Game Analysis:
In this Week 7 primetime matchup, we have two teams who have had much different starts to their season, as the San Francisco 49ers travel to Minnesota to take on the Vikings on Monday Night Football. The 49ers looked like the best team in the league so far, but suffered their first loss last week in Cleveland and now sit at 5-1. On the other hand, the Vikings finally got back in the win column last week in Chicago to improve to 2-4 in yet another one score game.
The Niners are still the super bowl favorites when healthy, but last week showed just how irreplaceable some of their offensive weapons are, as the offense really struggled once Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel went out with injuries. QB Brock Purdy finally suffered his first career NFL loss in his worst start up to this point, as he went just 12/27 with 125 yards and one touchdown and interception each. This offense was shut down by the Browns number 1 defense unlike we’ve seen recently, and it’ll be interesting to see how they bounce back. Christian McCaffrey continued his ridiculous streak of games in a row with a TD, as he found the endzone on the first drive of the game, but unfortunately had to leave later in the game. He will be questionable for this matchup, along with Deebo Samuel and Trent Williams, so the health of these stars will have a massive impact on this game.
The host team in the matchup, the Vikings, have had every single game so far end within one score, and they were finally able to come out on top in one in a 19-13 win at Chicago last week, following a 1-4 start in such games. This is the same Vikings team that went 11-0 in one score games last year, so it seems that they finally got hit with the negative regression that was expected. This is a team that has injury problems themselves, as their star WR Justin Jefferson was placed on the IR prior to the Bears game. On the bright side, QB Kirk Cousins is having a fantastic year so far, but will need some of the other weapons to step up now in Jefferson’s absence. The Vikings defense was actually the main reason for their win last week, as they created pressure all game long and finished with 5 sacks, and recorded a strip sack touchdown return which would end up being the game winner. They will have a much tougher test against the 49ers, and I don’t quite trust them yet to take care of business here, but the 49ers injury report this week will also have a lot to say about that.
Bet on either team!
