By Jason Prach
The divisional playoffs are always fun, we saw big time upsets last week with the Saints and Patriots losing at home in their respective games. The Vikings going to New Orleans and knocking off Drew Brees and the Saints 26-20 in overtime. The Vikings won the coin toss and took their opening drive down the field, scoring on a yard td pass from Kirk Cousins to tight end Kyle Rudolph for a 26-20 victory. The victory that got the monkey off QB Kirk Cousins back finally, they say you cant win the big game Kirk. Do you like that?! Vikings fans love that, and the victory sent Minnesota to the NFC Divisional round to play the 49ers @ Levi’s Stadium.
49ers move on with convincing 27-10 victory over Vikings; move on to NFC Championship. It seemed like the Vikings had some serious momentum coming in this game, and running back Dalvin Cook had a great game last week with 2 touchdowns of his own. However, the 49ers had other ideas.
The 49ers were 13-3 taking the NFC #1 seed and never really missed a beat, and took down Minnesota 27-10 at home. Their defensive line had been beat up and injured, defensive end Dee Ford was back and looked every bit of his old self, after being set back with a hamstring injury on November 17. Ford had a sack in this game and timed the snap of Kirk Cousins firing off the line like he was shot out of a cannon.
Lets go back a couple weeks to week 16, a Sunday Night Football game, Al Michaels, Chris Collinsworth, the whole nation watching. San Francisco @ the Seattle Seahawks for then the NFC West crown and major playoff implications. Dre Greenlaw tackles Seattle tight end Jacob Hollister at the one yard line to ultimately seal home field advantage for the 49ers. If Hollister scores on that play, New Orleans ultimately has a first round bye, the Seahawks are a #3 seed, and San Francisco and Head Coach Kyle Shanahan ultimately are staring a #5 seed in the face. That could have happened, if not for 1 yard.
They say sports is a game of inches, it isn’t a lie. The 49ers earned that home field advantage by that 1 yard, earned it and pressured Kirk Cousins all day and overpowered Minnesotas’ offensive line. They also forced a muffed punt, and Richard Sherman also had an interception. They took their opening drive down the field, finishing it off with a 3 yard Td pass from Jimmy Garroppolo to Kendrick Bourne for a 7-0 lead. The drive was 8 plays for 61 yards.
Minnesota answered back with a 41 yard TD pass from Cousins to Stefon Diggs to tie it up 7-7. After that however, they only managed a field goal and were shut down completely by defensive coordinator Robert Salehs’ defense. Dalvin Cook was held to just 18 yards rushing on 9 carries, the score and the time of possession were a factor of the Vikings running game this week.
Jimmy Garoppolo is now 22-4 as a starter, and the niners also had a playoff rushing high 47 rushing attempts. Former Falcon running back Tevin Coleman who signed a free agent had 22 carries for 105 yard with 2 touchdowns. Head Coach Kyle Shanahan has went with the hot hand approach in games this year, Rasheem Mostert, who has had big games this year was on special teams.
The playoff victory was the first for San Francisco since winning at Carolina January 12. 2014, when then QB Colin Kaepernick was behind center. To think the NFC playoffs were all decided by one tackle, one yard, and the whole complexion has changed the 2020 NFL playoffs. The 49ers await the winner of Seattle and Green Bay next week for the right to go to Super Bowl 54 in Miami.
