'They punched us in the mouth': Vikings season ends in 27-10 NFC Divisional Playoffs loss to 49ers

Richard Sherman #25 of the San Francisco 49ers intercepts a pass intended for Adam Thielen #19 of the Minnesota Vikings during the second half of the NFC Divisional Round Playoff game at Levi's Stadium on January 11, 2020 in Santa Clara, California. ((Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images))

There was talk about a playoff run and a possible date at Lambeau Field for the NFC title next weekend for the Minnesota Vikings after a stunning overtime upset win at New Orleans last week.

It all came to a crashing halt Saturday in Santa Clara, Calif., after the Vikings got manhandled on both sides of the ball in a 27-10 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in front of more than 70,000 fans at Levi’s Stadium. The No. 1 defense in the NFC limited the Vikings to 147 total yards, 21 rushing yards and just seven first downs.

Behind a dominant offensive line, the 49ers ran for 186 yards and averaged four yards per carry. Mike Zimmer has stressed running the ball and playing stout defense to win big games all year. His Vikings team did neither Saturday, and their season is over one game short of playing for a shot at the Super Bowl.

“They got after us pretty good. We didn’t move the ball very well. Other than the pass to Diggs, we didn’t do much,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said after the loss.

Their only offensive play of any significance was Kirk Cousins hitting Stefon Diggs, who missed two practices earlier in the week due to illness, for a 41-yard touchdown that tied the game 7-7 in the first quarter. The Vikings had 45 total plays in the game, and possessed the ball for only 21 minutes as six of their 10 drives ended in 3-and-outs.

The 49ers attempted more rushing plays, 49, than the Vikings had in the whole game. If the Vikings were going to have offensive success against the 49ers, Dalvin Cook would be a major factor. Cook finished with nine carries for 18 yards, and six catches for just eight yards.

“We didn’t do enough offensively to give ourselves a chance to win the game. It hurts right now, coach said he was proud of the way the team fought this year but right now it’s just so raw that we’re just kind of focused on this game and just falling short,” Cousins said. “I thought the 49ers were a good team. They earned the No. 1 seed and home field advantage throughout the way they played this season.”

It was a week that started with talk of keeping the celebration in the overtime win over the Saints short and sweet. There was more to accomplish this season, especially after they followed an emotional playoff win over New Orleans two seasons ago with one of the worst losses in franchise history.

Then Diggs missed two days of practice, Adam Thielen got tangled up in practice Wednesday and got a cut on his left ankle that required stitches, and missing practice on Thursday. Offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski interviewed, for the second time, with the Cleveland Browns about their head coaching vacancy.

They can use whatever rationale they’d like, but the Vikings were overpowered by a superior football team on Saturday. Their season ends with an 11-7 record, while the 49ers move on to face either Green Bay or Seattle in the NFC title game next weekend.

“It’s tough, it’s pretty emotional right now. But throughout this whole locker room there’s a bunch of fighters. We’ve been through ups and downs, and they counted us out at times and we just kept fighting. We came up short today,” offensive lineman Pat Elflein said.

After the entire offensive line had one of its best games at New Orleans last week, they had arguably their worst collective game of the season against San Francisco. There were no running lanes for Cook, the screen game didn’t work and Cousins was pressured on nearly half of his 25 passing attempts. He was sacked six times.

The Vikings looked like they might grab some momentum after tying the game in the first quarter. Xavier Rhodes forced a Deebo Samuel fumble on a reverse and Harrison Smith recovered. After a review, Samuel’s knee was down. The 49ers got seven points out of the overturn, with Tevin Coleman scoring the first of his two touchdowns to give San Francisco a 14-7 lead.

There was plenty of talk during the week about Jimmy Garoppolo playing nervous in his first career playoff start. He led an effortless 49ers’ opening possession with a touchdown to Kendrick Bourne, going 5-of-6 on his first playoff drive for 56 yards.

Garoppolo did throw a second quarter interception to Eric Kendricks, but the Vikings’ offense could only manage one first down with and settled for a field goal to trail 14-10 at the half.

The game turned after the 49ers got a field goal on their first possession of the third quarter to take a 17-10 lead. Cousins tried to hit Thielen, who stopped his route too early. Richard Sherman was the recipient of an easy interception, and the 49ers turned it into seven points on Coleman’s second touchdown of the day. He finished with 105 yards and averaged 4.8 yards per carry.

The game and the season were slipping away from the Vikings, down 24-10. Thielen took ownership of the interception after the game.

“That’s a game-changing play and you can’t have that in the playoffs. It’s something that you work on Day 1, you never stop your route, you always cross the face to make your quarterback look right,” Thielen said. “Kirk trusted me, has a lot of trust in me to make that play and it’s frustrating obviously. I’ll learn from it and move forward.”

The 49ers dominated the third quarter, out-gaining the Vikings 105-7, outscoring them 10-0 and possessing the ball for more than 12 minutes.

San Francisco added a field goal early in the fourth quarter to take a 27-10 lead, and the Vikings’ season was all but over.

Midway through the fourth quarter with the season on the line, the Vikings ran Cook for five yards, Cook dropped a screen pass from Cousins and then the 49ers got one of their six sacks on Cousins. Facing a 4th-and-14 down 17 points, the Vikings punted. Of their 10 offensive series, six resulted in 3-and-outs. The 49ers had the ball for more than 38 minutes, to Minnesota’s 22 minutes. That’s a full quarter more in time of possession.

“I don’t think there was any one person today that was not good. It was a combination of things,” Zimmer said.

Thielen, who was questionable going into the game and did a quick pregame workout before being declared active, finished the game with five catches for 50 yards.

“They took it to us, they punched us in the mouth,” Thielen said.

It’s a movie the Vikings and their fans have seen before. The team got a big playoff win on the road, optimism crept in and then they got dealt a hard dose of reality against the No. 1 team in the NFC. It’s leading to more questions than answers after team ownership expressed their support for Zimmer and General Manager Rick Spielman two days before the Vikings upset the Saints.

“Our ultimate goal was to get to the Big Dance and win it. We didn’t do that, we fell short,” Cook said. “But the bright side of it, our core guys and guys that we value in the locker room are coming back next year, so we’ve got to keep this one in our back pocket and build from it.”