Box-score merchant cooks himself with bad J.J. McCarthy Vikings take
In his first action with the Minnesota Vikings since Week 2, second-year quarterback J.J. McCarthy didn't exactly light up the stat sheet in the team's win over the Detroit Lions this past week, as he only threw for 143 yards to go along with two touchdown passes and one interception in addition to another score with his legs.
Despite McCarthy not looking like the second-coming of Peyton Manning in his third-career NFL start, the young Vikings quarterback came up with multiple clutch plays when his team needed him the most against the Lions, including a victory-clinching throw to Jalen Nailor in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.
That and some of the other plays McCarthy made in Detroit, apparently, weren't good enough for Yahoo Sports' Charles McDonald, who made it very obvious that he only glanced at the box score before sharing his evaluation of McCarthy's Week 9 performance on a recent episode of the "Football 301 with Nate Tice" podcast.
"[McCarthy] was bad today. Like he was really, really bad today.
And I feel like I'm having an issue where I don't understand where the disconnect is on what I'm watching and what's actually happening out there.
I feel like people don't understand how low they've lowered the bar for a guy that was traded up for in the first round last year.
And people are like, 'Oh, you know, what, you're done with Jayden McCarthy already?' He'd have to start for me to be done with him.
We haven't even gotten anywhere yet. This has functionally been zero production for the first three games of his career.
...So I don't really understand why we have to sit here and say he's playing well, or it looks promising because it doesn't right now at all. And I think that you should just be able to call a spade a spade.
48 passing yards over three quarters, I mean, that's nothing. If that was any other quarterback, we'd be laughing about how bad that was. But here, for some reason, we got to treat it with kid gloves and I don't quite understand why.
Viking fans should be wanting better quarterback play than this. But you got to pretend that this little production over this many games at this point is workable. No, not yet. He's got a lot to show before [it's] even functional, man."
Lazy take on how Minnesota Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy played in Week 9 misses the mark
Absolutely no one is making the claim that McCarthy is undeserving of criticism, but McDonald's take that the Minnesota quarterback was "really, really bad" in Week 9 is incredibly hilarious.
His take makes it seem like he just looked at the box score before recording the podcast, saw 143 passing yards next to McCarthy's name, and assumed his low yardage amount was due to a poor performance.
Anyone who watched the game closely this past Sunday, knows this take isn't even close to being true.
McCarthy had several impressive throws and moments throughout the game against the Lions, and he accounted for all three of Minnesota's touchdowns in the contest (two passing, one rushing). If he wasn't starting under center, the Vikings likely wouldn't have come away with a win over Detroit in Week 9.
Sure, McCarthy made plenty of mistakes in the game as well, and that's expected for someone making their third-career start in the NFL. But attempting to make the claim that his performance was really, really bad is just plain foolish.
Colorado Avalanche showed Championship-level grit against the Lightning
The Colorado Avalanche fended off the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night, with a final score of 3-2. It was a hard-fought battle between the two 2021-22 Stanley Cup Final teams. If one thing has been evident in the world of hockey—especially with this year’s Avalanche—it’s that you have to battle through the final whistle and faceoff. If you lay back, it can come back and bite you.
Thankfully, that’s not what happened in this game, as the Lightning had to pull goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, forcing them into a 6-on-5 man-advantage to try and get that tying goal. Thankfully, that wasn’t in the cards for the Lightning, as Colorado was able to keep them from scoring.
Cale Makar was a huge part of the game, and especially the final minutes, as he blocked a shot which hit his hand. He was in a lot of pain, as his reaction on the bench clearly showed. On one hand (no pun intended), that’s the type of
Jared Bednar on Cale Makar after blocking the puck late in last night's win over TBL via @AltitudeSR:
He said that Cale is okay!
"It says a lot. Those three minutes, regardless of how you played the whole night... I love what our guys did on that 6-on-5."#GoAvsGo |… — Adrian Hernandez (@AdoHernandez27) November 5, 2025
You know what? That honestly feels like a Championship-quality move. Now, it’s easy to talk about an obvious playoff team being a Stanley Cup contender in November. I also understand the hesitation to do so. But if the Avalanche fight like they did against Tampa Bay on a regular basis, the sky is the limit for them. They finally have quality goaltending, and we have guys who will go out to battle for each other.
Gabriel Landeskog’s fight is also one to note, as he’s been one of the more physical players on this year’s team, which is surprising given his three-year absence from regular season hockey, but it’s a welcome sight. He showed a lot of guts against the Lightning, too. Landeskog continues to show that he is doing quite well in his long recovery from knee surgey, and we might not even have to be talking about it any longer.
The Avalanche have a three-day break before a tilt with the Edmonton Oilers in Western Canada. We’ll get to see the battle between Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid, two guys who are often linked together. That should be a lot of fun. Who knows? Maybe we will get to see Mackenzie Blackwood back in action.
