The San Francisco 49ers have Super Bowl aspirations, but they didn't look like a championship-caliber team in Sunday's 23-17 Week 2 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. The last time the 49ers won in Minneapolis was in 1992, and they'll need to bounce back quickly with an NFC West showdown against the Los Angeles Rams looming.
Heading into the game, defensive end Nick Bosa anticipated the Vikings would present a tougher challenge than their Week 1 opponent, the New York Jets, and that proved true.
"That's a really good coach (Kevin O'Connell) and a lot of really good players, and Sam's (QB Sam Darnold) doing a great job," Bosa explained after the game. "Yeah, it's a wake-up call, but we know why it happened, and there's a lot to fix. There's some good things, for sure."
When explicitly asked about O'Connell, Bosa praised the opposing coach's game plan.
"He's just really good with the scheme," Bosa remarked. "He knows how to scheme up the big-time players [against] the defense, and he's got a lot of really good players, a really good O-line. You could feel it when you're playing a good coach who knows what they're doing."
Although Bosa managed to sack Darnold, he admitted he couldn't pinpoint why the 49ers defense struggled to get off the field in critical moments. While he couldn't speak for the linebackers and defensive backs, he acknowledged that the defensive line needs to elevate its performance.
"We've got to make more plays," Bosa said. "We've got to start faster, especially up front."
On the offensive side, tight end George Kittle admitted that the unit also didn't meet its own expectations.
"I think our standards are higher than what we put on tape today," Kittle said. "It's back-to-back weeks we've started out with two not-great drives to start off, so, as an offense, we have to start better than that and not just have to rely on our defense, who [will] say they have to clean stuff up, too. But they caused two turnovers, but we (the offense) also had two turnovers, so that's tough for us.
"I think Kyle said that we were really bad on third down, so it's hard to win football games when you're like that. And we didn't run the ball that effectively today, either. So, the things that we're known for being good at, we weren't great at, and so that kind of explains why we lose."
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