MANHANDLED

49ers 27

Vikings 10

This one was as simple a loss to understand as there has ever been. 

The Vikings got flat out dominated in the trenches on both sides of the ball. The 49ers were clearly the better team.

Right from the start this was the 49ers day. They took the opening drive right down the field on us. Easy runs. Open receivers. It was 7-0 real quick.

We answered on our 2nd drive, with a pretty Kirk to Diggs touchdown to tie it up. The OL at this point looked to be holding up okay, so there was reason to hope.

Shit started to go sideways after a Niners punt pinned us at the 12 (after Sherels almost muffed said punt). Kirk got engulfed for a sack on the 1st play. We ran a couple draws, and punted. 

On the next drive it looked like Kendricks had stripped the ball and we got it. But review showed the runner was down just before the fumble. It was last week's Cook play. A potentially huge momentum swing in a tied game was lost. And then the Niners went down and put it in the endzone.

The vibes were just bad. We couldn't run at all. The OL was deteriorating by the drive. Our defense was still hanging in there alright, but like that Packer game a few weeks back it felt like the dam was gonna break eventually.

We got a huge break late in the half when Kendricks picked off Garappolo in Niners territory. A late 1st half pick sparked us last week, so maybe it would happen again. 

But this time we only got a field goal after a Cousins misfire to Diggs and a sack.

So we hit halftime down just 14-10. It felt like we were lucky to be in it, but there was hope. Make a few adjustments to open up the offense and tighten that defense and we had a shot to keep this playoff run going.

Sadly the 2nd half was just a disaster.

49ers got the ball first, and while they gashed us on the ground we held them to 3. Okay, still in this. 

Next drive though the offense stayed ugly, and a Kirk pass to Thielen was picked off, as Thielen literally just stood there and watched it happen.

The 49ers turned the short field into a touchdown, on a drive where they did not have to throw the ball once, and it was now 24-10 and the game was over. 

The indignities were not over yet. We actually got a 3rd down stop a drive or so later(the whole half kind of blended together tbh), and forced a punt....which Sherels muffed, giving the 49ers a tack-on field goal to really put it away. 

Through it all the Vikings offense never changed. No attempts were made to get Cousins out of the pocket. The same easily snuffed out screens. One has to wonder where Kevin Stefanski's focus was this week. On this game, or on his interview with the Browns? Frankly, this gameplan was so poor that the Browns probably will opt to hire someone else, although they ARE the Browns.

It's amazing how this always happens when a Vikings OC gets head coaching offers(Billick, Shurmur, now Stefanski). We always lose a playoff game in which our offense looks ill-prepared. 

To be fair somewhat the 49ers defense is just really good. And they got several starters back healthy for this game. And it was a short week. And it was on the road, on grass. The Vikings were walking into a buzzsaw.

Losing this game sucks. It hurts. But it was expected. I didn't think we would win last week either. This was such a tall task to go on the road 3 weeks in a row in a tough conference to go to the super bowl. There's a reason wild card teams very rarely do this. I don't think it is some miserable disgrace to lose this game.

It's just one of those things. A couple games go differently and maybe the Vikings are the team with a bye and are hosting this game. And the Vikings probably finished this season where they should have. I picked them to win 10 games this year, then win a playoff game and lose the next one. I just had them winning the north.

I think that this was still a pretty good season. We got a really memorable playoff win out of it. We got that great comeback against Denver. The Philly win was a blast. The Dallas win was cool. Just from an entertainment point of view there were more good games than bad.

I might do a separate blog about the future of the team and what's to come. But for now, I am sad that the season has again ended without a championship, but I'll be back with my squad next year as we retake the north.