Vikings HC Kevin O'Connell's confidence in J.J. McCarthy sends firm statement about the future in Minnesota

That stat alone is really impressive, but it's how he got there that has been the story thus far. When the Vikings needed a play to secure the win, they didn't flinch. Head coach Kevin O'Connell went right to McCarthy and had him make a difficult throw on third down, and he delivered. It was a similar call that Sam Darnold missed by six inches, and the Lions ended up kicking the game-winning field goal last season at U.S. Bank Stadium.

McCarthy didn't miss this one.

It's not just the confidence that O'Connell had in McCarthy to make this throw; it's also an impressive play. McCarthy wasn't hitting those throws consistently during training camp, as touch was still something he was working on. He displayed a lot of touch throughout the game, and this was a prime example of it.

“I think it’s just total team trust. Total team trust if we are going to try and end the game, if we can. If we feel like there’s a play there to go try and do that, and I think the execution level of our guys when we absolutely needed it was critical," said O'Connell about the play after the game.

Does that sound like a head coach who is wavering at all about who will play quarterback for him moving forward? O'Connell has been very consistent when talking about how he feels about McCarthy. He's incredibly confident, and you could tell with the play calling from start to finish.

"My confidence level, regardless of the circumstances of the season – I boil it down to one opportunity, and that game is 60 minutes and I tell our guys all the time – from the first play to the last, we just need to have the competitive stamina to continue to hold up and do the things required to beat good football teams, and this is certainly one in Detroit and we know we will see them at our place late in the year," said O'Connell.

All of the discussion about McCarthy can calm down, unless you want to talk about how improved he looked from his last outing against the Atlanta Falcons. The only thing for certain right now is that McCarthy and the Vikings are on the right track moving forward.

window.addEventListener('message', function (event) {if (event.data.totalpoll && event.data.totalpoll.action === 'resizeHeight') {document.querySelector('#totalpoll-iframe-383').height = event.data.totalpoll.value;}}, false);document.querySelector('#totalpoll-iframe-383').contentWindow.postMessage({totalpoll: {action: 'requestHeight'}}, '*');