Cris Carter Growing Impatient with Vikings QB After Latest Stinker
The Minnesota Vikings lost 19-17 on a last-second field goal against the Chicago Bears on Sunday. Had they somehow pulled out an undeserving victory, it would have pushed the purple back to .500 (5-5), and improved their NFC North record to 3-0.
Instead, one final game-wrecking mistake — this time a 61-yard kick return allowed by the Vikings’ special teams — foiled any chance JJ McCarthy & Co. had of stealing a home win they didn’t deserve, against a Bears team that was trying to give it to them.
The Vikings’ obvious issue Sunday afternoon was under center. Early and often against the Bears, young quarterback J.J. McCarthy struggled see open wide receivers.
Even when he did, the 22-year-old former first round pick couldn’t hit them most of the time. He rocketed balls that needed touch, an issue that has plagued him going back to his days at Michigan.
Did JJ McCarthy hit rock bottom vs Bears?
But that was far from his only problem in week 11, where he was all over the place, missing high, missing low missing to and fro. McCarthy has laid some duds this season, but against Chicago, let’s hope he hit rock bottom.
On Sunday, KOC tasked McCarthy to throw the ball 32 times. His QB rewarded him by completing just 16 of them (50%), sprinkling in a couple of terrible interceptions along the way. 98% of the redshirt rookie’s performance this weekend looked like a slow car accident.
⚠️JJ McCarthy on the @Vikings Opening drive
— Intrinsic (@intrinsicvalyou) November 16, 2025
– Underthrows a wide open Jordan Addison
– Overthrows a wide open Justin Jefferson#Skol pic.twitter.com/XwLpcwp9LY
Related: Former Gopher Calls for Vikings to Replace JJ McCarthy
And then out of nowhere, the final drive happened. With all the money on the line, when the Vikings needed it post, JJ drove the offense 85 yards on 10 plays, completing 6-of-8 passes. His final throw of the game was a touchdown to Jordan Addison that gave Minnesota the lead with just 50 seconds left to play (see below)
Tough love from Minnesota Vikings legend Cris Carter
And that’s where former NFL linebacker-turned FOX Sports analyst Emmanuel Acho wanted to shift focus after Sunday’s loss, posting a video of JJ’s last-minute TD pass on X, along with the caption “J.J. McCarthy got that clutch gene!!”
Well, MN Vikings legend Cris Carter was having none of that Acho’s positivity. Shortly after his colleague at FOX posted about McCarthy’s final drive, Carter quote tweeted it saying, “Did you watch the first 59 minutes”. Yikes…
Did you watch the first 59 mins ? 👎🏾 https://t.co/vziZ8y2BQN
— Cris Carter (@criscarter80) November 17, 2025
Carter is a Hall of Fame wide receiver. He’s certainly going to side with guys from his position group. As a Minnesota Vikings legend though, he knows there is little benefit to tearing down the team’s talent. The problem is that the reality has become to glaring to overlook.
For weeks it has seemed as though Kevin O’Connell’s playcalling has been a problem holding the Vikings back. On Sunday, however, he was in over his head in an offense that was clearly simplified to make life easier for him.
When asked after the game how poorly McCarthy would have to play for the head coach to replace him with former Gopher Max Brosmer, KOC declined to answer the question.
Q: Is there a level of performance that [J.J. McCarthy] would need to get to for you to consider whether he should be replaced in a game?
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) November 16, 2025
Kevin O'Connell: "Yeah, I'm not going to get into any of that right now."
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