turnaround looks unlikely. If he does indeed miss Thursday’s game, it will mark the seventh time this season he’ll be inactive. He has now missed 24 of 32 (75%) possible games since the start of the 2024 season. Not ideal.
(NOTE: After Shawn completed his article, the Vikings did rule McCarthy out for Thursday’s game against Detroit)
WE CAN’T EVEN HAVE THIS
The Minnesota Vikings and nice things go together like ketchup and ice cream. The final five games of the season were all about McCarthy and his development. With the competitive portion of the season over, it was the only thing worth looking forward to. And for once, things looked to be going our way. As a Vikings fan, that’s always a surefire sign that disappointment is making its way to the on-deck circle.
While not as crisp as the previous two outings, there were still plenty of positives to take away from McCarthy’s first-half performance. He made a beautiful play under duress for a possible touchdown pass that Jordan Addison holds onto nine times out of 10. His fourth rushing touchdown of the year was a doozy and flashed the dual-threat potential that made me think he could develop into a smaller Josh Allen. His yards per pass attempt (7.7) remained far above the four games before his concussion, when he failed to hit 6.0. Heck, even his chemistry with Justin Jefferson looked to be improving. Yeah, I know, the interception. C’mon now. Yes, the ball placement could have been better, but Nailor catches that, well, nine times out of 10. Ditto the 96-yard pick-six that was fortunately called back. When it rains, it pours for this freakin’ team.
ONE THING IS CLEAR
But, alas, we’re back in the holding pattern after Brian Burns came unblocked and sent McCarthy to the locker room for the rest of the game. And no, it was not Brian O’Neill’s fault. It was a well-schemed blitz, combined with McCarthy holding the ball too long on a tunnel screen. You try to look for positives in such things, so I guess it’s good the Vikings now know without a shadow of a doubt that they cannot go into 2026 without a top-flight (and costly) backup. I love McCarthy, but you’re only as good as your ability to stay on the field. And so far, he hasn’t been able to do that.
This may ruffle some feathers, but the ideal scenario would be to get Kirk Cousins back here. He looked like a lock to be cut before Michael Penix, Jr. partially tore his ACL. Now the situation is a little murkier....
