49ers-Vikings only battle of NFL unbeatens this week

Mike Singletary wants to make sure his players understand tomorrow’s game against the Vikings is not all about Adrian Peterson or Brett Favre. But, clearly, the 49ers must keep those players in check Sunday to have any chance of leaving Minnesota with a victory.

 

This is the weekend’s only matchup of unbeaten NFL teams. The 49ers have victories at the Cardinals and at home against the Seahawks, while the Vikings have road wins against the Browns and Lions.

 

The Vikings and 49ers have similar offensive approaches. Both teams want to get their run games going. Quarterbacks Favre and Shaun Hill have been bit players in their teams’ success. Hill stepped up when needed with a long game-winning drive at the start of the fourth quarter of the 49ers’ win at Arizona. And Favre has three touchdown passes – but very few yards passing. He arrived late in training camp and is still trying to build chemistry with his wideouts.

 

This is the regular-season home debut for Favre, so you know he’ll be excited. Peterson is also determined to play well against the 49ers after he had the worst game of his career against the 49ers in 2007. Peterson had 3 yards rushing on 14 attempts.

 

Coach Mike Nolan, who was handling most of the game-planning at that stage, stacked the line of scrimmage, as the 49ers were not concerned with rookie quarterback Tavaris Jackson making them pay. He also had cornerbacks Nate Clements and Walt Harris coming up aggressively to shut off the outside.

 

The 49ers constantly had at least four defenders in position to make plays. Bryant Young and Aubrayo Franklin had a big games in the middle, and Marques Douglas and Parys Haralson were very disciplined on the outside. Derek Smith, Jeff Ulbrich and, of course, Patrick Willis played well, and Mark Roman and Michael Lewis also came up strong in run support throughout the game.

 

The key matchup might happen on the other side of the ball. Listen to my thoughts below:

 

 

 

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