Scoggins: J.J. McCarthy injury another setback for a Vikings offense that looks lost

One sequence from a debacle of a football game crystallized how things have gone for the Vikings offense in seven of the eight quarters played in this young NFL season.

With the ball at the Atlanta 2-yard line, J.J. McCarthy took the snap, faked a pitch to his running back and lost grip of the ball. He recovered the fumble himself and since nobody touched him, he stood up and took a second crack at the play. Running to his right, he overthrew Justin Jefferson in the end zone.

Then came a delay-of-game penalty. Then a sack. Then another sack.

And so on, and so on.

“The negative plays are stacking up against us,” said coach Kevin O’Connell after that stack grew 10 stories high in a 22-6 stinker against the Falcons in the home opener. “It seems like right now we take one step forward to take two steps back.”

The news Monday felt like 100 paces backward.

O’Connell revealed that McCarthy suffered an ankle injury against Atlanta and will miss at least one game. Recent addition Carson Wentz is in line to start Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.

And we’re only in Week 3.

This setback for McCarthy further complicates a transition that already has been bumpy.

No reasonable observer would have expected the offense to function with the precision of a Blue Angels formation from the season’s opening kickoff. Growing pains are inevitable with a first-year starting quarterback. But the offense through two games is operating like a game of Whac-A-Mole.

If it’s not one thing holding it back, then it’s something else.

The entire operation looks discombobulated. No rhythm, no consistency, no cohesion.

Their performance was so futile Sunday night that a 15-6 lead by the Falcons in the fourth quarter was like staring up from the base of Mount Everest.

“Nobody is losing confidence I can promise you that,” wide receiver Adam Thielen said.

Players projected a positive tone afterward, using words such as “process” and “journey” to remind that the season is long and nothing that happens this early should be cast as definitive. For sure, two games is merely a page in the story, not even a chapter, but the starting point has been a lot rougher than anticipated.

And fair or not, the organization’s own words and actions have made McCarthy’s acclimation timeline feel accelerated. The team was constructed to win now. Maybe we were too optimistic — or perhaps naïve — in believing that upgrading the infrastructure around the young quarterback would be an elixir that negated McCarthy’s inexperience.

Minus some fourth-quarter magic against a bad Bears defense in the opener, the 22-year-old has looked as if the game is being played at warp speed around him. Sunday night, he threw two interceptions and fumbled three times (losing one) while passing for only 158 yards.

“He’s learning on the fly,” O’Connell said. “The way you overcome that is by the full group’s execution level being to a certain standard.”

That objective hasn’t been met yet for various reasons. The line is a mess right now because of injuries. They finished the game with the backup center and third-team left tackle flanking a rookie left guard. That could be the alignment again Sunday protecting a quarterback who just got here a few weeks ago.

McCarthy faced constant pressure and was sacked six times. Nothing turns an inexperienced quarterback skittish more than consistent pressure when he already has a hundred other things consuming his thought process.

Everyone around McCarthy has to be better, O’Connell included. The Vikings crafted a personnel plan this offseason designed to improve their running game with physicality. They beefed up the interior of the line in free agency and traded for power back Jordan Mason, all with the intent of having more balance, especially in short-yardage situations.

Yet, on first-and-goal from the 2, O’Connell called a pass play, rather than let Mason attempt to bulldoze his way into the end zone. McCarthy fumbled the fake pitch, the rest of the series got short-circuited and the Vikings ended up kicking a field goal.