J.J. McCarthy led the Minnesota Vikings to a comeback victory over the Chicago Bears after a poor performance in the first three quarters.
McCarthy helped the Vikings score 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, overcoming an 11-point deficit.
The rookie quarterback is the first since Steve Young in 1985 to win his debut after trailing by 10 or more points in the fourth quarter.

CHICAGO — For three quarters, J.J. McCarthy was bad. Painfully bad. Bad as in, “Guy hasn’t played football in a year” bad.

But the fourth quarter? McCarthy was magic, reminding everyone why the Minnesota Vikings used the 10th pick in the 2024 draft on him.

The Vikings scored 21 unanswered points on the Chicago Bears in the fourth quarter Monday night, with McCarthy responsible for all but one of them. In digging the Vikings out of an 11-point hole, he also dug himself out of the kind of demoralizing performance that can leave a significant dent on a young quarterback’s confidence and development. (See Caleb Williams, 2024 season.)

“He stepped into the huddle — we were losing, I want to say late third, early fourth (quarter) and he goes, `Is there any place else you guys would rather be?’ That says a lot about you right there,” Aaron Jones said after the game.

“This kid is special. He’s different up here,” Jones added, pointing at his head. “I’ve been saying it the whole time.”

A lot more people will be saying it now.

McCarthy is the first quarterback to overcome a deficit of 10 points or more in the fourth quarter and win his debut since 1985, according to ESPN. The guy who did it back then? A guy named Steve Young.

“I told him at halftime, `You’re going to bring us back to win this game.’ And the look in his eye was fantastic,” Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said.

McCarthy had not played a “real” football game in almost two years, since leading Michigan to the national title. He missed all of last year after tearing the meniscus in his right knee during the preseason, and barely played in the preseason this year — a decision that looked foolish for much of the game Monday night.

McCarthy looked flustered by the speed of the game and got harried when the Bears brought pressure. He was sacked on each of Minnesota’s first two drives and attempted one pass in each drive. With the Vikings in the red zone on their third drive, his throw to Justin Jefferson on third-and-8 was too low.

Minnesota also was whistled for delay of game twice in the first three quarters.

And in what surely looked like the dagger for the Vikings, McCarthy threw a pick-six on Minnesota’s first drive of the second half. Looking for Jefferson, McCarthy telegraphed his throw and Nahshon Wright stepped in front of it and took it 74 yards to give Chicago a 17-6 lead with 13:03 left in the third.

“You never want to earn wisdom that way,” McCarthy said, smiling sheepishly. “It sucks. It’s one of the worst things you could do as a quarterback, but you can’t do anything about it. You’ve got to focus on the next play.

“Just go out there and execute and play as one and move on from that.”

Williams and the Bears gave McCarthy some help, suddenly reverting to the team that endured a 10-game skid on its way to a 5-12 finish last year. Williams, who had looked much more poised in the first half, started making bad decisions, overthrowing his receivers and putting the ball in the wrong spots.

The rest of the Bears got sloppy, too, committing far too many stupid penalties.

But part of being an elite-level quarterback is being able to take advantage of an opponent’s misfortunes.

After Cairo Santos missed a 50-yard field goal attempt, McCarthy found his groove. He hit Jefferson for 17 yards and, three plays later, found him for a 13-yard touchdown. The Vikings attempted the two-point conversion, but Jonathan Owens shoved Josh Oliver out of bounds just in front of the end zone.

After a dismal three-and-out by the Bears — Williams was sacked and then nearly picked by Andrew Van Ginkel — McCarthy went right back to work, finding Jones for a 27-yard score. Minnesota went for the two-point conversion again, and this time McCarthy connected with Adam Thielen to put the Vikings up 20-17.

And they weren’t done yet.

McCarthy’s 10-yard pass to Jefferson put the Vikings at the Bears 14, and McCarthy ran in for the score on the next play, taking advantage of a hole created by T.J. Hockenson.

“That was one of my favorites, for sure,” McCarthy said, grinning.

McCarthy is the first to say he can play better. Will have to play better going forward.

But the learning curve for a young quarterback is steep, and bad losses — and bad play in bad losses — can make it seem insurmountable. McCarthy, and his team, now know that it’s not. That no matter how badly he plays, he can work his way out of it.

Because he did.

“There’s no way to deny, we don’t win this game unless J.J. plays the way he did in the second half. And, most importantly, he kept the belief of his football team behind him,” O’Connell said. “Now we know it’s possible.”

For McCarthy, it seems like anything is.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

Week 2 upsets did not significantly alter the forecasted College Football Playoff field.
Illinois improved its bowl projection with a road win, while Clemson’s projection slipped after a struggle.
Oklahoma and South Florida had impressive wins but are not yet considered playoff-worthy.

There were upsets in Week 2 but nothing that significantly changed the forecasted College Football Playoff field in this week’s bowl projections.

Illinois moved up a couple seeding places with an impressive road win at Duke, On the downside, Clemson slides back a couple spots after struggling against Troy. The Tigers now face a dangerous trip to Georgia Tech that will be a good litmus test on their prospects.

Two teams that had impressive weekends still are not yet deemed playoff-worthy.

Oklahoma knocked off Michigan but more difficult hurdles away the Sooners. So we’ll wait until a few SEC games to anoint them. Despite defeating two ranked opponents, South Florida likely needs to win the American title to make the field. Memphis and Tulane are significant hurdles to overcome, so odds, for now, are against the Bulls.

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Notes: Legacy Pac-12 schools in other conferences will fulfill existing Pac-12 bowl agreements through the 2025 season. Not all conferences will fulfill their bowl allotment. An asterisk represents a replacement pick. 

He has survived a multitude of bad losses and poor decisions, and the dumbing down of one of college football’s most iconic brands. 

But he can’t outlive this.

What saved Billy Napier’s job as the Florida coach in 2024, is the very thing that will get him fired in 2025: you can’t screw up the quarterback. 

Especially when he has generational-level talent. 

“Not good enough,” Napier said after Florida’s stunning loss last weekend to 18½-point underdog South Florida. “And it’s my responsibility.”

The irony of it all hangs like September humidity in The Swamp.

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When Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin announced midway through last season that Napier would return for 2025 – despite an overwhelming amount of on-field evidence that Napier wasn’t fit for the job – the thought process was straightforward. 

Napier needed time to develop freshman five-star quarterback DJ Lagway, whose rare skills could elevate the rest of the team. When Lagway’s performance did just that in the second half of 2024, it elevated expectations for 2025. 

More dangerous: it allowed Napier to double down on his wildly predictable offensive system and play calling. 

Instead of hiring a legitimate and experienced offensive coordinator and play caller at the end of 2024 to help Lagway develop into an elite player, Napier kept betting on himself. A bet that, until Lagway’s seven games as a starter, had crapped out on a weekly basis.

Now Lagway is trying to find himself in that same system, and if the first two games of the season are any indicator, he looks like he has regressed. Same accuracy issues, same poor decisions with the ball, same reckless throws.

Those issues could be overlooked last season when he was a freshman, and when his uber-talent took over. He was raw, but he was a highlight reel ― and you had to live with the mistakes.

Not anymore.

Napier told anyone who would listen this offseason that this was his best roster in four years at Florida, and that he finally had a winning culture set. He had an elite offensive line, and a group of dangerous skill players around Lagway.

Then big, bad South Florida strolled into Gainesville, and the sins of the past washed over it all.

The predictable offense. The unimaginative play calling. The same undisciplined operation where penalties eliminate touchdowns.

All of which falls on the shoulders of Lagway, and his critical second season of development.

The only thing it lacked from the previous three seasons was two players wearing the same number on the same play, or two units running onto the field at the same time with the game on the line. Or any of the countless other maddening coaching decisions of the past.

It did, however, reveal a new low: Baylor transfer defensive lineman Brendan Bett – he of the “winning culture” that was set in the offseason – spitting in the face of a South Florida player on the Bulls’ final, game-winning drive.

It also underscored this undeniable truth: when you lose with rare talent at the most important position on the field, you’re not just doing a disservice to the player and the program, you’ve officially exposed who and what you are as a coach. 

For all to see.

Some coaches never have the opportunity to coach an elite, NFL talent at quarterback, much less one who could be the most talented to ever play the position at the school. Some coaches do, and know enough to get out of the way and watch the magic happen. 

Gene Chizik at Auburn with Cam Newton. Ed Orgeron at LSU with Joe Burrow. Jimbo Fisher at Florida State with Jameis Winston.

The last thing any coach can do is be the reason an elite talent doesn’t reach his ceiling. But when does Stricklin, Napier’s staunchest ally in a sea of turmoil from the jump, finally see it?  

Because if he didn’t fire Napier in the middle of last season, he’s not going to do it now. 

If he didn’t fire Napier after last year’s embarrassing September home losses to Miami and Texas A&M – when Florida boosters came up with the millions in buyout cash needed – he sure isn’t going to fire him after yet another September punch to the gut in Gainesville (with buyout money that’s still available). 

If Napier wasn’t destined for unemployment after losses to Vanderbilt and Kentucky, and after needing a field goal at the end of a meaningless bowl game to extend Florida’s NCAA record of consecutive games avoiding a shutout, he’s not destined for it now.

If Napier wasn’t dead man walking after the fire drill episode of both the offense and field goal units on the field at the same time late in a(nother) home loss to a double-digit underdog (Arkansas), what else can he get away with?

If Stricklin will put up with a predictable offense that lacks imagination, and a defense that until recently has produced historically poor results, what else will he put up with?

If you go into every fall Saturday – I mean, every – with more trepidation than anticipation about which Florida team you’ll see, what more do you need to solidify what must be done?

If you keep hoping for the team that beat LSU and Ole Miss in 2024 to show up, and keep getting the product produced in every other meaningful game since 2022, you can hope in one hand and puke in the other. 

And they’ll look the same.

With or without generational talent at quarterback. 

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.

(This story has been updated to note Piotr Szczerek denied defending his behavior during an incident at the US Open.)

He said scores of people have said they will get the ball back from the angry, unidentified woman.

“Please don’t do anything to that lady,’’ Feltwell told USA TODAY Sports on Sept. 8. “Leave it alone. You know, somebody knows her and can talk to her, that’s different. But God, I don’t want people breaking in their house and stuff like that. The internet already messed her up pretty good.’’

The power of the internet has put adults behaving badly at sports events on notice.

Most recently, it was the home run ball controversy taking place during the game between the Phillies and Miami Marlins on Sept. 5 at LoanDepot Park in Miami.

About a week earlier, a CEO snatched a hat that Polish tennis star Kamil Majchrzak tried to hand to a young boy.

A statement posted on Facebook and attributed to Piotr Szczerek, the CEO of a Polish paving company, defended his behavior. But he denied making the statement and, slammed on social media, offered an apology.

The backlash on social media is like “informal sanctions,” a term used in criminology, said Alex Piquero, Professor & Chair of the Department of Sociology & Criminology, Arts & Sciences at Miami.

“These are how your peers and the people you value, how they’ll judge your behavior,’’ Piquero told USA TODAY Sports. “And I think that punishment alone, right there, is enough that if these people have any sense of moral conscience, they’re going to feel like the smallest human beings in this world.’’

He also said the incident, because it’s captured on video and on social media, will never go away. So what kind of deterrent might that serve for another adult on the verge of showing insensitivity to a child at a public sporting event – and the cameras watching.

“There’s always going to be some adult who does something stupid like that,’’ Piquero said. “They’re human beings. They want something and they don’t think about their actions until they’re forced to think about them. …

“I got to hope that someone out there believes that, next time this does happen, look, do the right thing. Give it to the kid.’’

With the angry woman still under assault on social media, Feltwell said, ‘I could say something like she got what she deserved, but I don’t know if she deserved that much.”

The fan who shoved Baltimore Ravens’ DeAndre Hopkins and Lamar Jackson won’t be able to attend NFL games for a long time. If ever.

The fan is banned “indefinitely” from Bills and NFL stadiums, Bills and league officials told USA TODAY Sports. The fan had been ejected after he shoved the two Ravens players.

ESPN was first to report the news.

The incident occurred after Hopkins’ one-handed 29-yard touchdown reception late in the third quarter that put the Ravens up 34-19. Hopkins and Jackson were celebrating behind the corner of the end zone when the fan shoved Hopkins in the helmet and then put hands on Jackson’s helmet.

Jackson responded by pushing the fan with two hands.

‘I seen him slap D-Hop … and he slapped me and he talking, so you know I just forgot where I was for a little bit,’ Jackson told reporters after the 41-40 loss. “But you got to think in those situations. You have security out there. Let security handle it. But I just let my emotions get the best of me. Hopefully, it don’t happen again. I learned from that.”

Keegan Bradley wants the Procore Championship to be a team-building opportunity ahead of the 2025 Ryder Cup after the preparation of the United States team came under scrutiny two years ago. But not every team member is allowed (or wanted) to play.

The fall PGA Tour event in Napa, California this week has a more loaded field than usual, with 10 of the 12 members of this year’s United States Ryder Cup team scheduled to tee off two weeks before the biennial international match-play event pitting the best golfers from the U.S. and Europe against one another comes to the Bethpage Black course in Farmingdale, New York beginning Friday, Sept. 26.

There will be two notable stars absent on course at the Silverado Resort with Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas and the other members of the team finalized by Bradley following the conclusion of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs. Bryson DeChambeau and Xander Schauffele were not in the announced Procore Championship field for different reasons.

Here’s a breakdown of what happened and how DeChambeau and Schauffele wound up not playing this week with the rest of their Ryder Cup teammates at the PGA Tour’s Procore Championship:

Why Bryson DeChambeau can’t be in Procore Championship field

DeChambeau’s absence at the Procore Championship is related to his decision to leave the PGA Tour for LIV Golf in 2022. The PGA Tour has deemed DeChambeau ‘not eligible’ for competition now that he is no longer a member of the PGA Tour and did not make an exemption for this year’s Ryder Cup.

“That’s up to the Tour and their decision to make,” DeChambeau told Sports Illustrated last month. “It’s on them if they don’t let us become together as a team and play.”

‘It’s a scenario that’s unfortunate, and I wish it was different,’ he added, ‘but LIV’s willing to let me play.” 

DeChambeau is scheduled to be in Napa, California during tournament week, he told Golfweek, with plans to attend a Tuesday night dinner for the United States Ryder Cup team before the Procore Championship begins.

Is Xander Schauffele in Procore Championship field?

Xander Schauffele was non-committal about playing in the Procore Championship during his final appearance of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs at the BMW Championship. He did not qualify for this year’s Tour Championship.

“I don’t know how many guys have signed up or not, but I wouldn’t say there’s an expectation for us to play,’ Schauffele said on Aug. 17, ‘but a lot of us do want to play just to stay fresh, knock off some rust. I’ll have an even longer break, so we’ll see how that goes.”

His agent later told Golfweek Schauffele was ‘undecided.’ He ultimately decided not to play. Schauffele was not included in the field released ahead of Thursday’s first round. He was an automatic qualifier for the Ryder Cup team after winning the first two majors of his career in 2024, but missed time early in 2025 due to injury and struggled more than expected to regain his spot atop PGA Tour leaderboards the rest of the way.

When is the 2025 Ryder Cup?

The 2025 Ryder Cup is scheduled for September 26-28. The event will be broadcast nationally by NBC and USA Network and available via live stream on Peacock and Fubo. Times and schedule have not been announced yet.

Procore Championship 2025: TV, streaming for PGA Tour Ryder Cup tune-up

The Procore Championship will be played Thursday through Sunday, Sept. 11-14. It is the first event of seven events on the PGA Tour’s 2025 FedEx Cup Fall schedule. Golf Channel will provide television coverage through all four rounds of the tournament, with live streaming available via ESPN+ and Fubo.