FIRST QUARTER
Well, that's an unexpected start. Carlos Rogers and Dashon Goldson get confused in coverage on the second play of the game, and West Texas A&M's Stephen Burton gets behind Rogers for a 52-yard bomb from Christian Ponder. Should have been a TD but the ball was underthrown. Only gets the Vikes a 39-yard Blair Walsh FG, though. Jerome Simpson drops a pass while wide open on a drag route and Aldon Smith smokes the crap out of rookie Matt Kalil to flush Ponder on 3rd-and-7. Vikings fans have to be hoping for a lot more from Kalil than that weak effort. Vikings 3, 49ers 0
Kendall Hunter starts for the 49ers and bangs off RG for 4, but is topped by Rock Cartwright, who rolls for almost 20 over the left side thanks to a crushing block by fullback Bruce Miller. That is how a fullback should block, completely wiping out the DB coming in off the edge. That same play is routinely a 2-yard loss for the Rams. 3rd-and-5 a couple of plays later, the Vikings blitz over RT, and Brian Robison has little trouble beating center Jonathan Goodwin to flush Alex Smith, who comes up a yard short on the scramble. They're near midfield, though, so Jim Harbaugh decides to go for it on 4th-and-1, and Brandon Jacobs chugs up the middle for 2. Goodwin pancakes his man to give Jacobs a pretty easy hole to hit. Hunter bails Anthony Davis out of a false start by taking a shotgun handoff around left end for almost 15. More good fullback play sees Anthony Dixon take the RDE out of the play with a solid block. And Jacobs adds another 22 over the right side after another big block by Miller. 49ers in the red zone.After a timeout, Alex Smith barely gets a screen off to Hunter, who gets inside the 10. 49ers pound it a couple of times and then catch the Vikings off-guard with a fade pass to Brett Swain, who ran an excellent route, for the TD. Randy Moss briefly got in the game but they didn't really need him. 49ers 7, Vikings 3
The 49ers appear to have picked up right from where they left off last year. Physical, punishing football. Winning football.
The Vikings cross midfield on the strength of Toby Gerhart running behind Kalil and Ponder getting enough time to hit Kyle Rudolph and Mike Jenkins underneath for first downs. Ponder's tackles are giving him a solid pocket, blitzes are getting picked up well, and the Vikings' OC is dialing up some nice plays, like a student-body right on 3rd-and-6 that caught the 49ers blitzing from the opposite side and gained 16 for Gerhart down to the SF12. All stuff the Rams can do. On paper.
SECOND QUARTER
Minnesota can't get a first down from there, though. Rogers blankets a receiver on 2nd down and Jenkins drops a pass inside the 5 on 3rd down. Vikings need to trust their running game a little more. 49ers 7, Vikings 6
San Francisco goes no-huddle their next possession, and, holy crap. New QB Colin Kaepernick's option fake sucks LDE Nick Reed and the OLB in like a jet engine pulling in an unsuspecting bird, and speaking of jets, Kaepernick puts them on, tears through that big hole Reed and the overpursuing Vikings left, and outruns Chris Cook like he's Craig Dahl for a 78-yard TD. Colin Kaepernick is a scary athlete, and that was a sick play. 49ers 14, Vikings 6
New Vikings backfield is Joe Webb and Lex Hilliard. 49ers also go 2nd-string, and it's a 3-and-out win for the defense. Former Ram update: Larry Grant stuffs Hilliard. Good edge pressure forces a Webb scramble on 2nd down and a poor pass on 3rd. Parys Haralson on 2nd down, and Demarcus Dobbs on 3rd down. Continuing the "vintage Harbaugh" theme, Kyle Williams returns the punt 22 yards to the MIN40.
Aldon Smith was reported as being wheeled off the field with a hip injury. The cart is used a lot more liberally in preseason, though, so that's not necessarily serious. Harbaugh decides to start practicing screen passes now. Kaepernick can't unload on the first and is sacked by Fred Evans. Just 4 yards on 2nd-16, then he nearly gets picked off by Zachary Bowman after throwing into double-coverage. Intended receiver was former Illini A.J. Jenkins. Andy Lee's punt - vintage Lee - vintage Harbaugh - downed at the 4.
Webb scrambles out of trouble in the end zone and hits Rhett Ellison at the 15, but that's Minnesota's only first down of the drive. Not much happening with two handoffs to Hilliard - so much for my "trust the running game" advice - and Dobbs and Eric Bakhtiari get enough pressure on 3rd down to force a bad Webb overthrow.
Niners start at their 42. After a play-action rollout screen to Kyle Williams for 7, solid blocking by rookie TEs Garrett Celek and Konrad Reuland help Jacobs get an easy five on 3rd-and-short. I swear there are trees in the Bay area that grow blocking TEs, and the 49ers pick them all. Rookie Harrison Smith blows up a Kyle Williams end-around, but that doesn't hold up after Kaepernick scrambles away from a blitz on 3rd-and-6. Kaepernick rolls again and rifles to AJ Jenkins at the 19 for a gain of 16. The Vikings keep the blitz dial set to 11, though, and get the 49ers off the field after Jenkins drops a tough one and Nathan Palmer's catch over the middle is well short. If you want to get snarky and say settling for the FG is also vintage Harbaugh, feel free. Sure as hell seems to be working. 49ers 17, Vikings 6
2:00 to halftime. LT Kevin Murphy passes Dobbs off to - nobody and forces a wild Webb throwaway. Chris Culliver gets too handsy with Kerry Thomas the next play. Haralson comes in completely unblocked to make Webb run for his life again. Vikings 2nd o-line missing all kinds of assignments right now. They try a safe screen, but Perrish Cox blows that up for a loss with a sweet open-field tackle. 3rd-and-8, the 49ers blitz up the middle and both Haralson and Dobbs beat their men badly, leaving Webb nowhere to go. Haralson and Ricky Jean-Francois split the sack, and the 49ers will get the ball back with 1:00 to go.
49ers start their hurry-up with a handoff to LaMichael James around left end for 11. James and Kaepernick appear to blow the next handoff, which Kaepernick keeps for short gain around left end. After an incompletion for a well-covered Jenkins, Rock Cartwright takes advantage of more amateurish overpursuit by Reed to convert on 3rd-and-7. Also, I'm not sure Tyrone McKenzie can tackle anyone. Not enough time left in the half, though; Kaepernick can't find a deep option on the last play and takes the dumpoff.
THIRD QUARTER
Scott Tolzien the new San Francisco QB to start the half. He scrambles for one first down; Rock Cartwright dives for another. Tolzien's come in firing fastballs, too, drilling Celek at midfield. Joe Looney then completely misses an assignment, letting Marvin Mitchell strike Cartwright untouched for a 6-yard loss on an attempted shotgun handoff. Vikings blitz again, but Tolzien fires a nice pass, but Palmer BRUTALLY DROPS IT to end the drive.
Grant's very active the next drive, with a near pick-six of a bad Webb screen, a tackle I'd thought prevented a 1st down, and another pass dropped in front of him. First half redux on 3rd-and-long, Dobbs and Bakhtiari badly beat the Viking tackles and flush Webb for a throwaway.
Preseason mode goes into full effect now. No one blocks Audie Cole on a dog blitz for a big loss, then the 49ers false-start twice, once by Looney, and dumpoffs to Reuland follow. I thought Looney was supposed to be good; he's been pretty much crap so far in this game.
After Drew Coleman runs twice for 10 yards, the Vikings decide it's time to throw again, with little result. Webb continues to get consistent pressure and the 49ers continue to cover everything downfield, not that the Vikings receivers are very good.
After the punt, Tolzien quickly gets the 49ers to midfield with completions to Chris Owusu and Brian Tyms.
FOURTH QUARTER
A couple more nice passes, to Palmer and Owusu on the sideline, get the 49ers inside the 15. Another quick out to Palmer at the 10. Tolzien is getting the ball out quickly and throwing it with velocity. It is a night and day difference from his play in San Diego last summer, where he looked like a basket case. All Tolzien fails to do is close the deal. Anthony Jacobs blows up a screen to Cartwright for a loss (with announcer Tim Ryan saying Reuland was all alone in the end zone), and Reed, now at RDE, whips Mike Person with a spin move and hits Tolzien as he throws, leading to a shot-put-like throw easily intercepted by Solomon Elimimian.
New Minnesota QB is McLeod Bethel-Thompson, whose last name doesn't actually fit on the back of his jersey. He overcomes walking right into a Bakhtiari sack with two completions to Taylor to make midfield, then another to TE Allen Reisner inside the SF35. Bakhtiari collects his second sack of the drive, whipping Levi Horn, to push Minnesota well out of FG position, though, and Jarius Wright loses a low pass while sliding to bring the punt team back out.
Josh Johnson QBing the 49ers now, though he's backed up on his goal line. The Vikings let him largely off the hook, though. Dixon gains 10 on 3rd-and-9 from the 2, which is inexcusable, then Johnson gets the Niners out to midfield with rollout passes to Ben Hannula, who is listed as a DB, and others. Vikings finally shut it down with a 3rd-and-9 blitz as Dixon runs into Johnson and can't pick up Tydreke Powell. No points, but the drive took at least six minutes off the clock. Yep, vintage Harbaugh.
Vikings at their 20 with 2:45 to go.
49ers inside the Vikings 30 with 2:38 to go after Cox picks off a terrible throw by Bethel-Thompson. Dixon sweeps left down to the 20 and Johnson bootlegs for a first down. Dixon then rumbles down to about the 2 off of outstanding blocks by fullback Cameron Bell, another blocking back that apparently pops up around 49ers camp like weeds, and Reuland, who seemed to drive the whole Viking line back. Whoever's coaching and scouting fullbacks and tight ends for the 49ers sure knows what they're doing. Demarcus Dobbs is actually in the game now as an extra tight end in the goal line offense, but Jim Harbaugh shows he's a much better friend to Vikings coach Leslie Frazier than brother John claimed to be with Steve Spagnuolo last year and kneels on the ball. Or, maybe Eddie DeBartolo Jr. had the over or the Vikings +13.
Final score: 49ers 17, Vikings 6
Post game show
What have we learned: The script hasn't changed much in San Francisco, and neither have the results. Win the field position battle, win on special teams, take care of the ball and beat the snot out of the opposing defense with the best-blocked running game in the league. They're going to win a lot of games. The Vikings had a little success against their starting defense, though, which may bear watching as preseason continues. Minnesota's offense looks a little ahead of the Rams', I'm sorry to say. They're running the ball well. They're similarly lacking talent at WR but manage to move the ball. The o-line run-blocked well, struggled some with the blitz. The Rams will need to look for a lot of blitzing when they play the Vikings in December.
Player of the game: I know Kaepernick had the electrifying play of the game, but POTG here, on behalf of the 49er's million-and-six blocking tight ends and fullbacks that all do their jobs well, goes to Bruce Miller, who had several key blocks while the 49ers rang up all the points they'd need. Teams would be smart to give a look to Nate Byham, a blocking TE the 49ers just cut. Even if he was their #6 blocking TE, he'd be #1 for a lot of teams.
Up next: I've got Rams-Chiefs in a couple of hours. My ambitious agenda for tomorrow is to get the week 1 Seahawks-Titans and Big Dead-Chiefs games in, which will probably wrap up week 1 for me. Yes, I know week 2 has already started.
-$-
No comments:
Post a Comment