MINNEAPOLIS – Nick Bosa paused mid-sentence, aware that some might seize on his words as a shot at the New York Jets, who the 49ers ripped 32-19 in Monday’s season opener.
But Bosa was already focused on the next task: Sunday’s visit to the Minnesota Vikings, who won their debut 28-6 at the New York Giants.
“This week we’re playing (pause) honestly a better team. They’re playing better football, it looks like,” Bosa said. “We got away with some things last week. We have to hone in and not pat ourselves on the back.”
A greater reality check entails playing again without Christian McCaffrey. The 49ers won’t have him in uniform as they seek their first win in Minnesota since 1992, a drought spanning seven games. On top of that, the Vikings are 6-2 in home openers against the 49ers, and 6-2 in home openers overall since U.S. Bank Stadium opened in 2016 with its Gjallarhorn and Skol chant.
“Sometimes the best-executed games are on the road with crazy environments because you have to be more in tune to the little things,” Brock Purdy said. “So there’s pros and cons to it. But Minnesota’s one of those places where you have to be on top of your stuff or else you can get exposed.”
Here are five areas the 49ers can’t get away with ignoring Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium:
1. RUN IT AGAIN
The McCaffrey-less 49ers — or, if one game won you over, the Jordan Mason-led rushing attack — will encounter a traffic jam at the line of scrimmage here. Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores will blitz, and the 49ers will have to prove effective against it, both in the pass but especially on the run.
Running so dominantly and frequently like in Monday’s opener will help mute one of the loudest arenas in all of sports. McCaffrey’s bout with Achilles tendinits puts the onus again on Jordan Mason, whose encore won’t catch anyone off guard, not after his 28 carries produced 147 yards and a touchdown.
While Mason has averaged a robust 5.5 yards per carry over 111 career carries, Deebo Samuel owns a 6.0-yard average over his career as a moonlighting rusher and figures to share the load like Monday’s eight-carry shift. Samuel missed last year’s Minnesota visit due to a shoulder injury; left tackle Trent Williams also was out then but both are healthy for this one.
The Vikings’ opener Sunday saw them allow just 74 rushing yards (3.5 per carry), and afterward they awarded a two-year extension to defensive tackle Harrison Phillips, a seventh-year pro from Stanford. In last October’s “Monday Night Football” visit, the 49ers totaled just 60 yards (3.0 per carry) and McCaffrey had 45 yards (15 carries) while playing with oblique and rib injuries.
On the flip side, the 49ers defense can’t let versatile Vikings rusher Aaron Jones make a difference; he had over 100 yards from scrimmage in losing his last two matchups with 49ers while on the Packers in the playoffs.
2. PURDY VS. DARNOLD
Purdy and Sam Darnold were the 49ers’ Nos. 1 and 2 quarterbacks last season, and Darnold used that year as a successful bridge to the Vikings’ starting post this year. Darnold surely can draw on his scout-team duties last season against the 49ers’ first-string defense, and vice versa. Also, 49ers QB3 Josh Dobbs spent the last half of last season with Minnesota, so these teams know each other quite well.
After a successful debut under first-time defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen, the 49ers now need to coerce Darnold into his pre-49ers days and back as a mistake-prone, ghost-seeing quarterback (67 career games, 71 turnovers; 57 interceptions, 14 lost fumbles).
“The different ways they are able to disguise coverages causes certain problems obviously schematically, but for a quarterback’s eyes,” Darnold told Vikings reporters. “If you hitch one too many times, there’s a good pass rush coming at you as well.”
Purdy said much of the same about the Vikings’ “illusion-fest” defense. He earned acclaim from coach Kyle Shanahan after Monday’s debut: “He didn’t make any mistakes and made a number of plays with the ball.” Purdy made two critical mistakes in Minnesota last October, throwing a pair of interceptions in the final six minutes. After a dizzying flight home, Purdy entered the NFL’s concussion protocol, although no one indicated he suffered symptoms during that fourth-quarter comeback attempt.
3. KITTLE JOINS 100 CLUB
George Kittle’s 100th-career regular-season game comes before some 30 family members in his native Midwest, nearly 31 years after he was born next door in Madison, Wisc. He needs six catches to reach 470 all-time and pass Rob Gronkowski for the fifth-most receptions in the first 100 games by a tight end.
None of the five ahead of him had a catch in each of their first 100 games like Kittle can do; he also has a catch in all 12 playoff games. Chiefs counterpart Travis Kelce (No. 1, 531 catches) has a reception streak of 159 consecutive games (plus 22 playoff games) since getting shutout in his one and only game as a rookie; Gronkowski had a catch in each of his first 80 games.
Kittle’s reception skills are important to take the pressure of the running game (see: Mason’s encore) as well as allow Brandon Aiyuk to find his groove after a rusty opener. “I love playing Midwest football games, because everybody there loves football so much,” Kittle said. “You can just feel the energy of the city throughout the week. Every time I’ve played there, I’ve had a great time. The fans are in it, they’re loud, they have a great team.”
4. WARD VS. JEFFERSON
Charvarius Ward recorded an interception only three snaps into last season’s visit, and he nearly got another but instead yielded a touchdown on an ill-called, all-out blitz just before halftime.
Ward went on to enjoy his first Pro Bowl season, and all five of his interceptions came on the road. Add all that up and he should be supremely confident for a tense matchup with Justin Jefferson, arguably the NFL’s top wide receiver and financially its highest paid.
But the 49ers may not be coerced into strictly assigning Ward to Jefferson. Deommodore Lenoir wants some action, too, saying: “This is something I’ve been waiting on, to go against the best. You want to put your game against the best to see how you look.”
The Vikings won’t have either wide receiver Jordan Addison or tight end T.J. Hockenson, so taking out Jefferson is as important as it was to adjust coverage against the Jets’ Garrett Wilson (six catches Monday on 11 targets, 60 yards). Safeties Ji’Ayir Brown and George Odum also must keep their interception-seeking eyes on a swivel for a wayward Darnold pass
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5. BOSA-FLOYD, EPISODE II
Leonard Floyd got the 49ers’ only sack on Aaron Rodgers and Bosa got two quarterback hits, but that tandem has a tougher test in this encore. Left tackle Christian Darrisaw is among the NFL’s best. Right tackle Brian O’Neill is a seventh-year starter but he is questionable because of an elbow injury, so San Jose State product David Quessenberry may be on call.
Bosa’s scouting report on Darrisaw: “He has a low center of gravity and is athletic, so it’s tough to power him. He’s athletic enough to run you by. If he gets his hands, he’s able to replace them and run you by.”
Bosa not only faced the Vikings last season (one quarterback hit, no sacks), but he gained experience against their tackles in 2022 joint practices in Minnesota. Floyd has no sacks in his past five games against the Vikings.
Bosa has brought more variance to his pass rushes this season, and while a spin looked swift Monday night, he also found himself in a back-peddling bull rush “that was a failed move, but I’ll take it. I got pressure on him.” Bosa played 48 of 51 snaps, most among the defensive line’s starters that included Floyd (34) and defensive tackles Maliek Collins (37) and Javon Hargrave (32).
