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Following a disappointing performance and loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, the 49ers head into Week 3 without Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel. The 49ers were never going to finish 2024 undefeated. Every team has losses that are hard to explain. It’s the NFL, and “any given Sunday” is real.
How are the 49ers viewed following their first loss of the season? Let’s round up the power rankings across the internet.
Kansas City holds the top spot, but the 49ers are jumped by the Buffalo Bills for the second spot. The theme of their rankings was which player is the most important role player/backup.
Nick Wagoner selected Jauan Jennings and added: As the No. 3 receiver, the Niners lean on Jennings to do the dirty work and deliver when it matters most. He has earned the trust to handle blocking duties from outside receiver to de facto tight end. Since the start of last season,
Jennings has a run block win rate of 84.8%, well above the league average (79.2%) for receivers in that span. If that’s not enough, he has also earned the nickname “Third and Jauan” for his ability to move the chains. Fifty-five of his 85 career receptions have gone for first downs, with 34 of those coming on third or fourth down.
Eric Edholm believes the 49ers sleptwalk through the early afternoon matchup and said: The 49ers seemed sleepy early on Sunday, having a punt blocked, turning the ball over on downs twice, and surrendering a 97-yard TD pass before getting back in the game a little. Brock Purdy
was sacked six times and had two turnovers, but I am far more concerned about the defense. Fred Warner was his usual Superman self, and Nick Bosa had two sacks, but the rest of the unit played uninspired ball against a Minnesota offense, missing several key characters by game’s end. The Vikings kept killing San Francisco with third-down conversions, and the game might have been uglier had they converted two more red-zone trips into touchdowns. When their defense is up against it, too much of the 49ers’ formula depends on Purdy being robotically efficient, and that just didn’t happen on Sunday.
Bleacher Report – 49ers plummet to sixth from third
Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report isn’t overly concerned about one loss for the 49ers’, but is concerned about the 49ers secondary.
After the San Francisco 49ers dispatched the New York Jets with relative ease in Week 1, the belief by many was that the team would experience similar success in Week 2 against the Minnesota Vikings. But after allowing over 400 yards of offense and a two-turnover performance from quarterback Brock Purdy, the Niners left the Twin Cities trying to figure out what went wrong in a six-point loss.
The 49ers also came up short on a pair of fourth-down calls that theoretically took points off the board, but after the loss, head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters he didn’t regret either decision.
“I didn’t mind the decision in those situations. Where we were at on the field,” Shanahan said. “When you’re just right outside of field-goal range, the down and distance, and I didn’t mind going for it inside the [2], knowing that we’ll pin them back. They made a hell of a play to get out of there but didn’t like the results, obviously.”
It was an uncharacteristically sloppy performance all around from San Francisco, but Knox isn’t hitting any big red buttons, even if he sees one area of real concern.
“I think it’s too soon for the 49ers to panic,” he said. “They were on a short week, on the road, and against a Vikings team that is looking a lot better than most expected. Bad, mistake-filled games happen, even to good teams—remember when San Francisco lost to P.J. Walker and the Browns last year? My biggest concern coming out of Sunday is that San Francisco’s secondary still looks like a potential weakness. It’s a unit that struggled against the likes of Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, and Patrick Mahomes last season. It gave up too many big plays to Darnold on Sunday.”
A typical NFL season has ebbs and flows. This is one game out of 17 for the 49ers. I believe we’ll look back on this loss and laugh at the end of the season.
Sporting News
6. San Francisco 49ers 1-1 (2)
Minnesota continues to be a house of horrors for San Francisco. Brock Purdy won’t want to return there for a while, and the defense had a few too many early lapses. Christian McCaffrey has been a manageable loss so far, however.
New York Post
4. San Francisco 49ers 1-1 (2)
Brock Purdy threw for 319 yards, Jordan Mason ran for 100 yards and Fred Warner created two turnovers, but the 49ers never recovered from the gut punch of Justin Jefferson’s 97-yard touchdown catch in a 23-17 loss to the Vikings.
What’s worse?
Former 49ers backup quarterback Sam Darnold uncorked the long ball.
The 49ers were 3-for-13 on third and fourth downs.
Yahoo! Sports
49ers – 4 (2)
When Deebo Samuel Sr. was injured last season, he missed most or all of three games and San Francisco went 0-3. It’s not a coincidence. It’s easier for the 49ers to replace a great talent like Christian McCaffrey than Samuel because of the receiver’s unique skills. They’ll miss Samuel as he’s out for a while with a calf injury.
