Vikes Hand Garoppolo, 49ers First Loss

Week 1 - Football season is back! With the NFL's 2018 regular season officially underway following Thursday Night's opener between NFC heavyweights Atlanta Falcons and the the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, the San Francisco 49ers would see their first action on Sunday morning in a road match-up with the Minnesota Vikings. Given the daunting task of opening the season in hostile territory against the league's best defense from a year ago and a team looking to bounce back after being on the receiving end of a 38-7 beat down in their own home in last year's NFC title game, the 49ers would surely have their work cutout for them in Week 1 if they wanted to keep their new starting quarterback's record unblemished. As if defeating a Vikings team at home where they won all but one of their eight regular season games from a season ago wasn't challenging enough, the Niners who entered Sunday with the league's best active regular season winning-streak at five games, have lost each of their last five visits to Minnesota. Of course none of those defeats came with Garoppolo under center who the 49er faithful are hoping can serve as their savior the same way he did down the stretch to closeout 2017 when he led them on that magical five-game journey.

Having allowed a measly 10-points or fewer in five of their last seven regular season games dating back to last season, the stingy Vikings defense would look to carry that streak into 2018 and had other plans for Jimmy G and the streaking 49ers. And though San Francisco would eclipse the 10-point mark, they were unable to end their Minnesota skid as the Vikings defense gave Garoppolo his first taste of defeat as he suffered the first loss of his professional career in a 24-16 final, bringing his record to 7-1 as a starter. The 49ers had plenty of opportunities on offense and even had a chance to march down the field and tie the game in the final minutes, but were ultimately doomed by the myriad of self-inflicted miscues on both sides of the ball made throughout the game. And though his teammates didn't do him any favors either, from his receivers dropping passes to the guys on defense missing tackles, where Garoppolo made mistakes, his counterpart did not. Excited to show off their new toy on offense, the recently acquired Kirk Cousins enjoyed an impressive Vikings debut at QB in which he didn't commit any turnovers and threw for 244 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

With as much talk surrounding Minnesota's defense, their offense is nothing to scoff at either. With the return of Dalvin Cook who took the league by storm a season ago before suffering a torn ACL in Week 4 which ultimately put an end to his rookie campaign, the former Florida State Seminole and Heisman finalist picked up right where he left off before the injury with a handful of big gains in the first half. Minnesota would start the scoring with a field goal in the first quarter before taking a 10-0 lead on Cousins' connection in the end zone with receiver Stefon Diggs, catching 49ers cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon off-guard from behind as he failed to locate the ball which allowed Diggs to make the easy grab from 22-yards out. The Niners would answer with a field goal before missing out on a golden opportunity that could've tied the game. After a big run from Cook who broke multiple tackles before being surprised from behind as rookie linebacker Fred Warner punched the ball loose forcing a fumble recovered by Richard Sherman, San Francisco embarked on a 16-play drive that made it all the way to the 1-yard line before Alfred Morris coughed the ball up with a fumble at the 1-yard line. The costly turnover would be one of several stall outs endured in the red zone for San Francisco.

Already without free-agent acquisition Jerick McKinnon who suffered a torn ACL prior to San Francisco's pre-season finale and was acquired to be Kyle Shanahan's No. 1 weapon at the running back position, the 49ers would lose another one of their key cogs on offense. Receiver Marquise Goodwin who was signed to a new three-year extension during the offseason and has proven to be one of Garoppolo's favorite targets, would be forced to leave the game in the first half after banging knees with a member of the Vikings and was diagnosed with what team doctors described as a quad injury, putting an early end to his day and preventing him from contributing on the field. From there, Shanahan and Garoppolo would have to be creative in the passing game as rookie receiver Dante Pettis and fullback Kyle Juszczyk logged the two biggest gains thru the air for the Niners on Sunday, hauling in receptions of 39 and 56 yards respectively.

But the biggest plays for San Francisco's offense were the ones that weren't made as both receiver Pierre Garcon and tight-end George Kittle each had chances to strike pay dirt, but were tagged with drops. Then came one of the bigger back-breakers as Garoppolo had a pass intended for receiver Kendrick Bourne picked off and returned for a pick-six. Bourne admitted after the game to running the wrong route on the costly turnover, a perfect example of the type of mistake you can't make when playing a stingy defense and a talented football team like that of Minnesota's, not to mention in their own home. And while the Niners settled for field goals with kicker Robbie Gould going three-for-three on the day, Cousins was busy connecting for his second touchdown pass of the game, an 11-yard strike to tight-end Kyle Rudolph. The final score of the afternoon for the Vikings would appear to put some fire under the 49er offense as Garoppolo and company finally responded with a trip to the end zone as Jimmy G's first touchdown of the season came with less than a minute remaining the 3rd quarter. After being pressured and bouncing off a defender, Garoppolo rolled out to his left, throwing off-balance to find Pettis in the back of the end zone for the score. Gould's third and final field goal would make it a 24-16 affair before the Niner defense committed without a doubt their biggest miscue of the afternoon.

Facing a pivotal 4th and 1 call with 3 minutes remaining in regulation, Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer sent his offense onto the field for one thing and one thing only -- to draw the defense off-sides. With the play clock down to its final second, the trick would work on second year defensive-end Solomon Thomas who was called for neutral zone infraction which would give Minnesota a new set of downs. Despite the bone-headed penalty which took time off the clock, the Niners would still be given one final chance to tie the game and send it into overtime, but would need to march the ball down the field 89-yards with less than 2 minutes remaining. Instead, Garoppolo who was under heavy pressure, hurried a pass intended for Trent Taylor that was picked off, sealing the win. The interception would be the third of the day for Garoppolo who finished with a game-high 261 passing yards and one touchdown pass as he completed 15 of 33 passes for a QB rating of 45.1. Putting into perspective just how off a day Sunday was for Garoppolo, his previous low in the QBR department was 82.4 as Jimmy G suffered his first loss on a football field since December 13, 2013 when he was still under center for the Eastern Illinois University football program.

Overall, Sunday's loss was a sloppy performance for a Niners team that was without two of their top weapons on offense and a defense that is still trying to establish their identity. While players like rookie linebacker Fred Warner who tallied 12 tackles in his debut to go with the forced fumble and third-year defensive-end DeForest Buckner who logged 2.5 sacks showed flashes of greatness, there's still plenty of areas that need to be cleaned up for this team to click. However, that's nothing out of the ordinary for a team one week into the season. Given communication duties in his first glimpse of meaningful NFL action, Warner resembled a promising young defender who should only get better with Reuben Foster by his side when the two will be allowed to team up come Week 3 after Foster serves his suspension stemming from a series of off-the-field arrests during the off-season. As for Buckner, his 2.5 sacks were the most by a 49er in a single game since Aldon Smith's 5.5 sack performance back on November 19, 2012. San Francisco will need the help of them and others if they plan to get even in the win column in Week 2.

Week 2 Preview - Playing at Levi's Stadium for the first time this season, the 49ers will host the (0-1) Detroit Lions who are coming off a 48-17 shellacking at home at the hands of the New York Jets on Monday Night Football. Quarterback Matt Stafford who was picked off by the Jets defense four times on Monday for the fifth time in his career, will look to shake off one of the worst starts of his career and redeem himself against a San Francisco defense. With Detroit featuring a mediocre run game under first-year head coach Matt Patricia, DeForest Buckner and co. will have their eyes set on Stafford in hopes of making him feel just as uncomfortable as he was against the Jets. As for Garoppolo, facing a defense not nearly as ferocious as Minnesota's, I expect to see San Francisco's offense bounce back in the red zone, somewhere they didn't fair too well in Week 1. Meanwhile on the injury front, aside from receiver Marquise Goodwin who's been listed as day-to-day nursing his quad, the health at left-guard will be one coach Kyle Shanahan will keep an eye on heading into Week 2 as both Mike Person and Joshua Garnett went down with foot injuries against Minnesota, forcing 2018 first round pick Mike McGlinchey to man the position for the first time in his life and doing an exceptional job considering.


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