Vikings at Niners Recap: Gotta Play Sixty Minutes! Vikes Win!

The Vikings faced the San Francisco 49ers in their third preseason game but first one at U.S. Bank Stadium for the season, and they didn’t exactly impress their loyal fans showing up for this exhibition. The Niners started fast and strong and caught the Vikings squad sleeping, even though the home team ultimately pulled it out 32-31 with no time on the clock.

The Vikings scores (all in the second half after the starters had retreated from the game), were from a 58-yard field goal by Marshall Koehn, a nifty side-armed pass from Case Keenum to Rodney Adams for a nine-yard score, a 108-yard kickoff return by Jerick McKinnon (right on the heels of long Niners touchdown run), a 16-yard Keenum to Kyle Carter touchdown pass and a Terrell Newby one-yard run in the final seconds. The McKinnon score finally got the home crowd cheering, and Taylor Heinicke’s two-yard run for the go ahead extra two points had them standing on their feet.

But we mustn’t forget that the Niners almost moved the ball at will on the Vikings in the first half. If this was a dress rehearsal for the starters, the Vikings might want to consider a mulligan (they won’t) on Thursday against the Miami Dolphins—a game that can’t come soon enough for the team or their fans.

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The starters for the Vikings, didn’t, well, start very early in this game. One play into the second quarter, the Niners had a 14-0 lead in the game. San Francisco quarterback Brian Hoyers was 9 for 9 passing for 152 yards and two touchdowns at that point, while Sam Bradford was sacked twice in three plays on their second offensive drive. This is not what the head coach Mike Zimmer was looking for in the Vikings first home game of the preseason, and the same goes for the decent-sized, but not sold out, crowd at U.S. Bank Stadium.

The offensive line had a good showing in last week’s loss to the Seahawks, and they got back left guard Alex Boone from injury, plus featured the Vikings debut of left tackle Riley Reiff. Nick Easton got the start at center (with Pat Elflein taking over in the second quarter) and Joe Berger at right guard, but it was right tackle Mike Remmers, who got plenty of notice from those watching the game. The unit played poorly as a whole in the first quarter with Remmers having his particular struggles. Quarterback Sam Bradford had plenty of 49ers in his face in the game, suffering two sacks and three QB hits in two quarters of play. In addition, starting running back Dalvin Cook found little room to run behind a line that was getting pushed around in the early going.

The defense, itself, was a little late in getting to the starting gate, as well. They looked like the San Francisco 49ers that last year . . . wait, never mind. The starting Vikings defense appeared uninspired ill-prepared for the game—slow behind the Niners’ quick-starting (almost hurry up) offense. The pass defense made Hoyer look like an All-Pro, as he hit Marquise Goodwin for a 46-yard touchdown pass in the first series of the game, and then came back with another to Carlos Hyde. Neither play was defended well, as the Vikings defense did little to stop the Niners. When they did, however, it had more to do with Hoyer being Hoyer and under-throwing some receivers. The defensive line had little pressure on the quarterback and did even less to stop the run. Zimmer likely wasn’t happy at halftime and will be crabby as practice resumes this week.

Worth Defending

Latavius Murray got his first action as a Viking on Sunday night and he looked good returning from his offseason ankle surgery. He got in during the second quarter and saw limited action (two carries and a reception), but he looked quick and powerful and appears to handle receiver duties well. He caught a pass on a play that could have been the most exciting of the first half—had it stood. Bradford spun and scrambled away from a heavy rush and sprinted left, looking like he was going to run the ball (please don’t) until right before reaching the line of scrimmage he stopped short and shot-put a pass to a wide open Murray waiting by the sideline, who ran past the markers. Unfortunately, Murray had stepped out of bounds and had not re-established himself back in the field of play before receiving the pass, so it was nullified. Murray’s night ended quickly, but look for him to make plenty of contributions to the offense this season.

Coming into the game, quarterback Sam Bradford wanted to be sharp and execute, and he did so to a certain degree despite a leaky offensive line (something he is likely used to experiencing). But he can’t be happy about having to run for his life often against San Francisco. On the night, Bradford was 17 of 21 for 134 yards and a 93.3 QB rating, but his numbers could have been better save for a couple of drops. Bradford did a bit of checking down in the game, but threw deep a couple times—better line play might have offered more opportunities. Sam is still the guy in this offense, and hopefully he will find time to show exactly what he can do this season.

There are a few more players worth mentioning: the return of Laquon Treadwell, catching three passes for 36 yards; McKinnon making a legitimate play for the kick return position with his touchdown (anyway to get on the field); and Keenum looking decent in the back up role. He finished the game 10 of 14 for 139 yards and two touchdowns for a 142.6 quarterback rating.

Should be Ending

Trae Waynes returned to the lineup after injuring his shoulder on the first play of the preseason. Let’s just say he looked rusty in his return, as the Niners picked on him for much of the first half. Hoyer connected on several passes in front of him, and Waynes didn’t really make a decent play on the ball until late in the half when he knocked a deep ball away from Goodwin (which could have also been called pass interference on Waynes). The Vikings are counting on Waynes to be the starting left corner when the season starts, and that could have been what Zimmer reminded him of during a short but terse conversation on the sideline in the first half.

Stefon Diggs also had a rough night at wide receiver with two bad drops in the first half that would have resulted in first downs for the Vikings. One he tried to catch with his hands and the other with his body and neither of them worked out very well. He finished the night with two catches on eight targets for six yards. Not exactly what we want to see out of the team’s number one wideout. Everyone can have a bad game and he will correct it, but it was symptomatic of the first half for Minnesota in that few players came to the game ready to play.

The way the Vikings offense played, it appeared early that the directive from the coaching staff was to give the punters a chance to finish their position battle. So, let’s act like that was the case (we know it wasn’t), since this battle will likely go down to the wire in the preseason. The Vikings punted five times in the first half (but didn’t punt in the second half) with each punter’s average hovering around 42.0 yards per punt. On the game, Ryan Quigley had the longest punt (by a yard) with a 47 yarder and Taylor Symmank had the only punt inside the 20. Stay tuned.

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