During Sunday's loss to the Baltimore Ravens, Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson put together one of the worst performances of his NFL career.
Jefferson was targeted 12 times, and he only managed to haul in four of those passes for 37 yards.
After the game, some wondered if something was wrong with the star Vikings receiver, and when asked about it in the locker room, he pretty much chalked it up to him just having an off day on the field.
"I feel like I was okay physically. The ball just didn't really find my hand today. That's a part of football, that's a part of our life. It's tough to get those opportunities, and [I've] gotta make the most of those opportunities.
So, we gotta go back to it and go back to work in practice. Fix the things that we need to fix, so on Sundays, it's a cakewalk."
Was it just an off day, or was something else going on with Minnesota Vikings WR Justin Jefferson in loss to Baltimore Ravens?
There were a number of factors in play on Sunday that could have resulted in Jefferson having a bad performance.
Through four games together this season, the All-Pro receiver and second-year Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy have struggled to develop a solid connection on the field. But this is to be expected since Sunday was only McCarthy's fourth-ever start in the NFL.
Some of Jefferson's struggles could have been due to the play-calling of Minnesota head coach Kevin O'Connell. Sometimes, just quickly getting the ball into his hands is a better option than having him run these long-developing routes all the time.
Then, of course, there's always the way that opposing defenses play Jefferson each week. The Vikings receiver is going to be double, triple, and sometimes quadruple-covered throughout each contest, and it's not hard to understand how that could become frustrating for him at times.
Jefferson and McCarthy will get another chance to improve their chemistry next weekend when they take on a tough Chicago Bears team. Hopefully Minnesota's young quarterback and their star wide receiver are able to, at the very least, help their team get back on track after a tough loss to the Ravens on Sunday.