There aren't many winners in a stinker like the one the 49ers played on Sunday, but let's see what we can find.
Winners
Fred Warner
It seems almost impossible to think that Fred Warner could raise his game to another level, but he's done exactly that this season.
After forcing a fumble against the Jets in Week 1, Warner decided to do that and more against Sam Darnold and the Vikings on Sunday.
Not only did he have a crucial interception at the 49ers' 10 yard line to keep San Francisco in the game in the second quarter, he also punched the ball out of Aaron Jones' hands at the 2 yard line to end the third. The strip prevented the Vikings' from going up 27-7 and was the catalyst for a 99-yard touchdown drive that kept hope alive for San Francisco. Warner also chipped in with a sack as well.
The Niners were not good at all on Sunday, but the loss would have been much, much worse without 54 in the middle of this defense.
Nick Bosa
Through two games this season it looks like we are getting a Nick Bosa far closer to the 2022 Defensive Player of the Year than the one we saw last season.
Bosa did all he could to make life difficult for Sam Darnold on Sunday, notching two sacks, two quarterback hits, and two tackles for loss.
Bosa warned his teammates after the victory over the Jets that there were a lot of things the defense got away with in that game. After this loss, Bosa again didn't seem happy.
"It's a wake up call, but we know why it happened. There's a lot to fix."
George Kittle
Kittle continues to prove his reliability as a pass-catcher when given the opportunity. His 7 catches for 76 yards and a touchdown on the day were one of the few bright spots for the offense.
He also made a little history in the process. He passed Kellen Winslow for the third-most receiving yards by a tight end in his first 100 career games, and passed Rob Gronkowski for the 5th most catches by a tight end in his first 100 career games.
Blocking remains the second best thing that George Kittle does on a football field.
Losers
Nick Sorensen
Against the Jets, Sorensen's defense got burned by Garrett Wilson multiple times on a long touchdown drive early in the game. To his credit, he adjusted and neutralized Wilson after that.
Against the Vikings, Sorensen allowed 20 yards to Justin Jefferson on the first drive in two catches. On Minnesota's third drive, the 49ers ended up with safeties George Odum and Ji'Ayir Brown on Jefferson and got torched for a 97 yard touchdown bomb.
Echoing their performance in Minnesota last year, San Francisco simply could not get off the field on third down, allowing their opponent to convert 7 of their 12 opportunities.
It sure looks like last week's performance may have had more to do with a 40 year old quarterback coming off an Achilles injury than anything the Niners cooked up.
Brock Purdy
Brian Flores clearly knows how to confuse Brock Purdy (and Kyle Shanahan). Purdy looked uncomfortable from word jump on Sunday.
His passes were consistently high and almost always into high-traffic areas. While some of that wasn't his fault, it's also a quarterback's job to keep the ball out of harm's way and Brock didn't do that on Sunday.
His terrible interception deep in his own territory helped the Vikings make it a two-score game in the third quarter, and his inexplicable fumble on third down on the ensuring position set the Vikings up with a short field and a chance to put the game away.
For the second straight week, the 49ers struggled in the red zone, and this time Jake Moody didn't bail them out.
The Offensive Line
I understand that the O-line doesn't play in a vacuum, but they've simply got to do better than this:
Some of those pressure can be attributed to Brock not geting the ball out quickly enough, but not all of them. Trent Williams looked as bad as he's looked as a 49er. Colton McKivitz did Colton McKivitz things.
More importantly, the run-blocking deteriorated in the second half. Here are the results of Mason's carries in the third and fourth quarters: 9, -2, 0, 1, 5, 0, 6, 10.
That's simply not good enough. And you can say the Vikings packed the box all you want, but that's nothing new for the 49ers. They faced loaded boxes more than anyone last year and far more often than not in Week 1.
The line simply has to do better than that. Mason ran for one yard or fewer on half of his carries in the second half - that's not on him. That means he was getting nothing to work with up front.
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