There were two receivers earning at least $30 million a year on the field on Sunday.
One had four catches for 133 yards, including a 97-yard touchdown, at halftime.
The other had one catch for two yards at the break
No, Brandon Aiyuk’s lackluster start to the season isn’t unexpected and it wasn’t the main reason the San Francisco 49ers fell to the Minnesota Vikings 23-17, the eighth straight game they’ve dropped in Minnesota.
The 49ers were terrible on third and fourth downs, converting only three of 13 attempts. They committed two turnovers, had a punt blocked and — wait, what are the rules again? — neglected to tag Theo Jackson, who recovered the blocked punt. He hopped to his feet and returned the ball 37 yards, setting up the Vikings’ first field goal.
They also initially seemed to forget that Jordan Mason had rushed for 147 yards just six days earlier. Seven of their first eight plays were passes.
And, of course, they were playing their second straight game without the NFL’s reigning Offensive Player of the Year, Christian McCaffrey. Kyle Shanahan said afterward that McCaffrey’s sore Achilles tendon needs rest and that putting him on injured reserve will force him to get that rest and, according to Shanahan, “kind of protect him from himself, too.”
But it’s also clear that Aiyuk is still rounding into form and that the 49ers have been missing an over-the-top element of their passing offense they leaned heavily on last season.
When they finally turned to Mason, they gained yards on the ground. He punished the Vikings defensive backs just like he did the New York Jets’ in finishing with 100 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries.
Money moves @jpmason27
📺 #SFvsMIN on CBS
NFL+ // https://t.co/KTh0i4nCVJ pic.twitter.com/QnUQRwifCI— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) September 15, 2024
George Kittle caught seven of the eight passes that went his way, including a 7-yard touchdown in the second quarter. And Deebo Samuel Sr. was nearly as efficient in hauling in eight of 10 targets and finishing with 110 yards. The 49ers ultimately gained plenty of yards — 399, which were just two fewer than in their Week 2 win over the Jets. Brock Purdy finished with 319 passing yards, the first time he’d been over the 300-yard barrier since Week 14 in Seattle last season.
Those passing yards didn’t come easy.
Nearly all of Samuel’s catches were highly contested throws across the middle in which Samuel, a credit to him, was able to secure the ball amid a sea of Vikings’ hands.
A typical Purdy pass saw him drop back, then wait — and wait and wait and wait — for a receiver to come open. His time-to-throw statistic — how much time elapses between the snap and throw — on Sunday was 3.02 seconds, according to Next Gen Stats. Last week it was 2.74 seconds.
As a result, the Vikings sacked Purdy six times. The most he’d been sacked in any of his previous 28 starts was four times.
After the game, the 49ers gave a lot of credit to Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores.
You remember Flores, right? During the 2020 season, his Miami Dolphins team came into Levi’s Stadium and pummeled the 49ers 43-13. Last season, his Vikings defense held the 49ers to 17 points — tied for their lowest output of the season — and intercepted Purdy twice.
He was up to his old tricks on Sunday, dialing up blitzes at crucial moments and doing his best to confuse and disrupt Purdy.
One of them came on a fourth-and-goal play in the second quarter when the Vikings called a zero blitz and the extra pass rusher tipped Purdy’s throw to Jauan Jennings.
“It’s a tip of the cap to Brian Flores,” Purdy said.
There were very few easy, in-rhythm throws or wide-open targets for Purdy.
One of the players the 49ers drafted for his separation skills, Ricky Pearsall, must miss at least two more games after the team placed him on the non-football injury list. He resumed working out last week.
Aiyuk, meanwhile, also seemed absent for long stretches on Sunday. He caught a 2-yard pass on the 49ers’ second snap of the contest, but didn’t get his second reception — for 22 yards — until six minutes remained in the third quarter. So much time had elapsed between catches that CBS’s play-by-play announcer, Kevin Harlan, seemed to forget the first one.
“Brandon Aiyuk, for the first time today, comes up with a reception,” he said.
Aiyuk’s slow start isn’t surprising. No one expected big outings from him in Weeks 1 or 2 after he missed all of the spring and summer practices amid a difficult contract negotiation. He started to heat up a bit late as the 49ers clicked into hurry-up mode and he finished with four grabs for 43 yards. It’s entirely possible that Aiyuk is back to himself in a few weeks and that as soon as he has a 100-yard outing or hauls in a game-winning touchdown few fans will remember his contentious summer.
But it’s evident that the magic he and Purdy had to open last season — eight catches of eight targets, 129 yards and two touchdowns in a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers — is in short supply right now.
“For me, I think he looks pretty good and stuff,” Purdy said postgame in an attempt to be diplomatic. “I’m not dropping back and going, ‘BA’s not like what he’s been like.’ I don’t think that at all. I think for me, I try to go through my reads and he’s been where he needs to be. There’s probably a couple of routes, maybe, in certain looks where we both could have been better on some stuff. But that’s like early-in-the-season stuff if you ask me.”
(Top photo of Brock Purdy: Brad Rempel / USA Today)
