The 49ers struggled on key plays and paid for it Sunday, losing 23-17 to the Vikings in Minnesota.
San Francisco was just 2-of-10 on third down and 1-of-3 on fourth down, failing on consecutive fourth-and-short attempts in the first half after a blocked punt had already yielded a Minnesota field goal.
The fourth-down failures sandwiched a 97-yard touchdown pass from Sam Darnold to star wideout Justin Jefferson that put the 49ers behind the 8-ball in the second quarter. They never did catch up.
Playing from behind, Brock Purdy finished the day 28-of-36 passing for 319 yards, a touchdown to George Kittle and an interception on an ill-advised throw in the third quarter. He was also sacked six times.
Jordan Mason rushed 20 times for 100 yards and a touchdown while Deebo Samuel had eight catches for 110 yards and only two carries for minus-10 yards.
Here’s what the 49ers had to say after the game:
Kyle Shanahan
On the performance:
It’s too sloppy on our part: The two turnovers on offense, struggling on third down on both offense and defense, special teams with the blocked punt — it’s the same as a turnover to us. It was disappointing. We can play a lot better than that, but I tip my hat to them. They’re part of the reason.
On Jefferson’s long touchdown:
Just beat a man in coverage and they launched the throw and got it past the middle-third safety, which made it a house call.
On third-down trouble:
They were good on third down all day. We had our opportunities with those turnovers that they got, but they made some big plays.
On whether there was a letdown:
There was no emotional letdown, nothing like that. Attribute it to not doing well on third down. We didn’t stop the run very well and the blocked punt — things like that, football things.
On how he felt after scoring in the fourth quarter:
Once we were able to get that turnover, go down and score and make it a one-possession game, I felt real good. We got them in some third downs I think we had an advantage in, but it made some big third-down plays, kept the chains moving and finished with with the field goal.
On the outlook for McCaffrey:
Nobody knows. We’re dealing with tendonitis, so there’s not one person who knows. He doesn’t know, we don’t know. We can take it day by day. You know, by putting him on IR, it’s at least four weeks so that’ll give him some time to rest and kind of protect him from himself.
On Darnold’s strong game:
Didn’t surprise me. We knew we were out for a challenge. Sam is a hell of a quarterback. He’s got a lot of arm talent and we also knew just scrambling-wise, he was going to be a different challenge today. And he got us on a couple scrambles, too. He’s done that his whole career.
George Kittle
On the game:
I think our standards are higher than what we put on tape today. It’s back-to-back weeks we started out like this with …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
