EAGAN, Minn. — The second half of Sunday's affair at Lambeau Field was unexpected and opposite of the momentum Minnesota built at the end of the first half.

Will Reichard drilled his NFL record fourth field goal of 59-plus yards in one season as time trickled to expiration. Aaron Jones, Sr., and Jordan Mason rushed for 86 yards, a 2025 first-half best for the Vikings, and the defense tightened at the top of the third quarter, forcing Green Bay to punt on its opening drive.

Minnesota was firmly in it – a 10-6 ballgame with an incoming chance to pound the rock and go ahead. And then a catastrophic mistake on special teams resulted in an unforeseen avalanche in low-40 temps.

In a wrong-way progression, the offense executed six plays for minus-10 yards in the third quarter. And things somehow looked shakier in the fourth, with the unit piecemealing 8 rushing yards and 6 passing.

By the end of it, Christian Darrisaw and Donovan Jackson were out of the game nursing lower-body injuries. Joshua Metellus also was checked on a couple different times but was able to return and play to the finish. And at some point late in the contest, Head Coach Kevin O'Connell said Monday at his day-after-game presser, J.J. McCarthy sustained contact that caused him to report concussion symptoms.

Each of the injuries will be monitored throughout the week. For now, the only certainty is the 22-year-old quarterback is in concussion protocol and undrafted rookie Max Brosmer is in position to take reps with the first-team offense if McCarthy cannot when the team returns to practice Wednesday.

"Looking back at the tape, I was proud of the way our team competed in the first half," O'Connell expressed. "And that's kind of how we saw the game going, with how we went into it schematically and kind of trying to play good defense, run the football and see if we can make some plays in the pass game.

"Thought we'd come out and play a better second half," he said. "And we didn't. Our play declined."

One remedy to Minnesota's three-game slide and current bleak playoff outlook would be going 1-0 Sunday at Seattle, a tall order because of the Seahawks defense and former Vikings QB Sam Darnold.

Here are four takeaways from O'Connell's debrief of Week 12:

1. Another bump in the road

The McCarthy news is "definitely not ideal," O'Connell said.

"That phrase can be applied to several stops on the journey so far early on for him, and it's unfortunate because all you want to do is go back to work," O'Connell noted. "And I thought there was some progression early on in the game [with his footwork on drop backs]."

McCarthy was 7-for-11 passing with 62 yards and a 78.6 rating in the first half, when the run game was humming and the Packers were guessing as to what O'Connell might dial up next. The muffed punt after the defense's first stop in the second half altered the flow of the game and O'Connell's ability to protect McCarthy with the run-pass blend that was integral in maintaining a tight score in the initial 30 minutes.

Sacks from missed blocks and McCarthy holding onto the ball played a part in the game unraveling.

"There [were] a couple where, in some good-on-good matchups, we just got beat where I don't think J.J. had much of a chance," O'Connell said. "And then as you look forward, like later on in the game where we became a little bit more one-dimensional, down a score, down two scores, down 17 – yeah, just some zoning coverage looks where I think it's a combination of are we using the help up front when we try to give those guys the help, to maximize the chances of having a clean pocket, to get a couple hitches off. And then for J.J., just the efficiency of understanding that even in a game like that it's still about trying to find a way to continue to stack completions together. And then the ops will come."

O'Connell cited a few instances of plays that could have expressed themselves positively but didn't amount to anything good, including one where McCarthy mishandled an under-center snap and another where Justin Jefferson had a double-move without a double team that got spoiled by interior pressure.

It's impossible to ignore that being in the protocol is another setback for McCarthy, who missed extensive practice time this year with a high-ankle sprain and did not practice due to injury in 2024.

2. Confidence in Max

Brosmer, a semi-homegrown " 'Sotan," is standing at the ready.

The former New Hampshire star and Gophers standout in 2024 has passed every NFL test to date, including making Minnesota's 53-man roster out of training camp and impressing in exhibition action.

"We have a ton of confidence in Max," O'Connell said. "All he's done since he's been here is show up every single day and respond and answer the bell, whether it's stepping in for some reps when guys were dinged up previously this year with the first group or if you look at it from a standpoint of what his absorption of the offense was throughout his first day here all the way through training camp, playing in some of those games, playing against the Titans first-team unit in that preseason game, defensively, and moving the team and getting the ball out and seeing things at a veteran level type of eye progression."

The runway for Brosmer ahead of his first start would be longer ideally, O'Connell said. But his confidence in the 24-year-old UDFA is high because of his professionalism since his arrival.

"Max will prepare like crazy like he does every week," O'Connell commented. "He's been a snap away here since Carson [Wentz] went on [Injured Reserve], and I know he feels very much prepared if called upon. And he's going to go about the week as he's been doing, which is important for a guy that is one snap away as a young player. How many reps can we steal pre-practice, post-practice? He does all the little things to try to get himself ready if he were to be called upon and that may be, indeed, this week."

3. A familiar face-off

Formerly written off as a bust, Darnold was by and large a Top 5 QB in his one-and-done season under O'Connell, a reputation he has definitely upheld through 11 games with the NFC West-leading Seahawks.

This season, Darnold's 69.5 percent clip, 2,785 pass yards, 19 pass TDs and 106.2 rating rank in the Top 6.

"To me, Sam has continued on with a lot of the things he did last year for us," O'Connell said.

"You just feel some momentum of that offense, and they're able to move it as well as anybody in the league with Sam running the show. Really what's gotten them at times, it's just been turnovers, but that's any team in football," O'Connell added. "But as explosive as they've been and the amount of points they've put up, they're absolutely going to be a challenge."

The familiarity between Darnold and Brian Flores' defense, and vice-versa, adds intrigue to the meetup.

"He obviously has a good amount of reps logged against our defense over the course of training camp last year and the offseason program, and we know Sam really well," O'Connell said about the 2024 Pro Bowl quarterback. "And what I would say about knowing him really well, we know how talented he is – we know he can make every throw. And if we're not airtight in our coverages [Seattle will] be explosive."

4. Support for McCarthy

Balancing the present and the future of McCarthy's performance is a tricky undertaking.

O'Connell reiterated the idea of patience for McCarthy's development but also recognized there's an emotional adversity he's dealing with that could be attached to him losing at a rate he's unused to in football coupled with him trying to hammer out bad habits and hammer in fundamentals being taught.

"He's a competitive guy and wants to win. But I think he also understands the big picture for himself and how important every moment is right now, for not only in the present, but for time that's been lost and some time-on-task side of things," O'Connell offered. "And I think it's very important that we just continue [teaching] the principles of him playing the position the right way and the way that we all see him included as the best way for him to progress forward and upward in his journey."

That progression requires a more complementary style of football, as well, some of which is outside of McCarthy's control. (SEE: last year's defense forced 22 turnovers by Week 12 – 12 more than this year).

Importantly, teammates have defended McCarthy's play through every lump and low.

"I think guys are behind him. I think they support him," O'Connell said. "You probably ask a lot of our guys [what they think] and you get a lot of 'How can they be better and at their best for the greater good of not only J.J., but our whole offense, defense or special teams?' That's just the type of building we have here, the type of players we have, the type of leadership we get from our captains.

"But at the same time, our guys have an expectation to win, as do I," the coach continued. "We've won a lot of games around here, but these stretches where we've fallen on some difficult circumstances, in many cases playing good teams, but also doing a lot of things ourselves that I look at as my job to fix.

"And we've got to do that and we've got to play good football and give ourselves a chance to win these football games by not doing the things that lose games, whether that's protecting the football – no matter what we're going to try to do, we're going to try to protect the football – and then we're going to continue to press onward to see if we can generate some turnovers, which were obviously a huge part of our team a year ago," O'Connell added. "And then in the kicking-game phase, we've been better in the return phase with – I think Myles [Price] deserves a ton of credit for that. We're playing a lot of young guys on the special teams phase of our team and we've had really, really bright shining moments, and then we've had some critical, critical plays that I know we've talked about that are incredibly impactful in one-score games at the time, tight games when those things happen. (And they) just can't happen."

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