J.J. McCarthy era makes dramatic fourth-quarter arrival as Vikings beat Bears 27-24

CHICAGO — His former teammate had just returned the first interception of his NFL career 74 yards for a touchdown, and Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy had ended up on the turf in his effort to chase Bears cornerback Nahshon Wright. The fans he’d once accompanied at Soldier Field were now exulting in his misfortune, as even his father Jim’s college roommate, whom McCarthy calls “Uncle Adam,” pretended not to see the Vikings quarterback looking at him in the stands.

But when the Vikings huddled deep in their own territory in the third quarter on Monday night, down by 11 points, McCarthy eyed his teammates and said, “Is there any place else you guys would rather be?”

McCarthy said he’d never uttered those words in a huddle before. Perhaps it riffed on the “Who’s got it better than us?” catchphrase McCarthy heard from Jim Harbaugh at Michigan, or maybe it was prompted by something he’d heard from Kevin O’Connell on the headset. But even with teammates whose careers began when the 22-year-old McCarthy was in high school, the question struck a chord.

“I was like, ‘You’re right; I dreamed of this as a little kid,” 30-year-old running back Aaron Jones said. “So let’s go now.”

It required little creativity to think of places the Vikings would rather be. They would have preferred, for example, not to be trailing their division rivals by double digits, as Caleb Williams turned Soldier Field’s new turf into a schoolyard for his own personal catch-me-if-you-can game with Vikings defenders.

They would have wished linebacker Blake Cashman had not pulled his right hamstring in one of those chases. And they would have hoped for more productivity from an offense that grasped for answers against the Bears defense.

It all became the backdrop for McCarthy’s stage, his chance to show that ineffable something that’s always seemed to make the difference during his football career. On Monday night in his hometown, he turned his NFL debut into a cinematic comeback.

According to ESPN Research, McCarthy became the first quarterback in league history to account for three fourth-quarter touchdowns in his NFL debut. The league’s own research department found McCarthy was the first starting QB with a fourth-quarter comeback of 10-plus points in his debut since Hall of Famer Steve Young in 1985.

“I told him at halftime, ‘You are going to bring us back to win this game.’” O’Connell said. “And the look in his eye was fantastic. The best thing is just the belief I felt from the team, the unit, and ultimately, that doesn’t get done without him in the second half, two passing touchdowns and then the critical rushing touchdown at the end.”

McCarthy finished 13-for-20 for 143 yards, two touchdowns and the interception, while running twice for 25 yards and the decisive score. The Vikings ran just 19 plays in the first half, when they had only two first downs and failed to convert any of their five third-down attempts. But they gained 169 yards in the fourth quarter, while their defense forced four second-half punts, Eric Wilson blocked a punt and Myles Price had three punt returns of 15 yards or more.

“You don’t win a game like that unless it’s all three phases finding a way,” O’Connell said.

But for his preseason debut against the Raiders in 2024 and the one series he played in the 2025 preseason opener against the Texans, McCarthy hadn’t played since he led Michigan to a national championship on Jan. 8, 2024. The Vikings opted to safeguard against injury in the rest of this preseason.

Williams, who had one of his best days of last season against the Vikings at Soldier Field, staked the Bears to an early lead with the same recipe he used in that game: unleashing his speed to beat their pass rushers to the corner. He ran for a 9-yard score on the Bears’ first drive after Jonathan Greenard fell down trying to pursue him.

The Vikings pulled within 10-6 at halftime, after McCarthy threw a 28-yard strike to Jalen Nailor. The throw was his longest of the first half, and he said it helped him feel more confident in his debut. It set Will Reichard up for a career-long 59-yard field goal, and the Vikings forced a three-and-out to start the second half, giving them a chance to take the lead with a touchdown drive.

But then came McCarthy’s biggest mistake.

The Bears showed a zero blitz that led the quarterback to motion Jones back into the backfield, and the Vikings kept seven in protection to counter the Bears’ seven-man pressure. Even with solid protection, McCarthy sped up his delivery with catastrophic consequences.

He tried Jefferson on an out-breaking route with Wright sitting on the throw, and the former Vikings corner jumped it for the touchdown that made the score 17-6.

O’Connell and quarterbacks coach Josh McCown, McCarthy said, quickly debriefed him on the interception, telling him he’d done everything right at the line and walking through the throw. He thought back to Michigan’s playoff loss to TCU during his first year as a starter, when he’d had two interceptions returned for touchdowns, and resolved to move on.

“It’s one of the worst things you can do as a quarterback,” McCarthy said. “But you can’t do anything about it. You’ve got to focus on the next play. Defense kept us in it the whole time, so it’s just on our shoulders to move on from that.”

GAMEBOOK: Vikings 27, Chicago 24

NFL standings

The Vikings’ defense kept Williams in the pocket in the second half and started producing punts when the quarterback couldn’t find his receivers. And at the end of the third quarter, the complexion of the game changed.

Rather than getting a touchdown that would have put them up 24-6, the Bears settled for a field goal attempt, which Cairo Santos missed wide right from 50 yards just as the fourth quarter began.

About three minutes later, McCarthy hit Jefferson for a 13-yard score on third-and-5 to make it 17-12 after the Vikings missed the two-point try. They forced another three-and-out, and Price gained 22 yards on a punt return to put the Vikings at midfield. And after an illegal-contact penalty on Tyrique Stevenson went for 14 yards, McCarthy came up with the go-ahead score.

On first and 10 from the Bears 27, the Vikings sent Jones deep on the wheel route McCarthy had hit to the running back several times in training camp. They’d installed the play before the Week 18 game against the Lions in January, Jones said, and kept it in the playbook.

“That’s the cool part of playing with some of these receivers,” Jones said. “The safety was coming back when I kind of stuttered, and he goes with the receiver. I’m like, ‘Oh, this ball is coming [to me].’ ”

The connection, the Vikings’ second touchdown in three minutes, and a two-point conversion pass to Adam Thielen gave Minnesota a 20-17 lead.

With the Vikings facing a third-and-1 from the Bears 14 on the ensuing drive, O’Connell called Wanda Bear, a play McCown had told McCarthy he was running in 2013 with Chicago “when you were probably in seventh grade.”

“I was actually 10 at the time,” McCarthy said.

On the read option play, McCarthy kept the ball when Odeyingbo crashed inside, expecting a handoff to Mason. McCarthy beat Odeyingbo to the corner and followed a blocking T.J. Hockenson to the end zone.

The quarterback pumped his fists as he stared into the Soldier Field stands where he’d sat as a kid. O’Connell slapped McCown’s hands on the sideline as teammates mobbed McCarthy.

“The amount of energy and juice that we had once he scored at touchdown, I definitely was hitting him a couple times,” Jefferson said. “But that’s the juice that we kind of need every single play.”

“I feel like it was at the perfect time,” he said. “Just a little bit of a perspective shift; yeah, things weren’t going our way, but we’re here, doing this together. And the boys, they responded perfectly.”

He told himself he would say something to Uncle Adam after the Vikings came back and won, and McCarthy turned his sloppy start into a prologue for a spellbinding ending.

Maybe there will be a hundred more moments like this for McCarthy as a Viking; maybe there will only be a handful. For NFL stagecraft, though, the quarterback’s debut at Soldier Field will be hard to top.