Hey everybody, welcome into U.S. Bank Stadium. Matthew Collar here, along with

Dane Mizatani, the Pioneer Press, as we just watched J.J. McCarthy actually play a football

game, kind of. It was a real football game, sort of. The preseason, he played

one drive, and there was actually a lot of takeaways from that one drive that we're going to

dive into. The Vikings get the win. We've got winners. We've got some areas of concern. We have a

significant injury to break down, so there is a lot to get to from the Vikings 20 to 10 win over the Houston Daxons.

But Dane, we have to begin in the most obvious place and talk about J.J. McCarthy. Now, after the game,

we just listened to him downstairs, talk about the operation, how the operation was smooth,

and how he felt like they got the call in,

they got to the line of scrimmage, they got lined up, they ran the plays. And there are two

plays that I want to talk about, Dane, right off the bat that I thought were very telling about

J.J. McCarthy. One of them where he threw a beautiful ball to Jordan Addison for an 18-yard gain, 25 yards

through the air. It's an out route that requires anticipation. It requires him putting the ball in

the right place. There was somebody falling at his feet. It was a very, very nice throw for a first down.

Also a little trust for his number one wide receiver there. That I thought was the best moment of the day for Jordan or for J.J. McCarthy throwing that to Addison. And then there was a throw that went flying over the head of Lucky Jackson that he talked about afterwards saying if he had just waited one more click that he would have found him open on that throw. And I thought pretty emblematic of what we've seen for McCarthy in training camp. I thought it was a good decision. I thought the guy he was throwing to was open and was there. And that's a 20-yard gain if he could get it there. Just a little bit high, just a little bit sped up, and I think it shows some of

the rust that J.J. McCarthy had, but overall, I would say that his day was, you know, we're

only talking about one drive. I'd say a B or a B minus, probably. There was some throws that

weren't the most accurate. There was a great scramble on fourth down, and he comes out of it

healthy, he comes out of it healthy he comes out of it feeling

good and it seemed like kevin o'connell also felt good about where j j mccarthy was at after this

game yeah i think first and foremost he walked away healthy which is all you really wanted out of today

everything else bonus but as long as your qb one who's playing in the preseason is able to walk out of today. Everything else, bonus. But as long as your QB1 who's playing in the

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