Kevin O’Connell Reveals JJ McCarthy’s Unorthodox Week 7 Role

The Minnesota Vikings sit at 3-2 coming into week 7, after their week 6 bye post-London games, this time with a tough challenge in the Philadelphia Eagles, who are coming off a two-game losing streak against the Denver Broncos and New York Giants.

Whilst on paper the Vikings have one of the best rosters in the NFC – when healthy – the quarterback situation has been rather fluid since the season opening comeback win against the Chicago Bears.

First year starter and second year pro, JJ McCarthy, has been out with an injury since week 3, with Carson Wentz having filled in well in the former National Champion’s absence.

It was thought that McCarthy could return following the bye week, but according to Kevin O’Connell, via Adam Schefter, it will once again be the Carson Wentz show in Minneapolis this weekend.

With J.J. McCarthy still recovering from his high ankle sprain, the Vikings once again will start QB Carson Wentz, who spent the first five seasons of his NFL career with Philadelphia.

“With J.J. McCarthy still recovering from his high ankle sprain,” Schefter reported on Friday, “the Vikings once again will start QB Carson Wentz, who spent the first five seasons of his NFL career with Philadelphia.”

JJ McCarthy Still To Have An Active Role Despite Persisting Injury

This would assume that McCarthy would remain inactive for week 7’s outing. However, he has instead been given an unusual role for a player still yet to fully return from injury, as Schefter explains.

Schefter writes that McCarthy will serve as the fairly recent concoction of the “3rd emergency quarterback”, created after the San Francisco 49ers‘ playoff calamity against the Eagles in the 2022 NFC Championship game.

Undrafted free agent and highly-regarded prospect, Max Brosmer, will be the backup on Sunday – maintaining the role he has had over the past few weeks, in McCarthy’s absence and Wentz’s elevation to the starting 11.

When Can The Vikings Expect JJ McCarthy To Return To Action?

Unless things go very south for the Vikings this weekend, the game will be quarterbacked by Wentz, and perhaps Brosmer.

McCarthy continues his recovery from a high ankle sprain suffered in week 2 against the Atlanta Falcons, but the fact that he was healthy enough to be named the third choice emergency quarterback does imply that he is moderately close to a recovery.

Consequently, next week’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers could make more sense as a return date. Yet, that game occurs in just 6 days time on the Thursday night broadcast – so that could still be too early for ex-Michigan man to make his comeback to the fold.

Perhaps almost the bigger question is whether Vikings fans and O’Connell really want to see McCarthy suit up as the QB1 moving forward.

All metrics point towards the former 2nd overall pick having played the better football over the course of the season; Wentz has a higher completion rate by 10.5 percentage points, a better yards per attempt and yards per game – and dominates McCarthy’s QBR, 99.5 to 67.2.

The Vikings invested a lot of draft capital in McCarthy, and will almost certainly return him to the starting lineup. But in the short term, the offense could end up suffering.

Logan Thompson on making only 13 saves against Wild: ‘I think our shot clock guy might be blind in one eye’

The Washington Capitals had their most thorough victory of the season, a 5-1 throttling of the Minnesota Wild, on Friday night. While the Capitals got big performances by Dylan Strome (4 points) and Alex Ovechkin (898th career goal), the Capitals’ crease at the other end was awfully quiet as the Caps dominated possession and put up 45 shots against the Wild.

Logan Thompson faced only 14 shots total during the evening — three in the first period, four in the second, and seven in the third — and surrendered only one goal, a shot from the slot by former Capital Marcus Johansson.

At least, that’s according to the official game report. While the stats said one thing, Thompson seemed to disagree with the Wild’s final shot output.

“I think our shot clock guy might be blind in one eye,” Thompson quipped postgame.

While the lack of rubber might seem like an easy night at the office, Thompson explained to reporters that it was anything but.

“It’s harder,” Thompson said. “Definitely as a goalie when a team comes out and is firing everything, you definitely get into [a game] easier. You definitely get in a rhythm when you’re seeing a lot more action.”

Thompson persevered, though, and improved his record to 3-1-0. He’s now stopped 2.9 goals above expected, per Money Puck, good for tenth best in the league. His GAA is also well under 2.00 (1.75), and his save percentage is .922.

“I felt good tonight,” Thompson concluded. “Obviously, I thought the team played great in front of me, and I thought I was feeling it. I thought when I was needed, I was solid tonight. And credit to them, they didn’t go away, and they got a nice goal through the screen. But I thought it was our best game of the year, a full, complete effort for everyone tonight.”

Alex Ovechkin and Dylan Strome shine in 5-1 victory over Minnesota Wild

The Capitals’ top line led the charge in the team’s best game of the season, combining for three goals and seven points in a 5-1 victory on Friday over the Minnesota Wild. Both

Alex Ovechkin and Dylan Strome put up standout performances: Ovechkin netted his first goal of the season in a two-point (1g, 1a) night, while Strome scored a pair of goals for the third four-point showing (2g, 2a) of his career.

Ovechkin was happy with his line’s game up and down the ice and hoped they could use the momentum to carry that play forward.

“I think we moved well,” Ovechkin said. “Breakouts, neutral zone, and obviously offensive zone we have very good chances. So we just have to keep rolling and play the same way.”

Both Ovechkin and Strome went goalless in the first four games of the season before the floodgates seemed to open against Minnesota, though Ovechkin told reporters postgame that he hadn’t been worried.

“If it was like, ‘I don’t have any chances,’ it (would have been), like, ‘Oh sh—.’ But no, chances were there,” Ovechkin said. “Just sometimes you just have to be patient. One goes in and hope next game is going to be more.”

The pair opened the scoring late in the first period, kicking off a rush in their own end. After reaching the offensive zone, Ovechkin dished the puck through defenseman Jake Middleton and right to Strome, who tipped it past a wide open Filip Gustafsson.

Strome shouted out Ovechkin during his goal celebration and gave him further credit for the play postgame.

“Obviously great pass by O, just driving the net, and he did the rest,” Strome said. “Nice to get on the board; always feels good to get the first one out of the way.”

Ovechkin, meanwhile, highlighted Strome’s performance, both on that goal and throughout the rest of the game.

“Stromer was on fire… He’s a great playmaker, but you can see he can score goals as well,” Ovechkin said. “Obviously, he was driving to the net and finding the rebounds and finding the pucks, so deserves it.”

Early in the third period, Strome would return the favor in a set play off the draw. Strome beat Wild forward Ryan Hartman at the faceoff dot and sent the puck straight to Ovechkin’s stick, barely giving Minnesota time to react before Ovechkin snapped it off the post and in.

Strome chuckled when asked about the sequence: they haven’t always found success with the play, he said, but it has the opportunity to pay off big.

“We try that play quite often and when it works, it looks great,” Strome said. “Sometimes it doesn’t always work, but just one of those where it just was kind of right in the wheelhouse and a little lucky, but a great shot by O.”

Head coach Spencer Carbery emphasized the goal’s timing in helping seal the game. Before Ovechkin scored, the Capitals were only up by one. They had a dominant 28-15 lead in shots, but Minnesota had already erased the deficit once — Marcus Johansson had tied the game 1-1 in the second period before Aliaksei Protas regained the lead 31 seconds later with another lucky goal.

After the Caps failed to score to score on so many of their chances, Carbery noted the goal gave the team some much-needed breathing room.

“That was a big moment,” Carbery said. “It’s 2-1. Game’s still teetering, even though we had controlled play. To get that third one, I think it just eased the group. Because anytime you’re playing really well and you’re only up a goal and you feel like you should be up two or three, things can happen in a game. And so that was a big goal in that moment. I thought (the first line was) excellent all night.”

Like his winger, Strome hadn’t been concerned about Ovechkin’s lack of scoring, taking on some of the blame for not being able to set him up well enough.

“He’s been getting chances,” he said. “We’ve had four or five chances each of the games and just haven’t really been putting them in the right spots for him to bury them. But luckily off the faceoff, it kind of went right in his favorite spot there and he just put it home. So I don’t think he was pressing at all. I think (it was) just matter of time before he gets one.”

Midway through the period, Strome added his second goal of the night, this time assisted by linemate Anthony Beauvillier. Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped the initial shot on goal, but Strome caught his own rebound and hit paydirt.

Strome’s final point of the night came via a secondary assist on Tom Wilson’s late-game power play goal.

Carbery highlighted the team’s success at going for rebounds in his postgame press conference, and Strome confirmed it’s been a regular topic of conversation among the team in recent days.

“We talked about that a lot the last week or so, just not just having one chance and then being done,” Strome said. “I thought tonight, every time we felt like we got a chance, we were getting the rebounds and continuing play. I think all four lines had had some really good shifts in the O-zone and some guys get rewarded.”

The first line’s stellar night came as the Capitals debuted their new Screaming Eagle jerseys, continuing the pattern of Ovechkin finding success while wearing the logo. If you ask Strome, the Caps should keep the new look around.

“I think we should wear them a lot,” he said. “We should keep going with them.”

Washington will return to Capital One Arena — albeit sans Screagle — to face the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday afternoon.

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