'It's obviously a checkpoint' Kevin O'Connell comes away impressed with J.J. McCarthy's preseason debut with one element standing out

It felt a little bit surprising to see the Minnesota Vikings play quarterback J.J. McCarthy on Saturday afternoon against the Houston Texans. They got the win 20-10, but the first-team offense played just 13 snaps, and it ended in a field goal.

Getting McCarthy reps in a live game situation was something that the Vikings prioritized, even after his injury last year in the preseason that ended his rookie season. It was great to see him get back out there and run the offense, but one thing stood out.

Kevin O'Connell praises J.J. McCarthy's command of the offense

After the game, head coach Kevin O'Connell talked about McCarthy's performance and he was relatively pleased.

"Yeah, I love the fact that we're able to hit an explosive in the play pass game. I love the fact that we converted some third downs. I love the fact that on the fourth down, he used his legs for that steal one in a game. And I think there's just a level of composure and poise to how he ran the show that was exactly what I was looking for. And now we go back to work. It's obviously a checkpoint for our whole team, but clearly for J.J. as we got a chance to have our first chance since last year. Headset communication in real time, play clock, all of us coaches on the sideline, him running the show, and I thought he did a really, really nice job of that. And I would have loved to play him all day long, but I wanted to have him in there with some of the guys he's going to be in there with and did not want to play that full group very long with such significant work coming up on Wednesday and Thursday."

McCarthy and O'Connell are in sync, as he echoed some of the same sentiments on his performance.

"Feel like KO [Kevin O’Connell ]just thought of this as checking another box, like he really wanted to see the operation and the fundamentals and doing the simple things at a high level," said McCarthy. "And I feel like we did that today. Obviously, there are a couple of things here and there that we got to clean up, but felt like we left today in a great spot."

One of the big things that we saw from McCarthy was the poise in the pocket. His process was really good, especially on this fourth down, when he ran for the first down.

The Vikings are in good hands with McCarthy, and this was a good stepping stone in his development. Remember what the Vikings have been saying the entire time: the process is the progress.