J.J. McCarthy may have gutted out a comeback victory over the Chicago Bears on Monday night, but it wasn’t pretty for most of the night for the Minnesota Vikings quarterback.
The Vikings had a conservative game plan for most of the game, but struggled to run the ball effectively through three quarters, leaving McCarthy short of space and time to operate in the pocket.
McCarthy was pressured on five of his 25 dropbacks, leading to two sacks, a quarterback hit and two hurries by the Bears defense. Four of those five pressures were assigned to backup left tackle Justin Skule, who was clearly a target of the Chicago pass rush.
Fortunately for McCarthy, reinforcements are en route.
KSTP’s Darren Wolfson said on Tuesday morning after the game that he anticipates Christian Darrisaw to play on Sunday night when the Vikings face the Atlanta Falcons in another primetime matchup.
Minnesota Star Tribune beat reporter Ben Goessling affirmed Wolfson’s sense on KFAN radio Wednesday morning: “He was close (on Monday). I think he’ll get enough work where they feel good about it.”
Vikings O-Line Lived Up to Billing in JJ McCarthy’s Debut
After watching Sam Darnold run for his life in a playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams that saw a playoff record nine sacks on Darnold, head coach Kevin O’Connell made a mandate for the offseason.
“There can be a thousand excuses made, but, for me, it’s the foundation of the interior of the pocket that we’re going to have to take a long look at,” O’Connell said after the loss, per The Minnesota Star Tribune.
The Vikings replaced all three starters on the interior offensive line, signing former Indianapolis Colts linemen Will Fries and Ryan Kelly and drafting Ohio State guard Donovan Jackson in the first round of April’s draft.
After just one game, those moves seemed to pay dividends. Fries gave up the only pressure outside of Skule, while Kelly and Jackson had a clean sheet from Monday night’s battle at Soldier Field.
Donovan Jackson Shines in NFL Debut for Vikings
While McCarthy stole the show with his NFL debut, Jackson’s performance was standout.
Jackson posted a game-best 88.1 pass-blocking grade and did not allow a sack or pressure in the game.
“Jackson impressed on Monday Night Football against the Bears with an 88.1 PFF pass-blocking grade, second best among all Week 1 guards,” Pro Football Focus wrote in its Week 1 rookie recap. “He logged a 66.9 PFF run-blocking grade and split his snaps equally on zone- (11) and gap-scheme (12) runs. In all, Jackson finished with a 12.5% defeated rate, second best among rookie guards.”
Jackson’s performance was especially impressive given that he didn’t have Darrisaw to his left.
Modern defenses tend to attack the weak point of an offensive line, which figured to be the rookie guard going into Monday night’s game. Instead, Skule proved to be the one who was bullied by the Bears.
However, with Darrisaw back in the lineup, Jackson could see some more heat from the Falcons’ defensive front heading into Sunday night’s game.
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