Vikings fans seek revenge on the San Francisco 49ers for Week 1, 2015
Three years ago this week, the Minnesota Vikings traveled to San Francisco for week one of the 2015 NFL season. With fan optimism brimming on the Minnesota side, the Vikings were outplayed in the game and embarrassed by the 49ers on Monday Night Football, 20-3.
To start the 2015 season, the Minnesota Vikings were a popular subject around the NFL water cooler.
Running back Adrian Peterson was returning after his year-long suspension for domestic misconduct, young and promising second-year quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was now their franchise signal-caller, and the Vikings’ brass had added veteran speed-merchant wideout Mike Wallace to their receiver ranks, alongside ex-Packer Greg Jennings and gamebreaker Cordarrelle Patterson.
Norv Turner, the Vikings’ offensive coordinator, finally had some firepower to work with after an inconsistent 2014 season with a variety of pass-catchers and a below-average ground stable of running backs in Jerick McKinnon and Matt Asiata.
Second-year head coach Mike Zimmer, who had taken one of the league’s worst defenses of 2013 to a respectable middle-league ranking in 2014, had now added new players in rookies Anthony Barr at linebacker, Sharrif Floyd at defensive tackle, and free-agent Linval Joseph to center the Viking defensive line.
Zimmer, often lauded in the press for his scrappy group of Vikings that finished the 2014 season 9-7 under rookie Bridgewater’s leadership, was eager to prove they were a team looking to win the NFC North and get to the playoffs the very next year.
And so–on the evening of September 15, 2015, the Vikings stepped onto to Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, to play the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL season’ first Monday night game.
The Niners were coached by longtime defensive assistant Jim Tomsula, who had taken over after mercurial head coach Jim Harbaugh had been run out of town by the 49er front-office.
The San Francisco quarterback was Colin Kaepernick and their running back was second-year man Carlos Hyde, taking over for the great veteran Frank Gore, who had signed with Indianapolis in the off-season.
The 49ers offense was coming off a previous season in which they were flat-out terrible. San Francisco finished 30th in passing yards per game, 25th in the league in scoring (19.1 a game), and had seen their quarterback, Kaepernick sacked 52 times, a team record.
Vikings’ fans felt good about the match-up and the start of the season, and it could have been easily said that both the squad and their supporters were extremely confident about their team after a vigorous training game and successful preseason.
We were also quite confident how Zimmer’s young defense matched up against what could have been called a ‘challenged’ 49er offense.
Across the country, Vikings’ fans hunkered down in front of television sets, in sports bars and at friend’s houses’, wearing our purple-and-gold, expecting much from our squad.