Vikes Beat the Niners—Quit on this Team? “No Tanks!”
Joe Oberle
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Vikings Territory Breakdown
It was all there for the Vikings on Monday Night Football: The Packers lost and the NFC North-leading Lions got mauled in Baltimore. A win against the San Francisco 49ers at U.S. Bank Stadium and they would be back in the race. So what did they do? Threw a pick on the third play of the game. But they got it right back on a Christian McCaffery fumble. (Perhaps the turnover gods wanted to pay the Purple back.) Quarterback Kirk Cousins got a chance at redemption and made it pay—a great 75-yard drive for a 7-0 lead and a chance.
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It went well for the Vikings for a while—that Niner fumble was followed by a Niner missed field goal and the Vikings had a 10-0 lead. But the Niners scored before the half and then Jordan Addison got his redemption by stealing a pick from Charvarius Ward, the defending who stole reception from Addison on the third play of the game. It gave the Vikings a 16-7 halftime lead and a chance,
In the second half, the game got real and the teams started exchanging blows. The Vikings put together decent drives that too often ended in field goals and the Niners raced up the field too quickly for TDs. The Vikings held a 22-14 (shocking, a one-score game) at the end of the third quarter, setting up an amazing final stanza.
And amazing it was. Cam Bynum pulled down (literally) two interceptions to help ice the win and improve the Vikings turnover differential. The Vikings were 8-13 on third down, only punted the ball one time, gave up no sacks and had a coming-out game for Jordan Addison. And Kirk Cousins, by the way, was 35 of 45 for 378 yards, two touchdowns and 107.2 in prime time on Monday night. Not bad, young man. We will talk about it all on the Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast with Mark Craig from the Star Tribune. Tune in and check it out.
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