The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast - INSTANT REACTION: Vikings Come Back To STUN Bears, Caleb Williams Inconsistent, J.J. McCarthy Finishes Strong

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

Colin reacts to the Vikings 27-24 comeback win over the Bears on Monday Night Football. He begins with J.J. McCarthy’s rough start and strong finish and compares his highly emotional style to Baker Mayfield (5:00). He highlights Caleb Williams' strong start when the offense was scripted but devolved into inconsistency and sailed passes late (9:30).  He argues that the Vikings are the better franchise with better personnel and coaching and look like the Chiefs pre-Mahomes and can become dominant if they get the quarterback right (14:45).  All lines provided by hardrock.bet (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates!  #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you.

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What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast, Point Game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was crying. You just understood.

That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis'clock, he's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Most people out here think that taking care of one another is important. And most people would step up for a neighbor going through a tough time. Most people around here help out friends and family when they need it. But the funny thing is, most of us won't look for help when we need it. Talk to someone if you're struggling with mental health. Because most people out here really care. Find more information at loveyourmindtay.org. That's loveyourmindtay.org.

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So I said all week, this was the one pick that didn't make the Blazing Five. I like the Vikings. I did not think it would look like this. They win 27 and 24. What, I had an executive in the league text me tonight. In Kevin O'Connell, we trust. He is so respected around the league. and you just watched that running game for the Vikings develop in the second half,

and you watch J.J. McCarthy gained confidence. He looked as bad as any quarterback I saw this weekend in the first two and a half quarters. And tell me if I'm wrong on this, but J.J. McCarthy reminds me a little of Baker Mayfield. Baker plays with a lot of emotion, and when Baker is feeling it, and, you know, like a basketball player gets into his own, Baker hits a couple completions. His accuracy and his velocity noticeably improve. And J.J. McCarthy, they were protecting him in the first half. First start, road game, didn't take a lot of snaps in the preseason.

And then all of a sudden he hit one throw. I forget if it was Justin Jefferson. And from that point forward, you were watching a different quarterback, a completely different quarterback. The Viking, now the Vikings, listen. the Vikings have the better owner. They have the better front office. They have the more proven head coach. They have the better roster.

The Vikings were favored on the road. They should be. But they didn't play like it in the first half. But once, J.J. McCarthy and the fourth, with a run game, now with confidence, now with the staff with confidence in him, in the fourth quarter, six of eight, 149.5 passer rating, 101 yards, three touchdowns. Would you have predicted that? watching the first three quarters of J.J. McCarthy. And you are lying through your teeth if you say

yes. I joked on Twitter. He deserved comeback player of the week from first quarter to fourth. It was just an incredible turnaround. I've never been a huge J.J. McCarthy fan. I don't see what trait. You know, I hear he's a winner, and he's got some alpha, and he's got pretty good feet and moves. But what you saw in the second half, it does feel a little Baker Mayfield. He's an emotional. player and when he gets confidence and he gets rolling, he's got some zip on the ball. And again, this team, Minnesota's got real players. I mean, and Brian Flores and Kevin O'Connell, I think I read about two months ago in the athletic, an article in the best coaching staff in the league, head coach to coordinators,

and Minnesota was number one, and I think Robert Sal and Kyle Shanahan were number two. So I thought the game, I had said this on Fox today, I thought the game would come down between the battle between Caleb Williams and Brian Flores. So Caleb was 10 for 10 when it was on script, right? Ben Johnson's scripted place, he was 10 for 10. And then what happened when they went off script? After the 10 for 10 start, Caleb Williams was 10 of 24, 105 yards, and the bears were riddled with penalties.

They had a dozen, way too many. So let's just start with J.J. McCarthy. I think this is a very exciting time. So, you know, you have these young quarterbacks. It's like Denver last year. It was a bumpy September for Bo Nicks. Then you look up and you're like, ooh, I think we found, we made the playoffs. I think we found our franchise quarterback.

I said it with Justin Fields. My God, the Jets lost. You have to feel great. Have we found our guy? Jets have been looking forever. I think if you're a Minnesota Vikings fan, you take that fourth quarter and you're pretty fired up. I mean, you got outplayed for three quarters.

you were trailing. I mean, the game kind of felt like if Chicago, when they were leading, could just string some first downs together and pin the Vikings and J.J. McCarthy deep, middle third quarter, you're like, I'm not so sure if this game's not over. But again, of the two teams,

one of the Minnesotas really started churning out a running game, and that got better for the field position. That gave J.J. McCarthy better second and third down. options. They open up the playbook. Then you get some momentum. You're winning the line of scrimmage. So that run game really helped kind of set the tone for Minnesota. They could get a little more aggressive with JJ. Then he hits a couple of passes. He's feeling it. And it just fed itself. A crazy game, though. I mean, the first half, I was sitting there thinking, I'm not sure I've seen a

quarterback that looks more overwhelmed this entire weekend in the NFL than J.J. McCarthy. Like, He looked, I mean, it was a protective, deliberate, cautious game plan. But, you know, I mean, in Kevin O'Connell, we trust. So you have to feel great. You know, if I had told you the Vikings won by three before the game started, you'd have taken it. You had no idea it would look like this, a dreadful first two and a half quarters, and then a remarkable fourth quarter for J.J. McCarthy. So he's just going to grow and grow and grow.

And let's watch it unfold. It's fun. You know, Packers dealt with this with Jordan Love. You know, he had a good start, good start. It goes backwards. It's not linear. It's not in a straight line with young quarterbacks. But this is a nice win.

You know, with Caleb Williams, the criticism of him, and I've discussed this for two years, was he played a little bit too much hero ball, could be undisciplined. And his accuracy was hit and miss. I think you saw a lot of the accuracy issues, sailing balls. When J.J. McCarthy got into a rhythm, he was very, very accurate. Caleb is all over the map on accuracy. Can miss layups, can hit big plays. He felt like he was all over the map.

And he plays with a lot of emotion. After a big run, he's going to show you a little personality. I'm not a huge fan of it. It is what it is. But I watch head coaches to watch their, their view and their confidence in Ben Johnson on a couple of drives. In fact, I wrote it down here. Ben Johnson third quarter, it was coming out.

Caleb had a really bad series, and Ben Johnson was shaking his head, and he was frustrated because he missed an open receiver, then he dirted one. You know, I don't know what Caleb Williams. The offensive line for the Bears, it's a perpetual problem. They spent a lot of money to upgrade the Interior O line. But again, Brian Flores, you know, he's a handful to deal with. And the Vikings have better players. But I don't know.

I think Caleb Williams has an incredibly high ceiling. He has a ton of horsepower. The arm, the movement is, I mean, he's got a power arm. That completion on the first drive to Roma Dunzee on the sideline was gas. I mean, it was heat. And he made a couple big throws to DJ Moore. I mean, he's got a fastball. But a lot of times he's missing the strike zone.

So it's a real work in progress. Ben Johnson was frustrated during the game. Twelve penalties, false starts. I think some of that's on Caleb Williams. You know, when you read that story with Tyler Dunn, where, you know, they were having problems. had to simplify the offense last year. I trust Tyler Dunn. He's written multiple stories on the bills or the Packers and the Bears, and he's been accurate. And when you have 12 penalties and

multiple false starts, that's usually on the quarterback. So, and I think, I think Ben Johnson's, you know, I think he's a more than capable guy, but he wants a timing and rhythm quarterback, like he's got that Shanahan thing. And Kevin O'Connell, same thing. He's going to dial up plays. He'll let you add a little little and j j mccarthy's got pretty good feet but he wants you to run his play and i just feel i felt tonight that half the time Caleb didn't see the field and just took off so and again it he's explosive he's going to make plays he ran for that touchdown i mean there was some growth tonight he i think he only got sacked once could have been twice but um you know he he scored a touchdown on his first possession i don't think the bears did that all of last year

year. They did it tonight. They have a better coach and an offensive head coach. They're going to be better. But I think if you're a Bears fan, you're left scratching your head. And is this Justin Fields where, you know, there's moments, the size, the arm, the athleticism, the movement. There are definitely moments. But you're kind of left, I mean, you watch Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen, and you watch J.J. McCarthy for three quarters, Caleb Williams. It's a different sport. So I, you know, listen, I was as big a fan as Caleb Williams had. I didn't think he was Andrew Luck or a John Elway, but I thought he was really talented.

And on script, and that first drive, you know, he was 10 for 10 on script. So that's something. But it just feels like to me they couldn't generate a consistent run game. The Vikings did. They never really had back-to-back great drives. The Vikings had three straight great drives in the fourth quarter. and the better personnel, the better org is the Vikings.

That's why they're favored in this game. So, I mean, I'm just trying to think how you would feel. If you're a Viking fan and you played like that for three quarters and one, you have to be overjoyed. And you have to love what you saw to J.J. McCarthy. You know, he didn't play much in the preseason. So, I mean, maybe the game plan, you know, Kevin O'Connell just went into the game plan thinking Brian Flores is going to give Caleb Williams issues.

he probably thought they're not going to run that much on our defensive front. We're just going to let this game slowly bake and develop, and we're going to let the game come to J.J. McCarthy. That could have been the entire game plan, but we're going to go in very cautious. Can Brian Flores create some mistakes? And then let's let the game develop. Maybe that was the game plan from the beginning.

It didn't look like that based on the facial expressions of Kevin O'Connell, but maybe that was the game plan. So I think if you're a Vikings fan, and I've said this, this is a, they remind me the Kansas City Chiefs before Mahomes. I just think Minnesota's smartly owned and well run. They draft and develop. And they've got, you know, Kevin O'Connell was a great hire. Floris is, in my opinion, arguably the best defensive coordinator in the league, Robert Saul is up there. Vic Fangio.

You have to feel great if you're a Vikings fan. You really do. I mean, if the next game, you're probably getting. get something from J.J. McCarthy that looks much more like the fourth quarter of J.J. with confidence than the first quarter. Now he's got a full start behind him. And a road start, that matters. If you're the bear fans, you know, I'm just looking at some numbers here. Bears are at the Lions next week on a short week facing a Detroit team that was humiliated. That is a rough spot. And listen, Jared Goff's first start with Ben Johnson, calling the plays.

he had an 80 passer rating, 57% completion percentage. Caleb Williams first start, 87 passer rating, 60% completion start. They both threw for about 215 yards and both had a, you know, a couple of total touchdowns. So Jared Goss first game with him and Caleb Williams are very similar. They're obviously different players. But, you know, I think the thing that really stuck out to me with Caleb, was too many times. He sat in that pocket, 1001, 1002, 100, and he took off.

Now, again, Brian Flores is a handful. And, you know, maybe I'd rather Caleb Williams take off than see ghosts and throw picks. So it was sinking after the first half, well, he's running too much. But that's better than if you're not seeing the field well and you don't see openings. He did miss a couple. There were open people. but that's better than throwing a pick and thrown it up for grabs. But in the end, I think, you know, I think if you're the Bears,

you just got to cross your fingers and keep watching. You don't have any definitive statements. You should have won tonight. You didn't take advantage when J.J. McCarthy was sort of growing and lacking confidence to gaining confidence. You had about two hours of football and two and a half, three quarters of football to really seize control of the game. Some of that, the penalties, and you couldn't run the ball.

So there were a lot of third and longs and difficult situations. At one point, these quarterbacks combined were four for 20 on third down. It was not Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen. But it's just one of the reasons I love this sport. You have to watch the games and you have to watch until the end. You know, and I don't want to, you know, it would be one thing if J.J. McCarthy had one good drive at the end and walked off with a win. He didn't.

He had three drives. His velocity was excellent. They were running the ball. And it was like that's a, that was not just, you know, a good series or play calling. That was J.J. McCarthy making multiple nice throws with a lot of velocity. And he does have good feet. You can move the pocket. He's got a little Brock Purdy that you can move the pocket with him, which is almost

a standard basic trait you have to be equipped with. But he's got that. So 27, 24. what a first weekend. I mean, Dallas takes the Eagles to the wire. The next day in Brazil, Justin Herbert's flawless and beats Kansas City. And Sunday's unbelievable, one o'clock window,

I got Jets and Steelers. The late game, Bills and Ravens is one for the ages. And then this thing tonight, it may not have been an aesthetic masterpiece. It turned out to be a hell of a fourth quarter. man, we got about 17, 18, 19, 20 more weeks of this stuff. I'm here for it.

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Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast?

Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman

help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas.

And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was partying. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow.

Then after that game seven, Marquis keep coming to. He's like, you know, I love it. love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Most people out here think that taking care of one another is important. And most people would step up for a neighbor going through a tough time. Most people around here help out friends and family when they need it. But the funny thing is, most of us won't look for help when we need it. Talk to someone if you're struggling with mental health. Because most people out here really can. Find more information at loveyourmind today.org.

That's loveyourmindtay.org. Brought to you by the Huntsman Mental Health Institute and the Ad Council. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.