San Francisco 49ers look to continue unbeaten run as they face Minnesota Vikings—NFL Preview
After playing against two relatively weaker opponents, the real test of Minnesota Vikings’ capabilities will be on display as they host San Francisco 49ers for Week 3 game on Sunday, September 23, at Mall of American Field, Minneapolis.
49ers are 2-0 after the first two weeks and they are well capable of dominating the Vikings, who have faced Jacksonville Jaguars and Indianapolis Colts so far.
Vikings won their season opener against Jaguars in overtime, and lost against Colts after a close encounter. Both games were pretty close for Vikings and the possibility of a different result was always there.
This show might not help Vikings against 49ers, who have defeated two strong opponents, Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions, this season.
49ers were able to deal with Packers’ explosive offence, while they also tackled Lions’ aggressive defence successfully. This shows that they are strong on both offence and defence and can have a dominant edge over Vikings on Sunday.
Under quarterback Alex Smith, 49ers’ offence continues to thrive, while their offseason additions, Mario Manningham and Randy Moss, have so far lived up to the expectations.
This will be a special game for Moss, who was drafted by Vikings back more than 10 years ago. While Moss has expressed excitement to play against his former team, Vikings are preparing hard to face the veteran.
Moss has so far been utilised by the 49ers on crucial plays. The veteran has particularly helped the team play well in the red zone and supported the team’s effort to shift the reliance from field goals to touchdowns to get more points on any scoring opportunity.
Moss was able to get free space against Packers as well as Lions, but Vikings are ready to mark the veteran and limit options of Smith. Vikings defensive coordinator Alan Williams said:
“You never want to turn Moss loose. That would be a mistake, not to pay attention to Randy Moss. Until he’s turned in his retirement papers, I think every defensive coordinator, every secondary, every defence is going to pay attention to him. We have to.”
Meanwhile, 49ers are also not getting complacent after two victories. Their head coach Jim Harbaugh has acknowledged that Vikings have a good defensive unit that can create troubles for his team.
Harbaugh said of Vikings’ defence:
“Good defence, good defence. They are an attacking, aggressive defence. They are a blitzing defence, a multiple-coverage defence. Very aggressive up front. It’s a defence that’s trying to get you into bad plays, bad situations and they’ve got the talent
and scheme to be able do that.”
49ers are certainly the favourites against Vikings, but if Vikings play well on offence and penetrate the visitor’s defence while improving their rushing game, any result is possible.
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