CHICAGO \u2014 J.J. McCarthy threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes and\u00a0ran for another\u00a0in his long-awaited NFL debut, and the Minnesota Vikings rallied for a season-opening 27-24 win over the Chicago Bears on Monday night.<\/p>\n
Chicago\u2019s Caleb Williams had his first career rushing touchdown and threw for a score in Ben Johnson\u2019s first game as the Bears\u2019 coach.<\/p>\n
McCarthy delivered down the stretch after struggling through the first three quarters in his first meaningful game since Michigan beat Washington for the national championship at the end of the 2023 season. He sat out last year with a knee injury after the Vikings drafted him with the No. 10 overall pick.<\/p>\n
Now, Minnesota is counting on McCarthy.<\/p>\n
J.J. McCarthy reacts during the Vikings\u2019 win over the Bears on Sept. 8. AP<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt poise from the very beginning,\u201d\u00a0Vikings coach Kevin O\u2019Connell\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connell, in fact, was so confident in his quarterback that he said he told McCarthy at halftime: \u201cYou are going to bring us back to win this game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe look in his eye was fantastic,\u201d O\u2019Connell continued. \u201cThe best thing was just the belief I felt from the team, from the unit, and ultimately, that doesn\u2019t get done without him in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n
J.J. McCarthy attempts a throw during the Vikings\u2019 Sept. 8 win against the Bears. Getty Images<\/p>\n
McCarthy was empowered by hearing those words.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat guy is one of the best \u2014 if not the best \u2014 coaches, in my opinion, in the National Football League,\u201d he said. \u201cAny kind of compliments or belief like that, it means the world. That just gave me the confidence to go out there and just execute the ball plays and have a fast arm and make quick, decisive decisions. And it worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Things weren\u2019t looking good for McCarthy after Nahshon Wright returned an interception 74 yards for a touchdown to give Chicago a 17-6 lead in the third quarter. But he turned it around in the fourth.<\/p>\n
McCarthy connected with Justin Jefferson for a 13-yard touchdown. His 2-point conversion pass failed.<\/p>\n
Justin Jefferson celebrates a touchdown during the Vikings\u2019 win over the Bears on Sept. 8. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Minnesota then needed just three plays to grab the lead, with McCarthy throwing a 27-yard TD pass to Aaron Jones. The conversion pass to Adam Thielen put the Vikings on top 20-17 with 9:46 remaining.<\/p>\n
McCarthy made it a 10-point game with about three minutes left when he faked a handoff and turned up the right side for a 14-yard touchdown run. Chicago then went 65 yards for a score, with Williams throwing a 1-yard TD pass to Rome Odunze with just over two minutes remaining, but the Vikings hung on to beat the Bears for the eighth time in the past nine games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t win this game unless J.J. plays the way he did in the second half,\u201d O\u2019Connell said. \u201cMost importantly, he kept the belief of this football team behind him, and now, we know it\u2019s possible. You hope to not be in these circumstances very often. But this team\u2019s made of the right stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caleb Williams attempts a throw during the Bears\u2019 loss to the Vikings on Sept. 8. Getty Images<\/p>\n
McCarthy completed 13 of 20 passes for 143 yards. He grew up in the Chicago area and the first game he attended at Soldier Field was against the Vikings 18 years ago.<\/p>\n
Jefferson and Jones each had 44 yards receiving.<\/p>\n
Will Reichard kicked two field goals, including a 59-yarder near the end of the first half that matched a Soldier Field record.<\/p>\n
Williams, coming off a shaky rookie season after being drafted with the No. 1 overall pick, completed 21 of 35 passes for 210 yards and a score. The former Heisman Trophy winner also ran for a 9-yard TD in the first quarter. He said the way Johnson called the game was not the issue for the Bears.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a play-call thing, it\u2019s not anything like that,\u201d Williams said. \u201cIt\u2019s just being able go out there and execute the plays that are called and be able to execute them at a high level. That\u2019s something that we take pride in and today that didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright, who played for Minnesota last season, jumped the route on a pass intended for Jefferson early in the third and went untouched along the sideline for his first career touchdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 J.J. McCarthy threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes and\u00a0ran for another\u00a0in his long-awaited NFL debut, and the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":212166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[18263,531,44207,8812,1232,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-212165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-caleb-williams","9":"tag-chicago-bears","10":"tag-j-j-mccarthy","11":"tag-minnesota-vikings","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115173005958305182","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}