Jay Ward might have been hoping no one noticed that he came within a second of recovering a muffed San Francisco punt and setting the Vikings up around the 49ers’ 13-yard line on Sunday.
When a lone reporter mentioned that it looked as if the Vikings’ safety was about to pounce on the ball when a different purple-clad arm knocked it away, Ward smiled.
“Yeaaaaaah,” he said, wincing a little.
When his secondary teammates, including safety Josh Metellus started giving him a little grief, Ward finally threw down the shirt he’d been putting on and pointed at Metellus.
“If I had jumped on it, you wouldn’t have got your pick, though,” he said. “You’ve gotta look at it from the bright side.”
There is a lot of bright side for the Minnesota Vikings after their 23-17 victory over defending NFC champion San Francisco on Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Ward was right, because on the 49ers’ ensuing possession, Metellus snared a tipped pass — courtesy former Gophers linebacker Blake Cashman — from Brock Purdy and ran 10 yards with it to set the Vikings up first-and-goal with 6:53 left in the third quarter.
That play, one of many big-time moments for the Vikings on Sunday, set up Sam Darnold’s 10-yard touchdown strike to Jalen Nailor, which gave Minnesota a 20-7 lead and, ultimately, control in a game they essentially won with a 6 minute, 46-second fourth quarter drive that resulted in Will Reichard’s 31-yard field goal with 1:12 left.
Suddenly, the team that started the season with absolutely zero rizz — with a new quarterback trying to re-establish his career and a coaching staff staring down job insecurity — is 2-0. It’s only two games in a 17-game season that is, frankly, a dogfight every week, but as Ward said, look at the bright side. It’s the only side the Vikings have shown us so far.
The Vikings jumped on San Francisco early when C.J. Ham blocked a punt that led to a Reichard field goal and a 3-0, first-quarter lead. It became the Vikings’ game when they stopped Purdy and Co. on four downs inside the 5-yard line early in the second quarter, then — backed up on their own 3 on second down — dialed up a long pass to Justin Jefferson.
That is, as the kids might say, drip.
Jefferson beat his double team, Darnold dropped a dime, and the NFL’s best receiver did the rest, reversing course to beat his would-be defenders to the end zone.
“We practice that play time and time again,” Jefferson said. “I mean, we didn’t practice being on the 3-yard line and us going 97, but it was just a great, great ball by Sam to really (attack) the double team and faith in me to run right through it.”
Jefferson left the game with a quad injury late in the third quarter but told reporters, “I’m not seriously injured. … It’s just all about getting to the training room, making sure my body is right for next week, and I’ll be ready to go.”
That’s more of the bright side for Vikings fans who choose to lean into the optimism, and why wouldn’t you? The team has a tough assignment next weekend in Houston, but it’s clear that the Vikings can beat good teams.
They just did.
“The outside world is finally catching on and seeing, ‘OK, maybe they’re actually good,’ ” safety Cam Bynum said. “But we’ve known since the beginning.”
Even Harrison Smith, the crusty veteran just starting his 13th NFL season, knows when it’s time to go with the good vibes. That was a big win, right?
“Yeah,” he said. “That’s a good team.”
He was speaking of the 49ers, who have played in the NFC title game the past three seasons and lost to Kansas City in overtime in last season’s Super Bowl. Hence the youthful exuberance from players such as Bynum, Metellus and Andrew Van Ginkel, who had another big game with four tackles — including one of the Vikings’ six sacks — and pass defended.
“I think we’re special, from the front end to the back end,” Van Ginkel said. “Just across the board, we’ve got playmakers, we have depth. The sky’s the limit for us.”
Asked if he felt, as a veteran of 12 seasons, he felt the need to tamp down some of that exuberance, Smith said, “Nah. You don’t want to calm ’em down.”
“I can be calm enough for the rest of us,” he added. “We have a good mix of young and old. … We’ve got a nice group that likes to play together, not just defensively but the whole team. It’s a fun group, man, coaches included. Pleasure to be a part of, for sure.”
