With J.J. McCarthy sidelined, Max Brosmer took charge with Skol Nation watching closely. And it was not a pretty outing for the Minnesota Vikings quarterback. Still, the Vikings found a way past the Pride from the Detroit Lions with a 23-10 Christmas win. And now, after a huge win, Brosmer shared his experience.

In the post-game presser, Brosmer did not duck the truth. Instead, he leaned into it.

“Lots of learning. NFL football is hard, and people say it a lot. NFL football is fun, too. That’s not me saying I don’t enjoy this. My favorite part is the process.”

So, he sounds ready to live in it. Still, the box score told a blunt story. Brosmer finished with nine completions for 51 yards. That line rarely screams victory.

However, Minnesota did not chase style points. Instead, they leaned on muscle. Jordan Addison punched one in on the ground. Aaron Jones followed him. As a result, most of the damage came from rushing, not throwing, and the Vikings never looked back.

However, the road to this moment was already shaky. Earlier, Brosmer’s first career start against the Seahawks unraveled with four interceptions against the Seattle Seahawks. Then, just last weekend, he nearly let a win slip away against Big Blue. That Giants team sits at 2-13, tied with the silver and black from Sin City for the worst record in football.

Meanwhile, the bigger picture stays complicated. McCarthy has clearly grown as the season moved along. Yet his body keeps betraying him. The Michigan product lost all of last year to a torn meniscus. This season, he has appeared in only nine games. Different injuries, but the same frustration. For now, the Vikings wait, and Brosmer keeps learning. Still, the head coach is not going easy on him.

Kevin O’Connell blames Max Brosmer for the offense’s struggles

The Vikings did enough to win in Week 17. They are flaws, especially for Max Brosmer. And Kevin O’Connell made it clear that effort alone is not the bar in Minnesota. The head coach pointed straight at execution. O’Connell explained why the offense never found a clean rhythm.

“Max (Brosmer) just being really his second start, just running the show, wasn’t kind of our standard in the past game. But sometimes, depending on how your team plays collectively as a group,” O’Connell said in his post-game conference.

Still, context matters. Brosmer is a rookie. Through seven games, he has completed 40 of 63 passes for 271 yards with four interceptions. The efficiency looks fine on paper. The impact has not followed. Even against Detroit, he missed chances and struggled to push the ball. At the same time, the offensive line leaked pressure all night.

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But there was one quiet positive. Brosmer protected the ball when it mattered. He put it on the turf once but never lost it. On the other side, Jared Goff unraveled. The Lions’ quarterback fumbled three times and lost all three. Those swings mattered. In the end, the Vikings survived despite one of their ugliest performances.