The Minnesota Vikings (2-4) had their season on the line in hosting the San Francisco 49ers (5-1) on Monday Night Football at home to conclude Week 7.
Most didn’t give Minnesota much of a chance against one of the NFL’s best teams. That’s when Kirk Cousins stepped up big time and outperformed Brock Purdy in every imaginable way.
Cousins was brilliant on third down, helping Minnesota convert on 8-of-13 opportunities on the money down. All said, Cousins completed 35-of-45 passes for 378 yards in a tremendous all-around outing. Meanwhile, Brock Purdy threw two interceptions as he struggled with the game on the line.
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The end result was a hard-fought 22-17 Vikings win against what was a mistake-prone 49ers team. Below, we look at the top highlights from this game.
Monday Night Football highlights in Week 7
The 49ers were able to hold Minnesota to a long field goal attempt with the Vikings up just five points late in the fourth quarter. Greg Joseph then missed the 50-yard field goal attempt, giving San Francisco a chance to win.
Having thrown one interception since January 1 heading into Monday’s game, Purdy threw his second interception Monday night to put this one on ice. The pick came from Cameron Bynum, his second of the game.
With San Francisco down 22-17 in the fourth quarter, the team was looking to drive for the go-ahead touchdown. It had the ball at the Vikings 49-yard line when Brock Purdy threw the ball right into the hands of Vikings defensive back Cameron Bynum for the interception.
That was just a terrible pass from Purdy. We’re not sure where he was going with the ball. Easy pick for Bynum as the Vikings look to close out this upset.
San Francisco 49ers rookie kicker Jake Moody had missed three field goals over the past two weeks when Kyle Shanahan sent him out there for a 55-yard field goal attempt and the 49ers down eight in the fourth quarter.
It made no real sense with the 49ers facing a fourth-and-short. Speaking of making no sense, Moody nailed the 55-yarder to pull the road team to within five.
The Vikings have now scored on five consecutive possessions after turning the ball over to start the game. This time, they went down the field 50 yards on 10 plays, culminating in a 54-yard field goal from Greg Joseph. Minnesota now holds a 22-14 lead late in the third quarter as it looks to pull off a major upset.
San Francisco’s offense finally started to get going as the team found itself with its largest deficit of the season. That included a 28-yard pass from Purdy to George Kittle. On the very next play, Christian McCaffrey caught another pass from Purdy for 35 yards for the touchdown to make it 19-14.
This is not the type of drive Minnesota could afford to give up. It went 75 yards on just three plays and lasted all of 65 seconds.
After the 49ers were unable to do anything to open the third quarter, Minnesota drove down the field 77 yards on 11 plays. It looked like the Vikings were about to take a big lead. That’s when things stalled late in the drove, leading to a chip-shot 20-yard field goal to give Minnesota a 19-7 lead roughly midway through the third quarter.
Most figured that the Vikings would simply let this go to half after taking over possession of the ball with just over a minute remaining in the second quarter. They did not do that. Instead, Jordan Addison made his second huge play of the game. That included taking the ball away from Charvarius Ward, going 60 yards for the touchdown to give the Vikings a 16-7 lead.
This is simply insane in that Charvarius Ward had taken the ball away from Addison for an interception of Cousins earlier in the game.
Addison finished the first half having caught four passes for 95 yards with two touchdowns. Cousins completed 15-of-20 passes for 212 yards with those two touchdowns. As for Purdy, the 49ers’ starter completed 11-of-13 for 122 yards.
But the story for the first half of Monday Night Football was the Minnesota Vikings’ offense putting up 270 total yards against one of the best defenses in the NFL.
Christian McCaffrey is an NFL record holder. Capping off a tremendous 12-play, 75-yard drive, McCaffrey scored from three yards out to pull the game to within 10-7.
This represented the 16th consecutive game that McCaffrey has scored a touchdown from scrimmage, breaking the all-time NFL record. For as bad as the 49ers looked in the first half, the fact that this is a mere field goal game late in the second quarter is telling.
Who saw this coming? Minnesota’s offense was throwing and running down the field against an elite San Francisco defense in the first half of Monday night’s game. That included converting on multiple third downs following penalties on the Vikings.
Unfortunately for the home team, San Francisco’s defense held after first-and-goal from the two-yard line. It led to a field goal and a 10-0 Vikings lead.
By virtue of a beautiful run from Brock Purdy, the 49ers were threatening to tie the game up. However, Minnesota held on third down and six from its own 22-yard-line. That’s when rookie Jake Moody came on to attempt a 40-yard field goal. After missing two last week, including the game winner, Moody sailed this one wide, too.
After the Vikings forced a rare 49ers turnover, their defense was able to drive down the field 89 yards on 10 plays for the early 7-0 lead. It was aided by a huge third-down conversion on a pass from Cousins to T.J. Hockenson before the quarterback hit Jordan Addison on a 20-yard touchdown to take the lead.
This has to be a huge confidence boost for the Vikings’ offense after they turned it over on their first possession. As for San Francisco’s defense, it has yielded 108 total yards on 13 plays in less than one quarter.
Minnesota’s defense came up big time after its offense turned the ball over to open the game. Cameron Bynum forced the fumble with Dean Lowry recovering it at the Vikings 11 yard line.
These are plays the Vikings are doing to need if they’re to stay in the game and pull off the home upset Monday night. As for Christian McCaffrey, there is now going to be some questions about his health as the running back deals with an oblique injury.
Charvarius Ward makes the first big play of the game, taking the ball out of Jordan Addison’s hands for an interception. It represented the Vikings’ 14th giveaway on the season while San Francisco has now recorded 11 interceptions on the campaign.
We knew that the 49ers’ pass defense was going to be a difference in this one. As their No. 1 cornerback, Ward made the first big play of the game.
As has been the case over the past several years, 49ers fans traveled well to U.S. Bank Stadium in Minnesota for Monday night’s game. You could see it as the road team made its way out of the tunnel.
The home team is flying 10 American flags inside its stadium to repesent the number of Americans currently being held hostage by Hamas as part of the more than 200 that were kidnapped in the terrorist attack on Israel earlier this month.
San Francisco 49ers inactives
- QB Brandon Allen
RB Tyrion Davis-Price
DL Kalia Davis
LB Jalen Graham
TE Brayden Willis
WR Deebo Samuel
T Trent Williams
Minnesota Vikings inactives
- OT Hakeem Adeniji
OLB Andre Carter II
S Lewis Cine
G Ezra Cleveland
TE Nick Muse
CB Najee Thompson
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