Vikings Beat 49ers in Week 2, 23-17: The Average Fan’s Reaction

Here’s what the average fan, deputy editor Brandon Warne, saw in Week 2

Chances are, if you’ve ever read anything I’ve written, it was about baseball. I’ve been working behind the scenes at Daily Norseman for a couple of months now, and am ready to start writing more than just the open thread every few days.

But I realize my limitations. Football is my second love, and it’s not like I’m completely without knowledge of the game. In fact, I wrote the game notes for Fox’s game coverage.

So, what I deduced could be fun is observations from the average fan. I might not be able to diagnose a Cover 2 as well as Arif Hasan or break down film like Luke Braun, but like Luke, I think I can learn from our community as the season goes.

So let’s go! Here are my observations from Week 2.

• Sam Darnold was ballin’ (v2.0)

It wasn’t just when he was targeting Justin Jefferson, either. Darnold was 13-of-17 with 135 passing yards, a touchdown, and an interception when targeting other receivers. After Jefferson left with a quad contusion in the third quarter, Darnold was 6-of-7 with 64 yards the rest of the way.

It’s also worth noting that Darnold has done all this damage with the No. 24 pass-blocking offense, according to PFF (60.6).

And while many will jump to the 97-yard connection to Jefferson as evidence for how good Darnold was on Sunday — and, justifiably so — I keep coming back to this incredible third-down conversion to Jalen Nailor.

And it happened after Jefferson left the game, leaving Darnold with a pass-catching corps of Nailor, Brandon Powell, Johnny Mundt and friends.

Exceptional stuff here:

….and then, from another angle, which highlights truly how special Darnold’s anticipation on this throw was (magnified by the down, distance and time left in the game):

• For the second week in a row, a newly acquired defender looks special

One week after Andrew Van Ginkel had a debut to remember, Blake Cashman was the man of the (three) hour(s) on Sunday.

He’s tied for 13th in total tackles so far this season with 19, but his anticipation and IQ have truly been special, and a much-needed part of Brian Flores’ defense.

Also the story of how Flores became aware of Cashman came out earlier this week, and it’s kinda fun.

Nevertheless, this supercut from Matt Fries of Zone Coverage highlights some of his finest plays on the afternoon:

• Can we talk about Kirk Cousins, but only for a second?

Listen, I know what he did to close out Monday night’s game. I couldn’t be happier for him. Truly.

This isn’t from a place of bitterness, or anything. It’s just about addressing the elephant in the room.

Hearing Kevin Harlan on the team’s first offensive drive saying “and the offense, led by quarterback Sam Darnold” somehow felt massively less anxiety-inducing than the previous years with Cousins under the helm.

Did anyone else feel it?

In fact, it’s what let me to tweet this:

If anyone else is feeling this, we are meeting in the comments section as soon as you’re done reading.

• The team, yet again, responded well to adversity

The obvious example here is the Aaron Jones fumble in the red zone in the closing moments of the third quarter. Between Jefferson hobbling off the field the play before and the Vikings giving the ball back to the Niners on what resulted in a 99-yard touchdown drive — YOU LIKE THAT, Vikings? — it would have been pretty easy to say “here we go again.”

And a random sampling of Vikings Twitter most likely found plenty of that. I have decided to stay off during games for the time being, because it’s not good for my mental health.

Anyway, from there, Darnold responded with a Big Boy drive and the Vikings took the nine-point lead that made most of the rest of the game inconsequential, short of the onside kick recovery by Nick Muse.

But that wasn’t the only adversity the Vikings battled through — it was just the most obvious.

The Vikings got their second huge stop on fourth down — back-to-back offensive series’ for the Niners, mind you — a little over halfway through the second quarter. On the fourth play of the ensuing drive, with the Vikings driving just outside of the end zone, Darnold threw a pass intended for former 49ers wideout Trent Sherfield Sr. which was intercepted by Fred Warner.

At the time, the Vikings were up 10-0, still vibing off two defensive stops and a loooooong touchdown pass and were in the process of taking a potential three-possession lead heading into halftime — one in which they’d also get the ball back on the opening kickoff.

Instead, the 49ers answered right back with a 28-yard pass to Deebo Samuel and big runs from Jordan Mason on the way to a seven-yard touchdown reception for George Kittle.

A lot of people will remember/talk about the Jones fumble — but this could have been nearly as troubling.

The Vikings answered with a Will Reichard field goal and still went into the break up six, but it wasn’t 13 or 17 as many were dreaming a few minutes earlier.

And yet, they persisted.

• Another one-score game? Really?

Kevin O’Connell has coached 36 games, and 26 of them have been decided by one score. To his credit, he’s 18-8 in them — but this (combined with the adversity mentioned above) is why we still need the Lisinopril from two bullets ago.

• With that said, everything KOC does has a purpose

I loved seeing this from Doug Farrar, one of my favorite OG NFL analytics writers.

In baseball, I love the “game within the game” things and I’m learning to love them with football too. But the “game within the 12 games ago” deal is a bit new to me.

This is awesome:

• This team is a VIBE

What more needs to be said. I remember the “Pants on the Ground” bit with Brett Favre. It was hacky and we all laughed.

But this is next level — and it appears that 50 is on board:

• Brian Flores’ defense had Brock Purdy in HELL

Statistically, box-score watching would say this was one of Purdy’s best games. He completed 28-of-36 passes (77.8 percent) for 319 yards with a touchdown and a pick — good for a 101.3 (KDWB) passer rating.

But he was also sacked a career-high six times — the previous high was four — and was pressured on 38.6 percent of his dropbacks.

I think Purdy himself said it best directly to Flores after the game (ignore the rest of this asinine tweet, it was just the first one I found with the video):