Cris Collinsworth slipped out a laugh moments before J.J. McCarthy danced into the end zone.

The longtime Sunday Night Football color commentator reacted to Minnesota fooling Dallas with a fake handoff to Jordan Mason and bootleg to the left on a fourth-and-goal by the 22-year-old quarterback.

McCarthy's sleight of hand was veteran-like. He pretended to stick the ball in his running back's belly on the right hashmark at the 5-yard line and then carried out his fake, arcing to the 10. When he glanced over his shoulder, he saw why Collinsworth chuckled — a mosh of duped white Cowboys jerseys taking the bait. With no one near him, McCarthy slowed down, held the ball low to the turf and hit The Griddy.

Surely, it overjoyed every last Vikings fan watching in-person at AT&T Stadium and on national television.

Hours afterward, Melissa Stark of NBC asked McCarthy what Justin Jefferson rated him. The QB had yet to ask "Jets" but shared he didn't love his execution. A little tongue-in-cheek, he said he had stage fright.

He appeared to be anything but afraid in Minnesota's 34-26 upset win at "Jerry World" over the Cowboys.

McCarthy crossed the goal line with a palpable swagger. His bravado finalized a 10-play, 75-yard game-tying touchdown drive in the second quarter of a dogfight in Arlington and was the high point of a first half in which he went 8-for-13 passing with 142 yards, including a 58-yard strike to Jordan Addison and a 20-yard TD toss on a left-side roll to Jalen Nailor.

The franchise QB reached new heights under the lights as the Vikings strided to victory in a game Dallas needed in order to strengthen its playoff survival, and one Minnesota played purely for pride, to inspire its own future. Overall, McCarthy went 15-for-24 with a career-high 250 passing yards and a 108.0 rating.

"We're building up to a little bit more experience, a little bit more time on task, a little bit more understanding of what playing the quarterback position at the NFL level is. It's a decision-maker position," Vikings Head Coach Kevin O'Connell said in the aftermath. "With his ability to throw the football, from an arm-strength standpoint, he's going to have a chance to touch every blade of grass and allow us to be explosive. And then I think he's made some big-time throws in some big moments.

"It's not a surprise to me, just because of who he is," O'Connell added. "There's been some tough Monday mornings early on for any young quarterback in the league. And he's always shown up as the same guy, always shown up ready to go back to work, ready to be coached, ready to continue to pour into this 'lead' with all the traits on and off the field he has to do that. And the guys respond to him even sometimes when it's not going well, there's still growth happening. We've just got to try to find a way during that growth period, which we've been in, to stack positive plays, stack completions and see if we can get some more ops to possibly develop some of those explosives that help our offense go."

"When the offensive line plays as well as they did tonight … It makes it very easy for me," McCarthy shared at his postgame presser after not being sacked in a game for the first time in his career (without starting LT Christian Darrisaw and Justin Skule filling in for him). "And the (skill) guys are always going to get open, so it's just a matter of me putting it in the right spot and having the time allowed to put it in the right spot. So, everything goes hand-in-hand. And I feel like we were very in sync as a whole tonight."

McCarthy's fantastic first half featured a wonky start.

On his initial pass attempt — and Minnesota's second play from scrimmage — he tried making a hot throw to Jefferson, but blitzing safety Donovan Wilson deflected it. In a split-second, McCarthy made the error of tipping it, again, and the second bounce was collected by DL Quinnen Williams for an interception at the Vikings 35. Eleven plays (and a fake field goal conversion) later, Dallas took a 7-0 lead.

At every turn of the game, though, McCarthy responded with a burst of calm energy.

His first scoring drive on SNF was facilitated in part by a booming 65-yard punt by Ryan Wright that pinned the Cowboys at their 3 and produced good field position for Minnesota after its defense forced a three-and-out. McCarthy quickly found RB Aaron Jones, Sr., for a pickup of 18 on a swing pass — and a free 15 via a horse-collar tackle on the do-it-all back. On the very next snap, McCarthy rolled to his left, half-set his feet and whistled a four-seamer to Nailor, who made a spectacular, twisting six-point catch.

"That was really one of the first times of that action moving to his left — and what a throw," O'Connell said.

Nailor recorded three receptions for 47 yards and flashed his connection with McCarthy in the final frame, too, taking advantage of a 59-yard missed field goal by Dallas kicker Brandon Aubrey and linking up for a much simpler score from 4 that pushed the Vikings lead to 31-23 with about nine minutes left.

Following Dallas' second TD, Minnesota switched up its attack mode and softened the Cowboys front with Mason's heavy pads. He muscled for 7 yards, then 2, and then 2 more to move the sticks. Shortly after, on third-and-8 from the Vikings 38, McCarthy unfurled a deep ball to Addison streaking behind the defense. He secured it and was tackled at the 4. Then, McCarthy set up his fourth-down TD gimmick with an athletic scramble on third from the 8, after the offense was backed up by an illegal formation penalty.

Pending Jefferson's rating, since no one is as qualified, we'll suggest McCarthy's Griddy was a 9 out of 10.

"I thought the sell, I thought the moment, the action, all those things — and I knew the play, and I knew what was happening — and the action was so good I even had to take a double take right there," O'Connell said of McCarthy's nimbleness on the play-fake. "It was an awesome moment in the game."

McCarthy's athleticism — and accuracy — showed up positively in the second half, as well.

To offset a pair of field goals by Aubrey in the third quarter and reposition the Vikings in a 23-17 deficit, McCarthy spun completions of 29 yards to TE T.J. Hockenson over the middle on a first down and 23 to Nailor on a fourth down. The latter required McCarthy trusting "Speedy" to make a sweet back-shoulder grab. Jefferson subsequently caught a slant for 10, and fullback C.J. Ham capitalized with a 1-yard TD run.

Although Minnesota had just 52 offensive plays to Dallas' 69 and lost key metrics, such as time of possession (32:36-27:24) and turnover differential (minus-1), and didn't run the rock consistently well (77 yards on 28 attempts; 2.8 avg.), McCarthy and Co. were explosive, averaging 6.3 yards per play.

The Vikings also aced all three of their fourth-down attempts and were perfect in the kicking phase.

On the decisive drive that began after Aubrey's miss from 59, McCarthy looked his most poised to date. First, he scrambled for 8, sliding headfirst to gain maximum yardage and avoid unnecessary contact. On a first down at the Cowboys 40, he moved off his spot and hooked up with TE Josh Oliver for 18 on a short catch and some nice YAC. Right after that, McCarthy flicked a beautiful pass into Hockenson's bucket, for 18, that was reeled in at the Cowboys 4. McCarthy and Nailor hitting pay dirt — Part 2 — happened next.

After completing 54.1 percent of his throws with six TDs and 10 INTs in his first six starts, McCarthy has protected the football and realized the power of completions in back-to-back efforts of 30-plus points. Across those two, McCarthy has a 66 percent clip with 5 passing TDs, one rushing and only one giveaway.

McCarthy's confidence in prime time was confirmation that a rocky start this season won't at all define him.

"I love what I do. Like, I love playing ball. I realize how blessed I am to be in this position. And most importantly, I love the people I do it with," McCarthy said. "You know, it can get very loud and very noisy. And there's a lot of situations that I've gone through in my past to kind of minimize those things. And the number one thing that does that is just love what you're doing right in front of you, love who you're around — because that's what matters in the grand scheme of things — and focus on that growth each and every day."

"I love the journey. I love the ups and downs. I love the pain. I love the heartache," he continued. "That's a part of growing. That's a part of life. And I think football is just a great microcosm for those lessons and strengthening your resiliency, patience — all that stuff."

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