Mirthless Minnesota Vikings fans eager for a change at quarterback or playcaller may be further dispirited by head coach Kevin O'Connell's messaging.

O'Connell said multiple times during a Monday news conference the faltering team plans to "stay the course" with first-year starting QB J.J. McCarthy's development.

"He's made of the right stuff," O'Connell said. "He's going to keep working at it, we're going to go back to work and continue to find every avenue, every way to try to help build the consistency to his mechanics, and then I just firmly believe the accuracy will come from that."

Accuracy has been the primary bane of McCarthy's game in his nascent career. With Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and Jalen Nailor, plus a rebuilt offensive line, the Vikings offense is loaded for bear. But McCarthy's passing has been more akin to buckshot than a precision rifle. His head coach insists it's a solvable issue.

"There are some plays where he is making it hard on himself just by the nature of the many things that — I think that's probably the most frustrating part for him, it's talked about and repped and practiced at length and then in those moments, in his fifth start, it's just the variance to it," O'Connell said. "It's causing his job to be more difficult than it needs to be."

Much as he seems to be struggling to see the field, McCarthy is clear-eyed about his own struggles. 

"I need to do a better job with my decision making, the accuracy, it needs to be changed," McCarthy said. "I need to be better and the overall execution of the offense. I need to be better on just doing my job at a higher level."

Still, O'Connell, ever the optimist, believes drives like the one that resulted in a late-game, go-ahead touchdown against the Chicago Bears on Sunday are an adumbration of McCarthy's real talent.

"Knowing he's got what it takes to do some of the things he's been able to do late in games and be at his best late in games, we just need to find a way to find that consistency early," O'Connell said. "The mental toughness, the physical toughness of the player is clear and evident I think to everybody."

Those flashes, though, do nothing to abrogate the interceptions, overthrows, sacks and other misfortunes that have plagued the Vikings' offense since McCarthy took over. The path forward may be forked, one way favoring the young passer's development and the other allowing for stabler hands to steady the ship.

To hear the coach and quarterback tell it, though, there is no great schism in the locker room.

"There's a good energy in the building today of guys understanding we're just going to stay the course and continue to improve and attack this thing, knowing that we don't have a lot of time left," O'Connell said. "But we do have what it takes to win football games in our locker room and on our team and that's what we're going to put everything we have into doing against the Green Bay Packers."

"I think adversity is one of the greatest things for individual growth, collective growth, whatever it is," McCarthy said. "And I think it could really separate teams or bring them tighter together, and I feel like this team's being brought tighter and tighter together each and every week. But we're just sick of losing, we want wins every single week and we're just going to do everything we can to make sure we get those."