Mizutani: Kevin O’Connell can only do so much to help J.J. McCarthy succeed

The immediate response from the fan base has been the same pretty much every time the Vikings have lost with Kevin O’Connell as the man in charge. The frustration almost always seems to manifest in the form of questioning the play calling.

That’s because it’s often the easiest part to latch onto throughout a game.

It doesn’t matter if somebody is watching from their seat inside U.S. Bank Stadium or watching from their couch at home. They can easily judge whether a play call was good or bad with the benefit of hindsight. The results lead to a polarizing discussion that usually doesn’t involve a lot of nuance.

A perfect example presented itself on Sunday afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium after the Vikings suffered a 27-19 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

Though the struggles of J.J. McCarthy were a big part of why the Vikings lost to the Ravens, a large chunk of the fan base quickly absolved him of his sins, then got the pitchforks out and turned the attention to the play caller.

Some of the rhetoric on social media even petitioned for play calling to be taken away from O’Connell while choosing to ignore that McCarthy sprayed the ball all over the field for prolonged stretches.

This feels like misplaced anger among a fan base desperate for a franchise quarterback. It’s more palatable to criticize O’Connell rather than confront the fact that McCarthy is still very much a work in progress.

These growing pains don’t mean McCarthy should be considered a bust. Not even close. He has proven to be a winner at every level and deserves the benefit of the doubt as he continues to develop.

Some of the shortcomings with McCarthy were plain to see when looking at the way he performed for the Vikings against the Ravens. He wasn’t nearly accurate enough while completing 20 of 42 pass attempts for 248 yards, a touchdown and a pair of interceptions.

Were there times when O’Connell could have done more to help McCarthy stay in a rhythm? Absolutely. He admitted that less than 24 hours later when he reflected on everything that transpired.

There was specific sequence that O’Connell referenced during which the Vikings were still leading the Ravens and only had to pick up roughly a yard to move the chains and keep the drive alive.

Instead of running the ball with Aaron Jones, who looked to be in a groove, O’Connell opted to have McCarthy let it rip to Justin Jefferson in single coverage. He explained his thought process by saying that he felt good about going deep on third down, because he had decided he was going for it on fourth down.

The chance to roll the dice never materialized because McCarthy threw an interception after Jefferson fell down while running his route.

It was questionable decision in real time that proved to be disastrous in hindsight, and while O’Connell made it clear that he didn’t regret the play call, the risk probably wasn’t worth the reward on this particular occasion.

That much can be true about O’Connell while also acknowledging that he actually did give McCarthy ample opportunities to string together completions.

There were times when Jefferson was running wide open near the sideline. There were times where Jordan Addison had a step on a defender. There were times when T.J. Hockenson found a soft spot underneath.

Those should’ve been completions that helped McCarthy gain some confidence. They went down as incompletions, because he couldn’t execute. That has been a recurring theme for McCarthy as he has completed only 53.7 percent of his pass attempts.

As much as O’Connell deserves some blame, his track record with the Vikings speaks for itself. He has produced extremely successful campaigns with Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold at the helm. He even has sniffed the playoffs with a combination of Josh Dobbs and Nick Mullens under center with a little bit of Jaren Hall sprinkled in.

This is the only time the offense has looked like a shell of itself since O’Connell has taken over. It’s not a coincidence that it has come with McCarthy in the early stages of his career.

Truthfully, O’Connell can only do so much to help McCarthy succeed, especially when open receivers are consistently being missed. At a certain point, McCarthy has to help himself, and it starts with simply finding a way to be more accurate.