Most disappointing Vikings in the loss to the 49ers

K Greg Joseph

Greg Joseph again failed to do his job and his failure again cost his team. The Vikings were up early in this game and then allowed the 49ers to not only tie the game but take a two-score lead. The momentum had clearly gone the 49ers way and things weren’t looking good for the Purple. Then Nwangwu returned a kick 99 yards getting the Vikings back to one score but more importantly back into the game.

On the point after attempt, Joseph hooked his kick, and just like that the momentum was taken away. The Vikings ended up chasing that missed point all game long, and it really proved to be costly. Had he made it the team wouldn’t have felt the need to go for two points on their next score. So instead of the score being 31-26, it would’ve been 31-28. The 49ers were able to tack on three more points after the Cook fumble, putting the score at 34-28. If the Vikings hadn’t missed an extra point that forced them to go for two earlier, they could’ve kicked the ball on 4th down instead of going for it and they would’ve then had a chance to tie the game with a field goal when they were given one last chance as time was ticking down.

Overall, Greg Joseph has been good for the Vikings this year. However, when he misses a kick, he misses important ones in very close games. This causes the Vikings offense to gamble more and in this case, it simply didn’t pay off and instead contributed to the loss.