Vikings tight ends help J.J. McCarthy find a ‘groove’ against the Commanders

Quarterback J.J. McCarthy’s first pass in the Vikings’ 31-0 win over the Washington Commanders on Sunday found a tight end, Ben Sims, for 9 yards.

McCarthy ended that opening drive with his first of three touchdown passes that also found a tight end, Josh Oliver, for an 18-yard score.

During Oliver’s touchdown catch, the Vikings’ other tight end, T.J. Hockenson, ran an identical seam route on the opposite side, giving McCarthy two big options to target depending on which way Washington’s coverage leaned.

“Pick your choice,” Hockenson said. “It was fun to be able to celebrate with [Oliver] in the end zone.”

Tight ends played a critical role — catching all of McCarthy’s career-high three touchdown passes — in a simplified offense that successfully helped the young quarterback find a rhythm.

Oliver had two TD catches. Hockenson added another TD grab when he bounced off two Commanders defenders during a 2-yard touchdown on fourth down in the fourth quarter.

A fast start was paramount for coach Kevin O’Connell, who said he was aware how mistakes and crowd noise have affected McCarthy.

“He was in a groove,” Hockenson said. “Started out with some completions that just carried him throughout the day. I don’t know if he had a bad ball all day. He was really putting it in there when he needed to.”

Entering the game against a struggling Commanders defense, Vikings tight ends anticipated opportunities downfield knowing Washington had allowed an NFL-worst 8.7 yards per throw in the past 12 games. That increased to 9.1 yards per throw when targeting tight ends vs. Washington.

O’Connell said there was also an emphasis on “easy completions” for McCarthy, who had a league-low 54.1% completion rate entering the game.

“In many cases, we had three of them on the field,” O’Connell said of Vikings tight ends. “We just wanted to be versatile in kind of how we attacked on the early downs and tried to see if we can have some early-down success running the football out of those groupings and pairing that with just some schematical ways to get some easy completions.”

While Oliver’s first touchdown catch appeared to be an easier, first-read throw for McCarthy, O’Connell commended the quarterback for working through progressions on multiple plays that included the first completion to Sims, who was open on a quick curl route.

For the first time in the season’s 13 games, all five Vikings starting offensive linemen played and finished the game.

Left tackle Christian Darrisaw and left guard Donovan Jackson returned from their latest injuries to start. The results? Running backs Jordan Mason and Aaron Jones Sr. combined to average about 5.1 yards on 25 carries while providing a stabilizing force to the offense.

“We came out on fire,” Darrisaw said of the run game. “We knew in order to get them called, we had to make them go. We made them go today.”

This was just the sixth complete game for Darrisaw, who left the loss at Green Bay on Nov. 23 early because of a foot injury. That issue happened to his left foot, which is the same side of the surgically repaired knee he’s still nursing.

“Everything was connected to the same leg,” Darrisaw said. “That kind of played a big part in it, but I felt good out there.”

“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t,” Allen said. “It’s more important we put a complete game together. That’s something we haven’t been able to do this year that much, so for us to do it, especially against them, was special.”

The Vikings defense could have had four takeaways if not for a penalty caused by too many defenders on the field. Allen was caught trying to run off the field, negating a strip sack by linebacker Eric Wilson.

“I went down for a play or two, and the guy who came and took my spot didn’t know I was back up,” Allen said, “so when I went out there, there was a little bit of confusion.”