CHICAGO — J.J. McCarthy knew what was coming. The Chicago Bears’ defense showed a zero blitz, and the Minnesota Vikings’ second-year quarterback, a 22-year-old playing his first NFL game, deftly adjusted the protection scheme and bought himself some time.

Then McCarthy took the snap, and every passer’s nightmare ensued. He fired a pass toward the left sideline, waited for All-Pro wide receiver Justin Jefferson to catch it and instantly wished he could be anywhere else. A former Vikings teammate, Bears cornerback Nahshon Wright, jumped the route, gathered the ball in stride and raced 74 yards to the end zone, magnifying McCarthy’s miserable Monday night in the shadow of his hometown.

Kevin O’Connell knew what was coming, too. The Vikings’ fourth-year coach — the man who’d put it all on the line this past offseason by choosing the untested McCarthy over one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in NFL history — was going to get pummeled for his conceit, ripped apart by knee-jerk cynics aghast that he’d foisted a tuna tartare-raw newbie on a team built to win now.

Sure, it was only one game, but it was a ghastly one on the national stage. Early in the second half, in front of 58,742 fired-up fans at Soldier Field, the scoreboard read 17-6 Chicago, and another newbie (Bears rookie coach Ben Johnson) and his second-year quarterback (Caleb Williams) were the ones poised for postgame praise.

And then it got worse: By the end of the third quarter, McCarthy had just 56 passing yards, and Minnesota still hadn’t converted a third down in eight attempts. The Bears had a first down at the Vikings’ 24-yard line and were on the verge of ensuring that O’Connell would face a reckoning.

The previous afternoon, a certain 41-year-old quarterback, in his first game with the Pittsburgh Steelers, had thrown for four touchdown passes and no interceptions while pulling out a dramatic comeback victory over the organization that had just discarded him. For Vikings fans, that served as a tantalizing taste of what might have been.

O’Connell could do the math: The “Quarterback Whisperer” was about to need a really good set of noise-cancelling headphones.

“Look, I understand everybody is going to be waiting for the ‘aha’ moment, and rightfully so,” O’Connell said as he stood outside his private dressing room after the game. “I understand the business that we’re in. I’m sure you had the (story) written.”

O’Connell was smiling, for a couple of reasons. First, given The Athletic’s coverage of one of the offseason’s spiciest storylines — that O’Connell was strongly weighing the possibility of signing four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers — he was poking fun of what he felt was a certain columnist’s tendency to overdramatize.

More important, O’Connell’s grin was provoked by McCarthy’s abrupt and arresting fourth-quarter awakening, which carried the Vikings to a 27-24 comeback victory in the final game of the NFL’s opening weekend.

Because of the kid’s moxie, O’Connell now had the right to gloat. He resisted — football is too cruel, a perpetual reality check waiting to happen, for most coaches to fall prey prematurely to that impulse — but he wasn’t afraid to acknowledge that something important had happened in that furious 45-minute stretch.

Neither were many of O’Connell’s players, who’d suspected that the swagger and unflappability McCarthy has displayed on the practice field could carry over to the real games, but didn’t really know until the rest of the football-watching world found out, too.

“That was crazy,” said Jefferson, who caught the first of McCarthy’s two touchdown passes, a 13-yard missile into a tight window with 12:13 remaining. McCarthy, who later rambled 14 yards on a read option for a third score, joined first-ballot Hall of Famer Steve Young as the only quarterbacks in the past 40 years to have overcome double-digit, fourth-quarter deficits in victorious debuts.

Other than that, his fourth quarter was kind of mundane.

“I felt like he was the type of player who could do this,” outside linebacker Jonathan Greenard said. “I knew it was in there. I just wanted to see it come to fruition in a real game.”

Did Greenard get the confirmation he needed on Monday night? “Helllllll yeah,” he replied. “We’ve seen enough.”

Naturally, there will be growing pains, but the way McCarthy rallied under duress in his first NFL game will leave a lasting imprint. You only get one chance to leave a first impression, and McCarthy — last seen in a meaningful game leading Michigan to the 2023 national championship — provided the dessert wine to Josh Allen’s sublime Sunday night chocolate soufflé.

Never mind that the early impressions swung toward Williams, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 draft, who completed his first 10 passes. Now coached by Johnson, whose stellar work with quarterback Jared Goff as the Detroit Lions’ offensive coordinator helped make him a hot head coaching candidate, Williams drove the Bears to an opening-drive touchdown, something which hadn’t happened since 2023.

Like Johnson, O’Connell is considered an elite offensive guru. Yet that’ s not the only quality that has made him a successful head coach whose teams consistently outperform expectations. His leadership skills and emotional intelligence are widely praised, and the way he props up and empowers players is part of the secret sauce.

Not surprisingly, when things seemed bleakest for the Vikings on Monday night, O’Connell suppressed any thoughts about the impending fallout and stayed poised and positive.

“If you allow your mind to go there,” O’Connell said, “then everything that I’ve ever talked about with these players, and what we’ve tried to build — and what they, most importantly, have built — what’s it all for, if in those moments you don’t continue to lean in?

“What we preach is that when it gets hard, when it gets really hard, lean in even more, and you’re going to figure it out. When you’re bringing along a young quarterback on the road in the NFC North, and the place is absolutely electric, you’ve got to find a way to weather the storm.”

McCarthy, unlike the other five quarterbacks who were top-12-picks in the 2024 draft, had yet to shed a drop of sweat on an NFL field before Monday night. A few months after the Vikings traded up to snag him with the 10th overall pick, he suffered a knee injury in his first preseason game and underwent season-ending surgery. Unable to play or practice, McCarthy was a bystander as Sam Darnold enjoyed a career renaissance and the Vikings battled the Lions for the NFC’s No. 1 overall seed until the final night of the regular season.

After the season, which ended with two poor performances by Darnold and a first-round playoff faceplant against the Rams, the Vikings had some major decisions to make. The organization leaned on O’Connell, once one of Tom Brady’s backups in New England, when it came to all things related to quarterbacking, and he wrestled with his choices.

The Vikings elected not to place the franchise tag on Darnold, who signed with the Seattle Seahawks. They failed to persuade Daniel Jones, another O’Connell reclamation project, to return as McCarthy’s presumptive backup (and a possible alternative if the young player wasn’t deemed ready); he instead signed with the Indianapolis Colts and beat out incumbent Anthony Richardson.

When the Jets released Rodgers, with whom O’Connell has long had a friendly relationship, the future first-ballot Hall of Famer targeted the Vikings as his preferred choice. Because that would have necessarily set back McCarthy’s timeline — and, possibly, eroded his confidence — the coach ultimately decided to pass.

“We bet it all on J.J.,” safety Josh Metellus acknowledged Monday night. “I think this team was already built to win; we were just missing a few pieces. If we can do what we did (in the fourth quarter) tonight, with a quarterback on a rookie contract, our window’s wide open.”

McCarthy brought the Vikings back in a thrilling Week 1 comeback. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

As ugly as things may have looked during the first three quarters, O’Connell didn’t hate what he saw from McCarthy. He liked the young passer’s demeanor and the way McCarthy got the Vikings into the right protections, and into the “cans” that serve as alternate play calls in O’Connell’s scheme. “What I was most proud of,” O’Connell said, “is early on in the game, J.J. might have been one of the most poised players in the huddle.”

At halftime, O’Connell offered encouragement, telling McCarthy, “You’ve had such an unbelievable look in your eye all night. I feel your presence. I feel your mindset. It hasn’t gone our way, but just keep playing. You’re going to win the game for us. I’ve got all the belief in the world.”

As he voiced those thoughts, O’Connell understood that they were aspirational.

“It’s another thing for him to go do it,” he later conceded.

That wasn’t all O’Connell wanted to talk about afterward, however. He was frustrated at his team’s overall performance that preceded the final-quarter flurry, saying, “There are a thousand things we all can clean up, me included. Trust me, I could do with way less epic and more, just, 60 (cohesive) minutes. But there’s a lot that can come from moments like that where we just find a way.”

Had McCarthy and his teammates failed to do so, O’Connell knows who’d have borne the brunt of the accountability. That’s part of the deal, and it’s the way he likes it.

“It’s not always gonna go your way,” he said, shortly before heading off to a postgame shower he desperately craved. “There are gonna be some times where the banding together happens in the postgame, when you’ve got to face this (disappointment) head on — preferably with me out in front.”

So yes, that “aha” moment is lurking. That’s life in the NFL, and it’s the life O’Connell chose. Yet thanks to McCarthy’s tantalizing transformation Monday night, the story — for now — is a redemptive one.

Quite conspicuously, O’Connell took a leap of faith. It looks like he may have stuck the landing.

(Top photo of McCarthy and O’Connell: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)