EAGAN, Minn. — Like a dog in the street!

An imaginative tagline adopted first by the offensive line became a rallying cry for Minnesota in Week 9. When J.J. McCarthy consummated his return to action with a dagger of a throw to Jalen Nailor on a third-and-5, icing a victory over the Lions, the Vikings vibes reached their highest point so far this season.

Maintaining them is key for the club and young quarterback as they duel Baltimore at noon (CT) Sunday.

"He's a baller, man," Vikings left tackle Christian Darrisaw said of McCarthy this week, after shielding him for the first time on the road at Detroit. "Just seeing the confidence that he has, that swagger, the leadership. He commands the huddle every play. He's got something to him. … You can just tell he wants it. … It's fun to go out there and do what we do when we've got a guy back there like that."

Vikings Uniform

Minnesota is rocking its normal home uniform set with purple jerseys and white pants.

3 Vikings Storylines

1. Next steps for J.J.

McCarthy definitely has shown a flair for the dramatic, pulling off heroics in the fourth quarter of his debut at Chicago and silencing a raucous crowd at the start and end of a major upset win last week at Ford Field.

Now, he's aiming to reset his U.S. Bank Stadium record and play poised for a full 60 minutes.

"I think with J.J., you absolutely love the competitiveness," Offensive Coordinator Wes Phillips shared Thursday. "I think the guys feed off of his energy, his fire, his passion for the game, and it's like any young quarterback in this league, he's got to be able to balance the times where he's completely amped up, but also has to be locked in from one play to the next, regardless of what play it is, or what down-and-distance situation, all those types of things. And there's going to be continuous growth from a young player who hasn't played a lot in this league. And what you love about him, is he's a sponge.

"He's taking everything in all the time, listening to everything, writing things down, asking the right questions," Phillips added. "And he's extremely intelligent. He's got this fire, and he's jumping around, but he's a very intelligent guy. And I believe that's what you need to have kind of as a baseline before the talent shows up, a baseline level of intelligence to really be able to function at a high level in this league."

Amazingly, despite not completing more than 14 passes in a game yet, the 22-year-old McCarthy is the first player in league history with 2-plus pass TDs and 1-plus rush TD in two of his first three career starts.

Overall, McCarthy has clipped 57.6 percent of his throws for 444 yards (148 avg.), four touchdowns and four interceptions. His passer rating is 73.0. He's also carried 16 times for 62 yards and two touchdowns.

2. Van Ginkel's impact

Head Coach Kevin O'Connell referenced a play this week from the Lions game that illustrated all the qualities Minnesota is striving to hang its hat on: physicality, awareness and an all-out, nonstop effort.

In his first full game since Week 1 (Van Ginkel played eight snaps on a pitch count and managed two sacks in Week 3), the 2024 Second-Team All-Pro helped the Vikings record a season-high five sacks and 11 quarterback hits. He handled 60 percent of the snaps and made an impact that can't be grasped in the box score. Van Ginkel "uplifts the group in a major way," Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores said.

The outside linebacker can excel as a pure pass-rusher. He can lurk into coverage voids and disrupt quarterback-receiver timing. He can execute nasty (in a good way) "games" with front-seven teammates, and he can calm the defense with his level-headedness and knowledge of offensive concepts.

On Thursday, responding to a question about the difficulty of determining a player's acumen and anticipatory skills, which Van Ginkel exemplifies as well as anyone, Flores went in-depth on his instincts.

"It's hard to evaluate, let's just go ahead and say that," Flores offered. "I think the more instinctive players, there's some players who just have a feel for formations, and when you talk to them, they can talk formations, and they're talking about, 'The game plan for this week was this, and that was a tell for us,' or 'We felt like we had a matchup there.' When you're talking to a player and you hear some of those things, which was the case with Gink' when he was in college, you kind of get a sense that there's a possibility that he could make some of these instinctive plays and get some other guys in the right positions. You've got to put some time into that, though. I mean, you have to spend some time [evaluating], and then you get them and you see how much they can learn and absorb and then apply, and then you just continue to keep giving 'em more. I think we've got several players that are like that."

In a similar realm of football IQ as Gink', Flores listed off Joshua Metellus, Harrison Smith, Eric Wilson and Blake Cashman. They've demonstrated to Flores an urgency to learn that raises confidence in games.

"I think Gink's right at the top of that list of guys I've coached in my career," Flores shared.

With Van Ginkel on the field, Minnesota has pressured opponents on 49.2 percent of dropbacks, per Next Gen Stats, compared to 39.8 without. Vikings blitzes are drawing pressure at a much higher rate, as well (59.3% with AVG in the game vs. 43.2% in his absence). Suffice to say, Gink's impact is tremendous.

3. Keeping pace in division race

Being one of four teams in the league's darling division is a blessing and a curse.

Because the NFC North is the only chapter in football with each team .500 or better, the Vikings are very much in play to be the alphas. They're also at risk of greatly damaging their playoff odds in the event of a loss. It's the reality of a team ascending out of an abyss of early season injuries, and adversity.

Here's the Spark Notes version of the Vikings horizon:

There's no gimme-games left on Minnesota's schedule. Even the 2-7 Giants present problems with a surplus of d-line talent and an emerging quarterback in Jaxson Dart (the youngest starting QB in the NFL by about four months; McCarthy is second). It's a challenge-add that Baltimore is backed into a corner.

No team with as high expectations as the Ravens has dug itself a deeper hole this season.

After starting 1-5, backup QB Tyler Huntley played efficiently, and Baltimore won what felt like a must-win game against Chicago. Last week, Lamar Jackson re-initiated the NFL to his phenomenal play and the Ravens steamrolled Miami on Thursday Night Football. There's still ground to make up at 3-5.

For what it's worth, only four teams in history have gone 1-5 or worse from the outset and surged to make the playoffs: Cincinnati in 1970, Kansas City in 2015, Indianapolis in 2018 and Washington in 2020.

2 Things 'Bout the Ravens

1. Perennial MVP candidate

Minnesota's defense must contain "one of the most dynamic players, probably ever," Flores said.

Obviously, he was talking about Jackson, whom Flores went 1-1 against when he was Miami's head coach.

"He's improved and gotten better in all areas of his game year after year after year after year. I mean, he's a perennial, essentially an MVP candidate year after year after year," Flores doused Jackson with praise. "When people talk about him or think about him, you think about the dynamic runs and the scrambles and the off-schedule plays. [But] this guy's an excellent passer of the football – quarterback – and so defensively you're dealing with everything. And, yeah, there's some history, but that was years ago, and he's certainly improved and gotten a lot better in all facets of his game. Leadership, command of the offense, acumen, deep balls, intermediate, short, scrambles, I mean, all of it, protections, [as well].

"And then they've got a lot of great skill players who understand that if things aren't perfect, he's probably going to make a move and create some space or create an off-schedule play, and they do a great job of finding space and getting open," Flores continued. "So we've got to do a good job of, when he does get out, which inevitably, against a player like this, it's going to happen, and we'll do everything we can to try to keep him in the pocket, but a player like this, he's going to get out. We've got to do a great job of staying in coverage, plastering receivers and just trying to track him down as best we can."

In his Week 9 return, after missing three games, Jackson went 18-for-23 passing (78.3%) with 204 yards and four touchdowns. He wasn't busy as a ball carrier, but he didn't need to be in a 28-6 rout of the Fins.

If he retired today, Jackson's 103.5 career passer rating would be considered the best in history.

2. Kyle Hamilton and Co.

Trading for former Chargers safety Alohi Gilman has allowed the Ravens to put fewer true safety reps on Kyle Hamilton's plate and let the 6-foot-4, 218-pound 2022 first-round draft choice to play his majority of snaps closer to the line of scrimmage, either as a nickel corner or in the box as a safety-linebacker hybrid as Baltimore tries to maximize Hamilton's chess-piece abilities.

Among defensive backs, Hamilton ranks tied for third with 30 pass rushes, according to Next Gen Stats, and is responsible for five "quick pressures" (under three seconds), which is tied for fourth among DBs.

"Smart, instinctive, long, ball skills, physical. He's really good," Phillips said. "Yeah, he's really good."

Hamilton may be the most famous piece of the Ravens defense because of his marked usage and dynamic skill set, but he's not the only player with a BEWARE chain dangling around his neck. Other elite defenders for Baltimore are linebacker Roquan Smith and corners Marlon Humphrey and Nate Wiggins.

On Wednesday, O'Connell added: "Arguably, I think they have maybe the best combination of corners in the NFL, and then when you throw Hamilton in there as the nickel, I mean, that's an incredible challenge. And we feel great about our skill guys, but we've got to show up ready for a really, really tough task."

Phillips previewed the Ravens as "probably the best overall secondary group that we've played thus far."

1 Key Matchup

All 11 Vikings hats vs. Derrick Henry

"King Henry" is the brawn to Jackson's finesse.

The Ravens running back has bludgeoned defenses the past three games, averaging 104 yards and 4.9 per rush after enduring an unusual four-game slog where he was limited to 37 a game and 3.2 a carry.

There are a gazillion statistics that accent Henry's reign of dominance, like the 10,818 rushing yards he's accumulated since breaking the 1,000-yard barrier for the first time in his career in 2018. That's 3,083 more than any player in that span (Saquon Barkley, a rookie in 2018, is second with 7,735). Furthermore, Henry recently became the eighth player ever to notch 12,000 rush yards and 100 touchdowns on the ground. Here's one more: Henry's 5.6 yards per carry in his 30s (25 games) is tied with Brian Mitchell and Ward Cuff for the best average by a running back age 30 or older who toted the rock a min. of 100 times.

Now, forget the numbers. Henry transcends them based on his physical profile alone.

Baltimore lists him at 6-foot-2 and 252 pounds. That's as tall or taller than all but eight starters and reserves on the Vikings defense and heavier than 17 of the unit's 25 total players. There are numerous photos of Henry in the offensive huddle dwarfing other Ravens skillsters and mirroring the intimidation of hulking offensive linemen. He's as big, strong and fast, yet somehow as fast as running backs come. He's one of seven NFL players in 2025 with at least three runs reaching 20 miles per hour, per Next Gen Stats. The only one with more than that is Colts running back and MVP candidate Jonathan Taylor (5).

Although limiting Jackson's ad-libbing and explosiveness will be important, Minnesota's No. 1 objective likely will be shutting down Henry because if "Tractorcito" gets plowing, he's next-to-impossible to stop.

Top Quotes of Week 10

Special Teams Coordinator Matt Daniels on Vikings captains speaking before the game at Detroit

"I loved that. And it was interesting because there was a different message from each individual out of the eight that presented. Jonathan Greenard, the first thing he said was, 'I've been a part of conversations like this, and honestly, I don't think this is something that we should be having.' There were different temperaments, there was different messaging, and all of it was taken and appreciated, and guys responded in the right way, because when you have those meetings, they can go one way or the other. And I think that it truly was a reflection of how we played on Sunday, how the message was taken from those individual captains. And it was great. I think we're one of the most connected football teams out of the 32 that exist. I'm sure there's 31 other teams who're saying that. But if you ask each individual in this building whether it's the third floor, the business side of it, we're just all in ordinance of what we're trying to do and what matters the most here."

Quarterback J.J. McCarthy on positively channeling built-up anger into gameday intensity

"To be honest with you, it really kind of started to show up this year. And it came about last year during IR, just never had a full season where you want to be out there so freaking bad, but you can't. It was just this built-up anger that was kind of ready to just explode. And I chose to harness it instead of letting it go into a self-destructive kind of way. And it's unique, and I kind of love feeding that wolf because my entire life – at Michigan, it was a smiley face on my hand and smile, and if you have fun, you're going to play better and all that, which is true. But I also think there's a lot of power that comes from that built-up anger that you can transmute into your performance.

From the Inbox | by Craig Peters

Do you think the Minnesota Vikings win vs. Detroit changed their approach to free agency?

— Barry S.

That is a straightforward question. Improving to 4-4 and showing an implementation of the offseason vision on offense (some good runs and execution on key plays) and defense (shutting down the run and affecting a passer) offered a shot of confidence and unleashed a bit of excitement in finding out how this season unfolds.

Returning absolutely key players like Darrisaw and Brian O'Neill on the o-line and Van Ginkel were tremendous in shaping the flow of the game.

For the first time in his tenure, Vikings General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah did not need to figure out a trade deadline deal to replace a significant player who had been injured just before the deadline.

In 2022, it was acquiring T.J. Hockenson to replace Irv Smith, Jr. In 2023, it was landing Joshua Dobbs after Kirk Cousins was lost for the season. Last year, it was replacing Darrisaw with Cam Robinson. All three instances yielded results (Hockenson caught nine passes in his debut, Dobbs led a miracle comeback in his, and Robinson helped launch a nine-game win streak).

As the only 4-4 team in the NFL at the deadline, Minnesota could have become buyers or sellers, but it seems like O'Connell and Adofo-Mensah like what has begun to take shape. The Vikings did their due diligence to assess the market but remained mindful of value when considering deals.

I think improving health, potential trajectory of players already here and the showing against Detroit are all contributing factors.

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