MINNEAPOLIS — With Sunday’s 23-17 defeat, the San Francisco 49ers have now lost eight straight road games to the Minnesota Vikings.
The streak dates back 32 years, to 1992, and is highlighted by massive Minnesota passing plays. In 2003, Vikings Hall of Fame receiver Randy Moss posted a handful of them while racking up 172 yards. In 2009, 39-year-old quarterback Brett Favre punched the 49ers in the gut with a 32-yard touchdown pass to receiver Greg Lewis to give Minnesota the lead with just seconds left. And just last season, the Vikings pulled off an upset thanks in large part to wideout Jordan Addison’s 60-yard touchdown catch that beat both a bizarre Cover-0 call and the halftime buzzer.
Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that Minnesota’s latest takedown of the 49ers featured a marquee aerial moment of its own.
This one came in the second quarter after the 49ers had failed to convert fourth-and-goal but still found themselves in an advantageous spot with the Vikings backed up at their own 3-yard line. Minnesota quarterback Sam Darnold, who spent last season as the 49ers’ backup working against the 49ers’ top defense in practice, saw a coverage he could exploit.
The 49ers didn’t have a single cornerback aligned to cover the Vikings’ Justin Jefferson, the best receiver in the NFL. That was the first problem — and it was a glaring one. The second issue came after the snap, as safety George Odum, who was covering Jefferson near the line of scrimmage, passed off the coverage to high safety Ji’Ayir Brown.
Jefferson made Brown think he was breaking inside.
“That kind of slowed me down,” Brown said in the locker room. “I anticipated him going over, and he just took the roof off. Sam did a hell of a job throwing it. He let that thing go.”
JUSTIN JEFFERSON 97 YARD TUDDY!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/0PJs9mheCK
— NFL (@NFL) September 15, 2024
The result was a 97-yard touchdown pass that gave the Vikings a 10-0 lead they wouldn’t relinquish. The 49ers offense, which has yet to find its typical red-zone rhythm through two games, didn’t have quite enough juice to climb uphill against a double-digit deficit — especially since defenders not named Fred Warner or Nick Bosa failed to deliver consistent help over the rest of the game.
Those two superstars, for what it’s worth, were excellent. Bosa notched two sacks, while Warner logged nine tackles while singlehandedly keeping the game close with two takeaways. One came when he intercepted Darnold in the first half and the second came at the end of the third quarter, just as Minnesota running back Aaron Jones was about to cross the goal line for what would’ve given the Vikings a three-score lead. Warner, though, barreled head-on into Jones and punched the ball out.
“I just see it and I know he wants to score a touchdown,” Warner said. “So I can either tackle him or I can try to change the game.”
We’ll take that! @fred_warner x @isaacshowtime
📺 #SFvsMIN on CBS
NFL+ // https://t.co/KTh0i4nCVJ pic.twitter.com/xttYVng2W3— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) September 15, 2024
That was Warner’s second forced fumble in the first two games of this season and the 14th of his career. The first came in his 2018 NFL debut, also at U.S. Bank Stadium field against Minnesota. Warner’s 14 career forced fumbles trail only Hall of Fame linebacker Patrick Willis, who had 16, on the 49ers’ all-time franchise list.
Warner also successfully defended two passes, including a diving pass breakup on an early throw to Jones. His 48 passes defended trail Willis by only five for the most of any 49er ever.
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“Fred’s playing like a Hall of Famer, best in the world, Defensive Player of the Year right now,” 49ers cornerback Charvarius Ward said in the locker room. “He’s our leader. Everyone trying to pick it up like he’s doing.”
Perhaps the 49ers will alter their coverage strategy the next time they face an elite receiver. On Sunday, they opted not to have Ward — an All-Pro in his own right — trail Jefferson throughout the game. That’s a tactic the 49ers had employed against top wideouts in the past, most notably when coach Kyle Shanahan ensured that Ward would trail the Seattle Seahawks’ DK Metcalf in a Thanksgiving night game last season.
“I feel like I play best when I follow the best receiver around, but that wasn’t the game plan,” Ward said. “When I follow the best receiver around, I’m always alert, I’m ready for the challenge — but that’s just where the game plan was at (today).”
The 49ers’ problems in coverage, though, extended far beyond any strategy employed to contain Jefferson, who exited the game late in the third quarter with a quad contusion. The Vikings were also down receiver Jordan Addison, out with an ankle injury, but the 49ers were still unable to stop Minnesota when it mattered most. Darnold engineered a 14-play fourth-quarter drive that essentially sealed the game without his top two wideouts, converting a pair of third-and-long situations on the way.
“We’ve got to get off the field on third down,” Brown said. “We did a good job first and second down. But third down is when it really matters, and Sam made some plays. The OC drew up some things on third down — and they executed.”
Meanwhile, the 49ers clearly didn’t. They allowed Minnesota to covert on 7-of-12 third downs. This — along with poor run defense — had already been a problem area for the 49ers in 2023 when they allowed conversions on 42.5 percent of third downs. That was the sixth-worst mark in the league.
The team hoped that a change of defensive leadership — Nick Sorensen replaced Steve Wilks at coordinator — and an infusion of talent into the secondary would ameliorate the problem. But the 49ers’ run defense was bad again on Sunday, allowing 146 yards on 6.1 yards per rush, and their third-down defense suffered through corresponding struggles.
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It’s still very early in this 2024 season, and that’s the good news for the 49ers, who must find a way to congeal their defensive talent into a consistent unit. Following Warner’s lead would be a good start, and that’s why the linebacker addressed the team in the locker room after the game.
“It hurts my soul, honestly,” Warner said. “We knew exactly what was going to be required to win this game. I told the team in there, ‘It’s never going to be an issue of us playing hard. We always play hard. We’ve got so much talent in that room, we always play hard. But it’s about playing smarter. We’ve got to protect the football. We’ve got to take it away on defense. Special teams, we can’t give up that blocked punt.’
“Defensively, when we say we’ve got to stop the run and we’ve got to be great on third down and we don’t do either of those things, it’s going to be a long day. We didn’t do anything to help ourselves in this game and they obviously played better than us.”
(Top photo of Sam Darnold: Stephen Maturen / Getty Images)
