I am writing this before Monday Night’s big collegiate national championship football game between LSU and Clemson, so I will have to save my comments on that much-anticipated clash for next week’s column.
I can, however, express an opinion on the Vikings loss to the 49ers on Saturday. In dominating fashion, San Francisco was in control from start to finish and advanced with a convincing 27-10 victory, ending Minnesota’s season with an overall record of 11-7.
After last week’s 26-20 win over the favored New Orleans Saints, the one-sided loss to the 49ers was disappointing to Viking fans. To make matters even worse, the Packers are still playing after holding off the Seahawks Sunday, 29-23, in the cold weather of legendary Lambeau Field in Green Bay.
Next weekend, the 49ers host the Packers for the NFC championship and the Chiefs will host the surprising Tennessee Titans to decide the AFC title. The two winners will tangle in the Super Bowl in Miami on February 2.
So, who are you picking?
As I repeated last week, back in early December, I picked the 49ers and Ravens to play in the Super Bowl. Half of that prediction was foiled Saturday when the Titans eliminated the Ravens (28-12) as the Nashville-based squad pulled off its second consecutive impressive playoff “upset.” The previous week, defending Super Bowl Champion New England was eliminated by the Titans, 20-13.
Now the Titans will strive to make it three in a row by knocking off the high-scoring Chiefs, who rallied from a 24-0 deficit to defeat the Houston Texans Sunday by a final score of 51-31. Kansas City, led by scrambling quarterback Patrick Mahomes, finished the game on a remarkable 51-7 surge and will be a formidable opponent on their home turf.
Back to the Vikings! The 49ers ran the ball effectively all game long and completely stopped Minnesota from doing the same. San Francisco rushed for 187 yards, while the Vikings gained a mere 21 yards on the ground. When the rushing attack is stopped, the Vikings needed to mount more of a passing game — but that was stymied, too.
Defensively, the Vikings are simply not as good as “advertised” and offensively, the much overpaid and overrated Kirk Cousins is not the “answer” the organization had hoped for. They simply put “too many eggs in one basket” two years ago — after advancing to the NFC championship game following the 2017 season with Case Keenum as quarterback.
Keenum was the QB the last time the Vikings had a home playoff game. He was able to scramble and ramble, creating plays and making things happen. He may not have put up the greatest statistics — as far as NFL quarterbacks go — but he seemed to have a knack to win games.
It was, however, deemed that he wasn’t good enough and did not deserve a second season? But after Cousins below-par 2018 season, Coach Mike Zimmer was absolutely certain that Kirk would be much better his second year with the Vikings? Was he? I am still not convinced that Cousins is as good as he’s supposed to be.
I know, I know. The offensive line is bad and he doesn’t have time in the pocket — or lack of a “pocket” — but his lack of mobility leads to a lot of his sacks and poor passes. Cousins is certainly not as good as Mahomes, LaMar Jackson or Aaron Rodgers. But, most fans still believe he is way better than Keenum and deserves “every penny” of his ridiculous contract.
As I have said many times before, I am not one of those who think that way. What if the Vikings had kept Keenum and spent more on upgrading the offensive line with some of those dollars that go to Cousins?
The Vikings will have a new offensive coordinator next fall as Kevin Stefanski has been hired as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns.
Here’s the Vikings drive chart from Saturday’s loss to the 49ers: punt, touchdown, punt, punt, field goal, interception, punt, punt, punt, turnover on downs, turnover on downs. That’s a total of nine stalled drives and just two successful drives.
The Vikings only had seven first downs the entire game and a total of 147 yards (126 passing), meanwhile the 49ers had 21 first downs and a total of 318 yards. Minnesota was two-of-12 on third down, including zero-of-six in the second half.
