The 49ers struggled on key plays and paid for it Sunday, losing 23-17 to the Vikings in Minnesota.
San Francisco was just 2-of-10 on third down and 1-of-3 on fourth down, failing on consecutive fourth-and-short attempts in the first half after a blocked punt had already yielded a Minnesota field goal.
The fourth-down failures sandwiched a 97-yard touchdown pass from Sam Darnold to star wideout Justin Jefferson that put the 49ers behind the 8-ball in the second quarter. They never did catch up.
Playing from behind, Brock Purdy finished the day 28-of-36 passing for 319 yards, a touchdown to George Kittle and an interception on an ill-advised throw in the third quarter. He was also sacked six times.
Jordan Mason rushed 20 times for 100 yards and a touchdown while Deebo Samuel had eight catches for 110 yards and only two carries for minus-10 yards.
Here’s what the 49ers had to say after the game:
Kyle Shanahan
On the performance:
It’s too sloppy on our part: The two turnovers on offense, struggling on third down on both offense and defense, special teams with the blocked punt — it’s the same as a turnover to us. It was disappointing. We can play a lot better than that, but I tip my hat to them. They’re part of the reason.
On Jefferson’s long touchdown:
Just beat a man in coverage and they launched the throw and got it past the middle-third safety, which made it a house call.
On third-down trouble:
They were good on third down all day. We had our opportunities with those turnovers that they got, but they made some big plays.
On whether there was a letdown:
There was no emotional letdown, nothing like that. Attribute it to not doing well on third down. We didn’t stop the run very well and the blocked punt — things like that, football things.
On how he felt after scoring in the fourth quarter:
Once we were able to get that turnover, go down and score and make it a one-possession game, I felt real good. We got them in some third downs I think we had an advantage in, but it made some big third-down plays, kept the chains moving and finished with with the field goal.
On the outlook for McCaffrey:
Nobody knows. We’re dealing with tendonitis, so there’s not one person who knows. He doesn’t know, we don’t know. We can take it day by day. You know, by putting him on IR, it’s at least four weeks so that’ll give him some time to rest and kind of protect him from himself.
On Darnold’s strong game:
Didn’t surprise me. We knew we were out for a challenge. Sam is a hell of a quarterback. He’s got a lot of arm talent and we also knew just scrambling-wise, he was going to be a different challenge today. And he got us on a couple scrambles, too. He’s done that his whole career.
George Kittle
On the game:
I think our standards are higher than what we put on tape today. It’s back-to-back weeks we’ve started out like this, with two not-great drives to start off. So as an offense, we have to start better than that and not just have to rely on our defense.
On slow starts
Not converting on third down. It’s not like we were third-and-13. They were manageable and we just didn’t covert. That’s hard. Then we go into the red zone and don’t get a touchdown on fourth down. That was a sick play actually between Sam and JJ to go 97 yards; it was not fun to watch but it was cool. But it’s hard when you don’t score and they score two plays later.
on Minnesota mystique:
It’s a great matchup between Coach Flores, their D-coordinator, and coach Shanahan. When you have multiple turnovers and can’t convert on third downs, it is what it is. It’s a wonderful atmosphere. I love playing here. Fans are fantastic. They’re very noisy. They love their player, love their team.
On missing McCaffrey:
Christian is the offensive MVP for a reason. He was in the MVP voting for a reason. He had 20-plus touchdowns for a reason, because he does it all in the pass game, in the run game. It’s really fun because Deebo and him are interchangeable, where you have Christian running routes and then all of a sudden you put a Mike linebacker on him and Deebo is in the backfield, and you have no idea what you’re going to get. It just gives us another dimension.
He didn’t do OTAs, he didn’t do really much of training camp, and he’s still voted a captain. So there’s the impact that you guys can see. He has an incredible impact on this team. Just him being around, he boosts everyone’s confidence. But I mean, we won last week. I think we had opportunities to find a way to win today and we just didn’t.
There’s things we can’t do without Christian.
On Fred Warner
He leads the defense, always has the energy, he’s everything you want as a 49er. The way he plays is the standard for a defense, and he does a good job calling guys out when they don’t play the standard he expects.
Nick Bosa
On the loss:
It’s a wake-up call, but we know why it happened and there’s a lot to fix.
On his ankle:
I got rolled up really, really bad. Thankfully, I’m good. I was a little scared.
On third-down struggles:
It’s a big part of the game, third down. That’s why we have a whole day based on third down. It’s how this league is, and we failed.
Brock Purdy
On the third downs:
When first and second down aren’t positive plays and, you know, just trying to move the ball and then you got to rely on third down with their scheme and obviously their disguises and stuff, it can be tough. They did a good job making it look like one thing and it was another, and different types of blitzes and stuff or just dropping out. It’s on me to move the ball, be efficient on first and second down and get us into third-and-manageable and then convert on third down.
On defenses approach without McCaffrey
Being able to drop back into zone and not having to put two guys on a running back out of the backfield like Christian. For me to sit here and say without Christian on the field, they did this or that, it’s hard to say. It’s a tip of the cap to Brian Flores.
on Aiyuk
He looks pretty good. It’s not like I’m dropping back and saying, ‘B.A. is not what he’s been like.’ I don’t think like that at all. It’s me going through my reads and he’s been where he needs to be. There are probably a couple of routes in certain looks we could have both been better, but that’s early-season stuff. We’ll continue to get better together with our connection. For four quarters, B.A. grinded and competed.
On the loss:
Just because you got really good players and really good scheme doesn’t mean the other team is going to give it to you. Have to go out and earn it. So we’ve had to learn that the first two games this season.
On the fourth-and-goal that fell incomplete:
We thought we could score on that drive and I love the aggressiveness by Kyle going for it, fourth and one. They had a zero blitz. You know, one guy just came free, which in our past protection that’s just how it is and they got a hand on it, a tipped ball, so it was a good defensive play on them. I was just trying to give (Jauan Jennings) a shot. That was where the ball was supposed to go against man. I thought I had it. The ball got tipped.
Fred Warner
On the interception:
I know my teammates rely on me to make those types of plays so it’s just another day.
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On the final play:
On that last drive, we had every opportunity to go take the game back, give the ball back to the offense and have a chance to win the game. It’s not good enough. I think that’s back-to-back weeks where we’re not playing good enough on third down. We got to clean it up.
On taking his time on the ground after his interception return:
It was a combination of fatigue and 71 laying a nice hit on me for sure.
On the loss and where to improve:
We’ve got so much talent in that room, we’re always going to play hard, but it’s about playing smarter. We got to protect the football, obviously. We got to take it away on defense, special teams, we can’t give up that blocked punt and then defensively the game plan, when we say we got to stop the run and we got to be great on third down and we don’t do either of those things, it’s going to be a long day.