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J.J. McCarthy flips the script with 3 late TDs to propel Vikings over Bears: Key takeaways

By Jenna West, Kevin Fishbain, Dan Wiederer and Alec Lewis
The Minnesota Vikings orchestrated a fourth-quarter comeback, punctuated by quarterback J.J. McCarthy’s rushing touchdown with less than five minutes remaining, to defeat the Chicago Bears 27-24 in McCarthy’s NFL debut.
McCarthy struggled for much of the night, but with the Vikings down 17-6 and struggling to move the ball, he found Justin Jefferson for a 13-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter to breathe life into the offense.
On the Vikings’ next possession, McCarthy dropped a dime of a 27-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Jones near the right sideline to give Minnesota its first lead of the night. McCarthy then fired a strike to Adam Thielen for a two-point conversion.
The Bears took an early lead with quarterback Caleb Williams’ 9-yard rushing touchdown in the first quarter, and then a 74-yard pick six from former Viking Nahshon Wright in the third.
Williams went 20 of 34 with 191 passing yards and one touchdown, adding six carries, 58 rushing yards and a score on the ground.
Monday marked McCarthy’s regular-season debut with the Vikings, who drafted him in 2024. He missed all of last season after tearing the meniscus in his right knee during his first preseason game, building intrigue over how he’d play Monday.
He finished 13 of 20 with 143 passing yards, two touchdowns and an interception, along with one rushing TD.
JJ MCCARTHY LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
MINvsCHI on ESPN/ABC
Stream on @NFLPlus and ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/BfEqGXT2jg— NFL (@NFL) September 9, 2025
Electric comeback
The two halves could not have been more different for McCarthy and the Vikings’ offense. The first half was disastrous. McCarthy looked flustered on the first couple of drives, and he even threw a facepalm-worthy pick-six to Wright. For the record, the Vikings’ offense was not helping him. The team struggled to run the football. The offensive line was not manhandling the Bears’ front. Then everything changed.
Beginning in the third quarter, the Vikings started to lean on the Bears’ defense. Running back Jordan Mason side-stepped tacklers and established momentum. McCarthy fed off of it, completing a couple of critical passes to Jefferson. McCarthy threw his first touchdown at the beginning of the fourth quarter, and from then on, the Vikings’ offense had its way. McCarthy even executed a read-option play, running in a touchdown to secure the victory.
Perhaps the most telling was the way coach Kevin O’Connell and teammates reacted. The team swarmed McCarthy. O’Connell was fist-pumping on the sidelines. McCarthy’s final passing stat line doesn’t do this starting debut justice. It was an electric comeback, orchestrated by No. 9. — Alec Lewis, Vikings staff writer
Vikings’ defense finds its way
So much of the pregame conversation centered around Brian Flores’ defense versus Ben Johnson’s offense. The Vikings struggled to corral Williams throughout the evening, but Minnesota got the better end of the matchup. Flores didn’t have to dip into his bag of tricks. The Vikings mostly allowed their four-man rush to work on the Bears’ offensive line. Early on, the Vikings’ pass rushers had issues, and even when Minnesota infused linebackers like Ivan Pace Jr. in stunts, it had trouble finding its way around Williams.
The defense, though, pitched a second-half shutout. Interior defenders Jalen Redmond and Javon Hargrave won their matchups inside, and the Vikings’ secondary held up sans safety Harrison Smith. Minnesota wasn’t able to turn the Bears over — one of the primary reasons its 2024 defense was so good — but Williams held the ball frequently. That is partially why he amassed 58 yards and a touchdown on six carries.
The Bears’ explosive passing game was minimal, but for a few coverage busts. The Vikings also held up admirably in the run game against D’Andre Swift, limiting him to 3.1 yards per carry. — Lewis
Bears’ offense goes off the rails
Williams started the 2025 season completing six passes in a row on a touchdown drive, and then another four more. Not only did he stop hitting receivers, but also he started airmailing them. On a fourth down in the second quarter, he zipped it past an open DJ Moore. He overshot tight end Cole Kmet a couple of times. He just seemed erratic as the offense struggled to move the football the way it had to open the game.
Johnson’s goal of a 70-percent completion rate is lofty, but that’s the standard he wants to set. During one stretch, in which the Vikings rallied back while the Bears sputtered, Williams had completed only 7 of 16 passes. He wasn’t giving his receivers a chance, which was a stark change from the efficient start, when he took what the defense gave him.
Williams prides himself on his precision passing, and it went awry as the Bears’ offense went off the rails. — Kevin Fishbain, Bears senior writer
Penalties must be corrected
Johnson isn’t likely to sleep much. Not Monday night. Probably not for the rest of this week. Not after that error-filled performance by his Bears. Not after Williams led an opening possession touchdown march, but then only produced three points on the Bears’ next nine drives. Not after the Bears coughed up an 11-point third-quarter lead and allowed 21 unanswered points in 10 minutes.
However, if Johnson needs a place to start with his corrections, he can cue up the video of his squad’s 12 penalties Monday night, infractions that cost his team 127 yards. The longest of the night was a pass interference foul against cornerback Wright (42 yards) in the first half, but the flags were everywhere. All night. Seven on the offense, including four false starts, plus four on the defense and one on special teams. Many in key moments.
Sure, a Dayo Odeyingbo roughing the passer penalty in the third quarter felt iffy. Later, a holding call on Darnell Wright may have been phantom. However, that’s a loser’s lament.
For a team with an already thin margin for error, the penalty epidemic must be assessed and corrected immediately. — Dan Wiederer, Bears senior writer
(Photo of J.J. McCarthy: Matt Marton / Imagn Images)
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Metroid Prime 4: Beyond finally gets release date, plus Samus on a motorbike

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond has finally received a release date from Nintendo, following months of speculation.
As revealed at today’s Nintendo Direct livestream, Metroid Prime 4 will release on 4th December across both Switch and Switch 2.
The announcement came with a fresh look at the game, including Samus on a motorbike. Yes, you read that correctly.
Back in June, an advertisement for the game was seen on the London Underground stating the game was “out now”, though this was swiftly debunked by Nintendo.
Still, while the game officially had a 2025 launch window, rumours of a delay intensified over the summer, though Nintendo remained committed to a release this year.
In July the game popped up on the Korean ratings board and then, a month later, was rated by the ESRB. As such, a proper release date has been hotly anticipated.
Metroid Prime 4 is the long-awaited latest entry in Nintendo’s sci-fi series, that once again follows bounty hunter Samus Aran in first-person. This time, though, she’s got psychic powers.
I went hands-on with Metroid Prime 4 at Nintendo’s Switch 2 launch event, but wasn’t completely convinced by its mouse controls.
This is a news-in-brief story. This is part of our vision to bring you all the big news as part of a daily live report.
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Why Ellison Wants Paramount to Acquire Warner Bros. Discovery Pre-Split

David Ellison‘s Skydance Media just completed the $8 billion takeover of Paramount Global five weeks ago. Now, before Ellison and his team have even finished the work of laying off upwards of 2,000 employees at the newly merged Paramount Skydance to slash costs, the son of tech multibillionaire Larry Ellison is mulling what would currently be a $70 billion-plus deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in its entirety.
The question is: Why now?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to wait until WBD splits in half — to form Warner Bros. (HBO Max and studios) and Discovery Global (TV networks) — a transaction CEO David Zaslav says is on track to be done in April 2026? The WBD separation is designed to boost the value of its streaming and studios businesses by carving off the declining TV arm. Paramount Skydance could make a play for the standalone Warner Bros. without assuming the baggage (including the lion’s share of WBD debt) of the entity that will house CNN, TNT, TBS, Discovery and other nets. And through a deal for standalone Warner Bros., Paramount Skydance would still get its hands on the key growth driver going forward: HBO Max. (The mind reels at what a fused HBO Max-Paramount+ might be rebranded.)
One possibility is that a Larry Ellison-backed M&A play for WBD has been part of the Skydance strategy all along. The idea would be “to consolidate media assets during a period of industry-wide instability and build a conglomerate with a streaming-first focus wrapped with TV and film studios and potentially a larger linear television portfolio,” MoffettNathanson analyst Robert Fishman wrote in a research note Thursday.
And the advantage of moving now is that it could “preempt a potential bidding war for only the Warner Bros. Streaming & Studios assets post-split,” Fishman noted. “By acting now, [Paramount Skydance] positions itself to secure the entire company before rivals can cherry-pick the most attractive assets.”
Indeed, prior to news of Paramount Skydance’s prepping a bid for WBD, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, Wells Fargo media analyst Steven Cahall issued a note that pegged the future standalone Warner Bros. as “an attractive M&A candidate” — with Netflix “the most compelling buyer,” and other potential suitors including Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Sony and Paramount Skydance.
Regarding the separated Warner Bros. streaming and studios biz, Cahall wrote, “This will be the only large IP asset for sale at a time when most studios/streamers have big aspirations.” The analyst acknowledged that Netflix has not historically made any big M&A deals. But he opined a Netflix takeover of Warner Bros. had a number of benefits, including being able to “kickstart” a theatrical strategy for the streamer, help it scale video games and “most importantly [provide] premium content to members.” Cahall calculated the value of standalone Warner Bros. at around $65 billion.
To be sure, any Paramount Skydance offer for Warner Bros. Discovery would face big financial and regulatory obstacles — arguably much greater than Skydance-Paramount merger.
After Warner Bros. Discovery shares zoomed up 29% on the potential Paramount bid, WBD now has a market value of $40 billion. When adding in debt (minus cash and equivalents), the enterprise value of Warner Bros. Discovery is now about $71 billion. And that is a far bigger price than the Ellisons paid to swing Skydance-Paramount.
“We think the high debt leverage of WBD is an impediment to a high bid for WBD’s shares,” Kenneth Leon, director of industry and equity research at CFRA Research, said in a Sept. 11 note. He suggested that, even if Paramount Skydance wins a deal for Warner Bros. Discovery as a whole, it may “be only interested in the businesses that will become Warner Bros. and not see meaningful value creation from the Discovery Global media portfolio.”
But MoffettNathanson’s Fishman speculated that Paramount Skydance could see big benefits by pooling its TV business with WBD’s. “Overall, we would expect material cost synergies from the overlapping cable networks,” he wrote — i.e., layoffs. Fishman added there there are “presumably a high level of synergies from combining CBS News with CNN plus the long-term existing partnership between CBS and Turner with the NCAA’s March Madness Final Four.”
Then there’s the question of whether a Paramount-WBD tie-up could get regulatory approval, as it represents a more horizontal combination of two media giants than Skydance-Paramount. Skydance was largely a production company, with limited overlap with Paramount Global.
Already coming out against the notion of a combined Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery was Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), who wrote in a post on X Thursday that such a media merger “must be blocked as a dangerous concentration of power.”
The Trump administration OK’d the Skydance-Paramount merger, after Skydance made key concessions to the FCC including hiring a CBS News ombudsman to vet complaints of “bias” and promising to never bring back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at the company. But Warren and others have alleged Paramount Global’s $16 million payment to Trump to settle his lawsuit (alleging CBS News’ “60 Minutes” deceptively edited an interview with then-VP Kamala Harris) was a “bribe” to get Trump’s blessing on their deal while Warren also called out Trump’s claim that the new owners of Paramount promised $20 million worth of free advertising. “Remember when Trump announced a multimillion-dollar secret deal with CEO David Ellison? And then — shocker — Trump approved Ellison buying CBS/Paramount,” Warren wrote in the post. “Now, Ellison wants to take over CNN/Warner Bros.” (Skydance and Paramount said they complied with all U.S. laws throughout the merger process, including antibribery laws.)
Whatever scenario ultimately unfolds, Zaslav for one seemingly will see his wish for media biz consolidation realized.
After Trump was elected to a second term in November 2024, Zaslav expressed optimism the new administration would facilitate industry M&A. Trump 2.0, Zaslav said, “may offer a pace of change and an opportunity for consolidation that may be quite different” and that it may “provide a real positive and accelerated impact on this industry that’s needed.”
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Trump says he’s sending the National Guard into Memphis to ‘fix’ crime like D.C.

President Donald Trump said Friday that he’s planning to send federal law enforcement and the National Guard into Memphis, Tennessee, to lower crime in the city following his surge into Washington, D.C., over the last month.
“We’re going to Memphis. Memphis is deeply troubled,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” in New York. “The mayor is happy. He’s a Democrat. And the governor of Tennessee, the governor is happy. We’re gonna fix that just like we did Washington.”
The president then raised the issue of lowering crime in Chicago, a frequent talking point of his, saying, “I would’ve preferred going to Chicago,” and criticizing Democratic officials in the city for opposing the move.
Trump said he decided on Memphis after speaking with someone he knows on the board of Fedex who brought up the crime rate in the city.
“We’re going to Memphis.” Trump said. “I’m just announcing that now, and we’ll straighten that out — National Guard and anybody else we need. And by the way, we’ll bring in the military, too, if we need it.”
FBI data shows that violent crimes have hovered at around 15,000 to 16,000 a year in Memphis in the last five years, marking an increase of several thousand from a decade ago.
The offices of Memphis Mayor Paul Young and Republican Gov. Bill Lee didn’t immediately respond to NBC News’ requests for comment.
Trump acknowledged that he has “more power” in D.C., whose officials share authority with the federal government, and said the administration has had a positive relationship with Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser.
“We’ve had a great relationship,” Trump said. “Everybody’s happy, and the mayor was not in favor of it at first … and then she saw the results, and everyone’s going up and thanking her. We have no crime anymore.”
Trump’s emergency order authorizing a federal takeover of the D.C. police force for 30 days expired this week, and would have required Congress to extend it further under a law that grants the city some autonomy.
Bowser said federal law enforcement personnel would remain in the nation’s capital, but the Metropolitan Police Department would stop transporting people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
While the city would return to the “status quo,” she said, “federal police officers are going to be in the district … federal police officers can enhance the public safety mission of MPD.”
Bowser said last month that the increase of federal forces in the nation’s capital did lead to a drop in crime.
“We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city,” she said. In the first 20 days of the federal takeover, there had been an 87% drop in carjackings compared with the same period last year. The data cited also showed a 45% decrease in violent crime and a 15% fall in crime overall in the district from the same period last year.
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