Super Bowl champion Jason McCourty aimed his criticism at both Kyler Murray and Kevin O'Connell on "ESPN's Get Up." He faulted the Minnesota Vikings quarterback for not pulling the trigger on open throws and argued that the head coach shares responsibility for how their partnership has played out.
The criticism comes after Sunday's 19-15 loss to the Detroit Lions at Ford Field, the first defeat of the season for the 6-1 Vikings, who sit first in the NFC North. It also lands while a sore hamstring has left Murray's status for the Week 9 game against the Buffalo Bills uncertain.
On Murray's side of the ledger, McCourty brought up Justin Jefferson: "The point of the play is to throw to him first read. He's open, and he's not throwing the football."
Murray finished the loss in Detroit 17 of 29 for 210 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Jefferson caught five of his nine targets for 33 yards and a 1-yard touchdown. After the game, O'Connell went through several of the plays on which Murray missed Jefferson.
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McCourty, however, was not willing to leave it at the quarterback. "I think as much as we can talk about that, Kevin O'Connell deserves a ton of the blame as well."
His case centered on Murray's style of play and what the Vikings signed up for when they added him in free agency this offseason.
"It's Kyler Murray in the pocket, and you would think going into it, they understood this was a guy that needed to be on the move outside the pocket," McCourty said.
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McCourty also pushed back on the idea that the problem is simply a poor fit. "So a lot of this, once you bring him in, you have to adjust and adapt to what he does. Well, it can't just be, well, Kyler Murray doesn't fit the system."
O'Connell, for his part, laid out how the Vikings are building the offense with Murray when he met with reporters Monday.
"It's just continuing to build that rapport of the plans, the comfort level," O'Connell said, "[and] continuing to implore some input from him on things he likes and things [where] we carve it and make it even cleaner and better for him so that we do get some of that comfort where he'll throw things with anticipation and we get the look for a play, and we all know it's coming, and we see the pitch and catch there."
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Through Week 8, Murray has averaged 2.94 seconds to throw, according to Next Gen Stats.
Whether Murray will be available for Week 9 is a separate question. His hamstring is getting what O'Connell called a "full eval," and the coach's answer Monday on whether it would keep Murray out of the Buffalo Bills game was, "I don't think we're there yet. It's still early enough that I'll continue to get updates."
Health aside, O'Connell left no doubt about the job itself. His answer to whether a healthy Murray stays the starter was one word: "Yes." That backing comes as Pro Football Network's NFL QB Impact Grade has Murray at 69.8 through Week 8, 25th of 35 graded quarterbacks.
O'Connell's answer keeps Minnesota building around Murray, the path McCourty argued requires the Vikings to adjust to their quarterback rather than the other way around.
Whether Murray is the one under center against the Bills on Monday night at U.S. Bank Stadium still depends on his hamstring.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network .
