Sunday’s NFL slate featured a slew of injuries, including Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy exiting his team’s game against the New York Giants.
McCarthy suffered an injury to his hand during Minnesota’s win over the Giants. During one play, McCarthy attempted a pass but was rushed by a defender, who tackled him hard, forcing a fumble.
Later, team staff checked on his injury on the sideline, with the Vikings QB in apparent discomfort. He didn’t return to the game after sustaining the injury.
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Head coach Kevin O’Connell said he didn’t know how serious the injury was and confirmed that the Vikings quarterback had X-rays performed.
During his post-game press conference, O’Connell was cautiously optimistic when speaking about McCarthy’s injury situation.
The Vikings head coach said he didn’t see when McCarthy got hurt, and had initially thought he may have become injured on his touchdown run. He said he appeared OK, but then on the ensuing drive, he “seemed to have some discomfort.”
“The quarterbacks hit their hands all the time, where it’s helmets or defenders or things like that. It happened to me in college, and I didn’t even know I had a significant injury until the next time I took a snap,” O’Connell told reporters.
He said he hadn’t had a chance to speak with McCarthy since they took him away for evaluation, but said the starting QB “was unable to grip the football” after the injury.
O’Connell said he felt McCarthy was “in a rhythm of great decision-making early on” in the game and “showed his athleticism” on a major third down to put the ball in the endzone.
“I thought JJ was doing a lot of really good things and was really unfortunate that he was not able to finish the football game,” O’Connell said, adding that he felt McCarthy was “stacking a very nice performance again.”
McCarthy threw 9-of-14 completions for 108 yards and an interception. In addition to running for 20 yards and one touchdown, he also took three sacks for a loss of 25 yards. O’Connell spoke about watching the young quarterback’s development.
“It is unfortunate just thinking about what these last three weeks or last two weeks or so outside of that last play of the half, he’s looked like he’s really found a place of decisiveness, ownership of the offense. I mean the discussion and the dialogue about things he’s seeing. So yeah, it’s a bummer, just because I’m having a blast coaching him and seeing the growth of a young player,” the Vikings coach said.
Max Brosmer came in to replace McCarthy, helping Minnesota secure a 16-13 win. They’re officially out of the NFL Playoffs, but have won three in a row.
They’ll evaluate McCarthy’s injury in the coming days and determine his availability for the next Vikings game against the Detroit Lions on Thursday.
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