Are the Vikings a tough matchup for the mighty 49ers? If they play liked they did against the Giants, they will be.
EAGAN — If the Minnesota Vikings wrote down their dream scenario for Week 1 against the New York Giants, the notes would have said: Sam Darnold plays in rhythm and leads the offense effectively, the offensive line holds up, Aaron Jones dominates on the ground, the defense creates a ton of pressure and makes a couple game-changing plays.
All those boxes were checked in their complete destruction of the Giants.
As the Vikings prepare for Week 2, each one of those areas of success will face a tougher challenge than they did in New York (with only the exception of the interior of the offensive line that was tasked with trying to slow down Dexter Lawrence).
The dream scenario script against the San Francisco 49ers begins with Darnold continuing to play within Kevin O’Connell’s offense and the head coach giving him as many answers as he had against the Giants. That won’t be easy against a team that has consistently been among the best defenses in the league in recent years. In San Francisco’s debut against the New York Jets, they allowed just 266 yards of total offense. Aaron Rodgers went 13-for-21 with 167 yards with an interception and one time sacked. PFF graded the 49ers’ coverage as the sixth best of Week 1 and Fred Warner graded as the NFL’s best coverage linebacker.
“Fred’s [Warner] the best inside linebacker in the NFL, and then I think [Charvarius] Ward is one of the best corners in the NFL,” O’Connell said. “So, they’ve really established themselves. And when they get [Talanoa] Hufanga back as well, which could be this week, you really start seeing the layers to that defense. So, it’s personnel, it’s play style, and then it’s the scheme that they run that they’re so well coached at playing so hard within that gives you a lot of challenges on game day.”
It stands to reason that Darnold would have a particularly good understanding of the 49ers’ personnel and scheme having been their backup quarterback last year but KOC said that doesn’t make it much easier to go against them.
“I think it definitely helps with his own preparation because he’s very much aware of what they’re all about from what he’s going to be, the incredible challenge it’s going to be like it is for every quarterback that plays against them every single week,” O’Connell said. “Sam’s a really bright guy and whatever we can get from him to help us as coach’s game plan we’re going to try to do.”
The 49ers created a lot of their pressure off the edges with Nick Bosa picking up his typical five pressures and Leonard Floyd registering four against the Jets. On the flip side, pass protection was a strength on the edges for the Vikings as tackles Christian Darrisaw and Brian O’Neill are coming off strong opens to their season with just two combined pressures.
“I’ve just felt such an urgency from [Darrisaw] just to attempt to be one of the best at the position,” O’Connell said. “I’ve just seen him really have a laser focus to do that daily since we really kind of came back to camp. And it’s awesome to see when you see a guy get rewarded as he should have with the contract and then be you know the same guy every single day.”
The Vikings may have gotten quality play out of the tackles but need to be better on the interior, where they gave up 10 pressures between the right guard and center. 49ers defensive tackle Javon Hargrave got off to a slow start to the year against the Jets but picked up 64 pressures last season. Last season the Vikings were able to slow him to only two pressures.
The interior also has to continue to get a push in the run game. The Vikings graded as a team as the best run blocking unit in the NFL by PFF for Week 1 and Aaron Jones averaged 6.7 yards per rush as a result.
“They just were laying on those guys up front and giving me a two-way go so I could pick and choose which way I wanted to run,” Jones said.
“I think you saw Aaron have some explosive runs on some more tighter hitting kind of runs where he played the cutback really well,” O’Connell said.
While the play-action game didn’t go wild against the Giants, the run game helped Darnold to get into favorable situations often in New York. Only four of his attempts came on third down with more than seven yards to go and he went 8-for-9 on either first-and-10 or second-and-six or less.
Overall the favorable situations helped Darnold complete 79.2% of his passes. Interestingly, Darnold is 5-1 in his career when completing 70% of his throws or more, by the way.
Where there could be some concern is with wide receiver Jordan Addison’s health. Addison was a key player in the Vikings’ win over the 49ers last year but he missed practice on Wednesday with an ankle injury. It’s unclear if he has a chance to play on Sunday.
The Vikings will likely need everything they can get from their offense because the 49ers’ offense has been nothing short of prolific under Kyle Shanahan. Last year he finished third in the NFL in points and put up 32 against the strong Jets defense
“It really doesn’t get more challenging,” defensive coordinator Brian Flores said. “They’ve done an incredible job of acquiring players, developing players, and then those guys, they do a great job of [getting] the ball in those guys’ hands, and giving them the ability to use their talent’s gifts and abilities to run with it. I would say this is, easily the best run-after [catch] team in the league because of all those guys.”
In the opener Brock Purdy had an easy 231 yards at 8.0 yards per attempt and backup RB Jordan Mason stepped in for Christian McCaffrey and went for 147 yards on 28 carries.
“They just play so hard,” O’Connell said. “This is the team I think of when you talk about play style, not necessarily being about X’s and O’s. No matter what side of the ball you’re defending or playing offense against, they don’t particularly care too much if you know what’s coming, and I think that’s what’s a really powerful thing about the way Kyle [Shanahan] runs their program. There is in a lot of ways you know what’s coming and can you stop it.”
When Flores’ unit matched up with the 49ers last year, the Vikings were able slow down the running game. San Francisco only picked up 65 yards on the ground and despite 9.1 yards per attempt from Purdy the 49ers only put 17 yards on the board.
The Vikings have a mix of multi-faceted players who might be better suited to face off with the 49ers as any team in the NFL. And the more versatile players stood out in Week 1, particularly Andrew Van Ginkel, who scored a touchdown on an interception and had three QB pressures, and Harrison Smith, who picked off a Daniel Jones pass to seal the victory.
“I think our staff’s done a great job of finding out the strengths and weaknesses of those players and then coming up with creative ways to deploy,” Flores said.
Flores deployed 17 different players on defense with at least 10 snaps and got multiple pressures from seven of them.
Pressuring Purdy is essential. In 2023, the 49ers’ quarterback had a QB rating of 82.9 when under pressure and had the seventh most turnover-worthy plays under duress. When he wasn’t facing the heat, he had a 122.6 rating.
Shanahan has found a number of ways to put Purdy in the best situations to avoid pressure and get the ball into playmakers’ hands. Last season Purdy’s completion percentage shot up 12.5% when using play-action and he averaged 7.9 yards per attempt when throwing screens.
“A perfect fusion of talent and schematics,” Flores said.
The Vikings’ linebackers Ivan Pace Jr. and Blake Cashman, who both graded in the top 25 (out of 75) LBs in Week 1, will have their work cut out for them in diagnosing Shanahan’s motions and misdirections. The 49ers used the fifth most motion in the NFL last week, per ESPN’s Seth Walder.
This Sunday’s matchup leans toward the 49ers. They are favored by 5.5 points because of the strength of their roster and reputation as a Super Bowl contender. But if the things that went right for the Vikings carry over into Week 2, it could be a closer battle than expected. The 49ers act as an early test case to see how they stack up against the best of the best.