If nothing else, J.J. McCarthy has learned to hold himself accountable, and that’s a character trait that can’t necessarily be taught.
There are veteran NFL quarterbacks out there that still have a propensity to deflect following a rough performance, but McCarthy is at least comfortable owning up to his mistakes, as he did Sunday after spraying the ball all over the place in the Vikings’ 19-17 loss to the Chicago Bears.
McCarthy was his own harshest critic while recalling some of the incompletions that he wished he could have back. It wasn’t lost on him that he had completed 16 of 32 passes for 150 yards a touchdown with a pair of interceptions. He emphasized that his accuracy simply wasn’t good enough, and followed that up by vowing to do everything in his power to improve.
“I have to deliver,” he said. “I put that completely on me.”
It can’t be denied that McCarthy keeps saying the right things. His problem is that he keeps doing the wrong things.
Though there have certainly been flashes of brilliance along the way — a beautifully executed back shoulder fade here, a perfectly placed deep ball there — he has more often looked overwhelmed while trying to make the basic throws required to succeed at the highest level.
Channeling his inner Tim Tebow at the podium won’t mean much if he doesn’t also start to show steady growth in the very near future. You can only talk the talk so long. You also have to walk to walk at some point.
The biggest issue with McCarthy’s accuracy seems to be his footwork. When faced with pressure, he has shown a tendency to revert back to some bad habits in his lower half. Kevin O’Connell has worked at length with McCarthy to make sure that doesn’t happen in the heat of battle, but some of those intricacies have yet to become habit.
“There are some plays where he’s making it hard on himself,” O’Connell said. “I think that’s probably the most frustrating part for him.”
Whether it’s occasionally putting himself in a bad spot by stepping up too far in the pocket, or consistently getting himself out of rhythm by neglecting some mechanics, McCarthy’s shortcomings have made him the least accurate quarterback in the NFL this season with a 52.9% completion rate.
Is it fixable? The only way for the Vikings to find out is to continue to putting him out there and see if the instruction starts to take.
“You’re just trying to get him to understand that every single snap, his detail in his job is of the utmost importance,” O’Connell said. “Sometimes it’s not even reads and progressions; it’s simply just the fundamental foundation. We need to start seeing the concrete kind of dry a little bit on the work that’s put in.”
Now that the playoffs seem to be out of reach, the Vikings should use the rest of this season to determine how they want to move forward next season. Is this a small bump in the road for McCarthy, or larger hurdle that will be hard for him to overcome? That question needs to be answered over the next couple of months — starting Sunday in Green Bay.
The good news from McCarthy is he still seems to have the confidence of his teammates.
“He’s only going to get better and better,” veteran receiver Adam Thielen said. “He’s not lacking the skill set. He’s not lacking the competitiveness. He’s not lacking the confidence.”
Thielen’s faith is rooted in McCarthy’s intangibles as a leader. They have have shown up on a number of occasions this season, including on the 10-play, 85-yard drive that McCarthy led to give the Vikings a fleeting lead over the Bears with 50 seconds left.
“He’s made of the right stuff,” O’Connell said. “He’s going to keep working at it.”
Will it be hard to maintain that level of focus with so much going on around him?
“I don’t think it’s too hard for me,” McCarthy said. “Because I’m obsessed with the process.”
That’s another case of McCarty saying the right things. If he doesn’t start doing the right things, people will stop listening.
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