Two weeks ago, the San Francisco 49ers sat at 5-0 after demolishing the Dallas Cowboys. Now, following Monday night’s 22-17 loss in Minnesota, Nick Bosa and the suddenly 5-2 Niners are seeking answers.
“The NFL will humble you every step of the way,” Bosa said, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “Getting off to a 5-0 start, you kind of get that confidence that you are who we need to be, but the NFL does that. Good players, good schemes, and we’re going to face another good team this week, so we gotta be ready.”
The Niners D couldn’t get off the field Monday night, allowing Kirk Cousins and the Vikings to tally 452 yards and go 8 of 13 on third downs. If not for two red-zone stands, the game would have turned into a blowout.
Enduring their first back-to-back losses in exactly a year (Weeks 6-7, 2022), the Niners lacked complementary play that defined their early string of blowouts. The defense couldn’t discombobulate Cousins, generating zero sacks while the secondary got burned by a Justin Jefferson-less Vikings crew. On offense, Brock Purdy tossed two interceptions and Christian McCaffrey fumbled on the first possession of the night.
The Niners, who had four impressive victories in their initial five games, have now consecutively lost two close matches, falling short at the conclusion of each game.
“I think the thing right now is we’ve got to find ways to win the grimy games, the ones where it’s not looking great and find a way,” linebacker Fred Warner said, per ESPN. “Obviously, we can win, 30-10, but who are we and what are we going to do when we’re down and we’ve got to come back and win a game?”
The Niners were missing key pieces Monday night, including star left tackle Trent Williams and wideout Deebo Samuel, but it’s not as if their two losses came against healthy opponents. The Browns were missing Nick Chubb, Deshaun Watson, Joel Bitonio and others. The Vikings didn’t have Jefferson on Monday but still put up 378 receiving yards.
Kyle Shanahan is aware that his team must quickly recover from the prime-time defeat to prevent further escalation.
“The 49ers head coach admitted, “We were outright defeated,” according to the official transcript. “I believe we have to accept it like men. We have a game coming up and when we wake up tomorrow, it’ll be five days away. We’re facing a team that’s coming off a bye week and has been gearing up for this for a while. We can’t spend time fretting over past outcomes. We need to focus on ensuring we do everything possible from now until the end of the game on Sunday to defeat the Bengals. Then it’s our turn for a bye week. I just reminded our guys, we have roughly five and a half days left. We need to concentrate on that and aim to head into the bye week with a 6-2 record, not 5-3.”
To put it a Belichick way: They’re on to Cincinnati.
