Richard Sherman didn’t hold back on J.J. McCarthy after Bears matchup

After his fourth quarter heroics beat them way back in Week 1, the Chicago Bears nearly fell victim to the same kind of rally from Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy on Sunday. But scatter-shot accuracy from the pocket, even with some drops from his pass catchers (five, according to Pro Football Focus' initial data for the game), was the young signal caller's undoing as the Bears also intercepted two passes in their narrow victory.

The world we live in makes it easy to try to write broad narratives right away, and McCarthy has plenty of detractors who were given more fuel for their arguments on Sunday. However, the Bears made it so he couldn't use his mobility to his advantage, as he had zero rushing attempts for the first time in his five career starts.

During Sunday's game, ESPN's Seth Walder revealed McCarthy had a 30 percent rate of off-target throws to that point (on 20 pass attempts, #math). McCarthy would finish the game with 32 pass attempts, so that off-target rate naturally fell? Some from there, but the league-average rate of off-target throws (per Walder) is 15 percent.

While it's fair to remember that McCarthy has made five NFL starts, and some Hall of Fame careers would not have been that if they had been written off that soon by their teams, the Bears put game tape out there on Sunday that will be copied.

It's also fair to say, among 20 quarters as an NFL starter, McCarthy has not been very good for the majority of them. Including the first three quarters of Week 1 against the Bears, and the better part of four quarters in Sunday's rematch.

Richard Sherman holds nothing back about J.J. McCarthy after his performance vs. Bears

During his 11-year career as an NFL cornerback, particularly during his peak with the Seattle Seahawks, Richard Sherman never hesitated to express his feelings. That outspoken mode is a good part of what now makes him successful as an analyst for "Thursday Night Football" on Amazon.

As Sunday's game wound down, Sherman took to Twitter/X to bat back at some comments he got after he was previously critical of McCarthy.

"I’m old enough to remember the comments I got when I told folks I wasn’t sure if McCarthy was the answer and they let a good quarter fool them. (shrug emoji) football isn’t an exact science by any means but when your set up with one of the best play callers in football and one of the best WRs usually success can be manufactured."

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The Bears could never quite put away the Vikings the way they were begging to be put away on Sunday, with McCarthy's performance leading the way on that front. There's no sugarcoating the way things are trending with McCarthy after his showing against Dennis Allen's defense, but if someone was going to sugarcoat it, Sherman was not going to be that someone.