I just couldn’t do it. Knowing about Carson Wentz’ shoulder, I couldn’t stomach watching him get sacked anymore and writhing in pain. So the series of where I place blame for sacks given up by the Minnesota
Vikings will mercifully be missing a couple of weeks. Luckily, J.J. McCarthy is back and healthy. He took five sacks in this game and a couple of big hits. Let’s take a deeper look at what happened.
Q2 15:00. J.J. McCarthy gets sacked on 2nd and 9.
Detroit lines up in what looks like and odd 3-3 nickel set with three down linemen and one upright rusher. Minnesota has two receivers to the left and then motion T.J. Hockenson to the right. Anzalone follows Hockenson across the formation, so it looks like the defense is going to be in man coverage.
After the ball is snapped, we see Detroit drop back into man coverage. To me, it looks like they are in a cover-1 robber, with one safety staying deep and the other hovering over the middle of the field.
McCarthy is looking over to Hockenson as his first read. At the bottom of the screenshot, we see Justin Jefferson drawing a double team (as he should) and Nailor waiting there as a quick outlet. However, McCarthy really has no time to get his vision to the left side of the field, as he has to Houdini out of the way.
If you look at this image, you have to think that the play is completely over. There was not enough time for routes to develop, and the defense has McCarthy dead to rights. Looking from the endzone view, we see both Vikings linemen on the right side of the line lose their matchup.
Fries loses on a speed rush to his outside shoulder and Aiden Hutchinson delivers a nasty spin move against Brian O’Neill. Blake Brandel is out on an island, anticipating the stunt from the Lions’ defensive end.
This play gets blown up. It is never good to see an offensive lineman with his arm fully extended chasing after the defender that he was supposed to be blocking. McCarthy had absolutely no chance to make a throw here. This looks like he is going to get tackled at the half yard-line, but it’s just an optical illusion.
Now you see me, now you don’t! There is no way Carson Wentz is able to escape this pressure like McCarthy did. Despite the great move to get away from the sack, McCarthy doesn’t have anywhere to go with the football, so he attempts to tuck and run.
McCarthy was this close to beating the defender to the edge and possibly running for a first down, or at least a modest gain that could have made third down easier to convert.
Whose fault? Will Fries 45%. Brian O’Neill 40%. Great defense 15%.
Q2 9:32. J.J. McCarthy gets sacked on 1st and 10.
On this designed play, McCarthy put a receiver in motion in an attempt to get the defense to follow.
Notice Justin Jefferson on the bottom of the screen. He is the one person a defense always has to account for. The play action here is also to get the defense moving to the left following Jordan Mason.
The line is moving to the left; the fake is moving to the left. Nailor is on a go route in an attempt to clear the outside cornerback. Jefferson sneaks behind the line of scrimmage back across the formation. The play design is great as it freezes Anzalone just long enough to get the look they want.
Right here is where I would like to see J.J. dump the ball off to Jefferson. With a good leading throw, Jefferson has room to turn up the field for a big gain. However, you can see McCarthy’s eyes downfield looking for the deep completion. He stays on it too long and misses the window to throw to Jefferson. I like the idea of looking for a chunk play, but when one is right in front of you, it’s hard to commend the decision making. This is one I am sure O’Connell will go over with #9.
Still, with Jefferson open for at least a gain of a few yards, McCarthy looks even further to his left for a chunk play instead of taking the opportunity right in front of him. I mean, Jettas has Anzalone dead to rights and could have a huge RAC on a completion here.
Instead, McCarthy tries to tuck the ball and run, but is chased down by the defender for an unnecessary sack.
Whose fault? J.J. McCarthy 100%.
Q2 5:12. J.J. McCarthy gets sacked on 3rd and 9.
On a crucial 3rd down play in the red zone, the Vikings line up with a three wide receiver bunch set. This play has popped up on social media a few times, so you may already know the result. Detroit is showing an all-out zero blitz during the pre-snap read. Jordan Mason is staying in to block.
Once McCarthy gets the ball, we see that Detroit is rushing five. The Vikings have the perfect protection called, with every defender accounted for and squared up. Hockenson does a great job of chipping Aiden Hutchinson right into the waiting arms of Christian Darrisaw.
Normally, I think C.J. Ham would have been the running back on this play. In an obvious passing situation, with the expectation that Detroit is going to bring pressure, O’Connell dials up a play that provides extra protection for McCarthy.
Unfortunately, Ham was injured for this game, and Jordan Mason was absolutely blown up by Jack Campbell. Even if McCarthy had a little time to throw, there wasn’t a whole lot of opportunity for a completion here. Maybe if McCarthy gets another moment, he can create something with his legs, but this play didn’t have a chance thanks to Mason’s terrible block attempt.
Whose fault? Jordan Mason 90%. Jack Campbell’s bull rush 10%. So basically, it’s 100% Mason’s fault.
Q4 13:56. J.J. gets sacked on 3rd and 3.
This sack is a similar situation to the last one. Detroit is showing an all out blitz on 3rd down, while the Vikings have Jordan Mason in the backfield as a blocker.
The red circle here represents how not to block a linebacker. This time, instead of getting bull rushed straight into the quarterback, Jordan misses his block and completely whiffs on his assignment. I do like how the right side of the line comes together to form a wall to block three defenders.
Just kidding! Anzalone drops back into coverage, so we have four Vikings linemen blocking two Lions’ defenders. Not a great look here. Also see how Jordan Mason is chasing his blocking assignment into the backfield. That usually doesn’t bode well for an offensive play.
McCarthy has nowhere to throw the football, so he is forced to turn around and scramble. He gets away from Jack Campbell, but gets knocked a little off balance.
Maybe if J.J.gets outside here, he can make an athletic throw to Hockenson for a first down. But as you can see Hutchinson gets a hold of his arm which is just enough to knock McCarthy the rest of the way off balance.
If McCarthy is able to keep his feet, he has a lot of green grass in front of him and would just have to get by one defender to possibly convert for a first down. Hockenson also has leverage in the secondary, so a completion may have been possible as well. If C.J. Ham was available for this game, who knows how differently this play might have turned out.
Whose fault? Jordan Mason 100% (again).
Q4 3:40. J.J. McCarthy gets sacked on 3rd and 2.
This play featured one of the more unusual formations and personnel groupings we have seen from Minnesota this year. Look for this to maybe show up again later in the season for a little trickery. In the backfield Ben Yurosek is lined up at Fullback with Jordan Mason behind him. Hockenson is on the left side of the line, with Nick Vannett on the right side of the line. To his left is rookie guard Joe Huber, who reported as eligible on the play.
Side note: I wrote in the offseason about the Vikings possibly keeping Garrett Bradbury. He wasn’t great as a full-time starter, but his cap hit was modest, and he is incredibly athletic. It would have been cool to have him for plays like this to report as the 6th lineman and as an eligible receiver. Not really the point of this piece, but I had the thought, so I figured I’d share it with you all.
McCarthy fakes the handoff to Jordan Mason. At this point in the play, I am not really sure what the plan is. Hockenson gets tied up with a defender and he is the only eligible receiver on the left side of the field.
As McCarthy rolls out to his left, there are still no receivers running a route. Everybody is blocking on the play. Hockenson is on a delayed route but gets stuck at the line of scrimmage.
Once Hockenson finally does get free, Anzalone is waiting there to cover him. Again, I am not sure what went wrong with this play. My only thought is that it was a designed running play intended to catch the defense off guard. If that’s the case, that’s a little too cutesy, for my taste, with the game on the line in the redzone with just over three minutes left in regulation.
Looking at where Hockenson ends up on his route, either McCarthy misunderstood the play concept or what his job and got out of position, or Hockenson was put out here as a decoy on a play-action rollout fake pass run play? Am I getting that right? I might need the Daily Norseman fanalysts (I just typed fanalysts by accident, but it kind of works. Is it dumb? I kind of like it. Do y’all like it? Let me know).
Whose Fault? You tell me.
Closing Remarks
I have watched a lot of sacks frame by frame so far this season. This game has me confident that pass protection has taken a step in the right direction. Two sacks came from bad blocks by Jordan Mason and a couple of them were a few extra steps from J.J. McCarthy away from not being sacks at all. The difference in athleticism is tremendous between the spry J.J. McCarthy and Carson Wentz (may God have mercy on his shoulder).
McCarthy has the mobility to get out of the pocket. He definitely made some mistakes in this game, but he also made some great plays. If this is McCarthy’s floor, I am incredibly happy with that. Every game he has to get better for this team to compete and I have no doubt that both of those things will happen. Hopefully this Sunday brings the first game in 2025 that the Vikings don’t give up any sacks. A guy can dream. SKOL!!!
Until next time.
- Jesse M
