The Minnesota Vikings started their home season with an upset win over the heavily favored defending NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers, winning 23-17. Vegas favored the Niners by 5.5 points over the Vikings, but Minnesota surprised Fog City for the second year in a row.
Led by former 49ers backup QB Sam Darnold, the Vikings controlled most of the game and never relinquished their lead. The team set the tone early, creating havoc with a blocked punt that they turned into three points. The defense did more than its fair share against the high-powered 49ers offense, stopping them at the one-yard line on the next drive. In the shadow of their goal line, the Vikings orchestrated a 99-yard drive for the second week in a row.
However, the Vikings missed several opportunities to make this a more convincing win. They turned the ball over twice deep in San Francisco territory, played impressively through the second half, and were the better team on offense and defense. Up only six without his top tight end and two best receivers, Darnold orchestrated a six-minute, 46-second drive for a field goal to make it a two-score game, leaving the Niners with 3:30 left in the game and no timeouts. Minnesota’s defense held strong, allowing only three points, and the game ended when the special teams recovered the onside kick to start 2-0 on the season.
Here are the numbers that tell the story of the game.
11:34
The Vikings called their first timeout with 11:34 left in the first quarter. The lack of a timeout hurt them when they took over with 1:50 left in the second half following Darnold’s pick and San Francisco’s first touchdown. Getting the play in on time has been something the Vikings have struggled with throughout the Kevin O’Connell era, and it happened yet again early in the first quarter.
While this game ended well for the Vikings, you have to wonder how important having that extra timeout at the end of the half might have been when Minnesota’s offense was driving and had to take three points instead of having the time to potentially take more shots into the end zone.
52
The Vikings took 52 seconds to score from the one-yard line after Sam Darnold’s 97-yard touchdown pass to Justin Jefferson in the second quarter. It was Minnesota’s longest touchdown pass since Gus Frerotte connected with Bernard Berrian for a 99-yard touchdown in 2008. The Vikings have had only five drives of 98 yards or more in franchise history, but they’ve produced two in the past two weeks.
It all started when Andrew Van Ginkel disrupted Brock Purdy‘s pass, allowing Harrison Smith to knock it incomplete, giving Minnesota’s offense the ball at their 1-yard line. While this drive isn’t the methodical type we saw against the New York Giants, it proved to be even more important and shows the faith O’Connell has in Darnold. Instead of running the ball three times and electing to play the field-position game, the Vikings dialed up a deep shot off play action and let Darnold make a throw.
Darnold connected with Jefferson, giving the ball an impressive 55 yards through the air. From there, JJ beat both the defenders around him with a nifty move for the score.
4
Patrick Jones II had two sacks against San Francisco, which makes four for the season. In his prior 42 NFL games, Jones II had recorded just five sacks. A lot has been made of the new faces on Minnesota’s front seven so far this season, and with good reason, but Jones II has been essential.
Minnesota’s defensive line got home and brought Purdy down behind the line of scrimmage six times on the day, and Jones ended up with the most individual sacks for the second week in a row. Even more impressive was how he was able to win some reps against Trent Williams, possibly the best left tackle in the NFL. If Jones can continue to be productive off the bench and provide meaningful snaps while allowing one of the other three to rest, it makes the front seven that much more deadly.
13
Blake Cashman had 13 tackles on the day, leading both teams. Cashman somewhat slipped through the cracks with the additions on the defense of Van Ginkel, Dallas Turner, Jonathan Greenard, and Stephon Gilmore. However, he was always around the action on the field today.
Cashman’s incredible day started early when he broke up a pass on San Francisco’s first third down of the game, getting into the passing lane and breaking up what would have been a surefire first down. Cashman broke up three passes on the day, the most important of which he tipped into the air for Josh Metellus to intercept deep in 49ers territory. He also notched a sack, bringing down Purdy and putting the Niners behind the chains late in the game.
While Van Ginkel will get most of the headlines for his disruption— and deservedly so — Cashman, another addition to the defense during free agency, has been just as impactful.
6:46
Darnold orchestrated a 14-play, 62-yard drive that took 6:46 off the clock, giving the Niners the ball back with 3:30 remaining and no timeouts.
At the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth, it seemed like everything that could go wrong did. Jefferson left the game with a quad contusion, and Aaron Jones fumbled at the one-yard line, leading to San Francisco’s 99-yard drive to bring the game back within one.
That left Darnold and Minnesota’s offense facing a tough situation.
Momentum was on San Francisco’s side. However, sans Jefferson, Addison, Hockenson, and Jones (for most of the drive), Darnold somehow was able to chew up almost the entirety of the clock. He drove the ball down the field, hitting Brandon Powell, Jalen Nailor, and Ty Chandler while forcing the 49ers to think about the clock and the score in the final three-and-a-half minutes of the game.
The result was another one-score victory. However, it looked a lot different than the close calls of 2022. This was a well-rounded, dominant performance by a team asserting themselves as underdog playoff contenders.
