SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Vikings receiver Adam Thielen didn’t see the pass from Kirk Cousins until cornerback Richard Sherman secured it and raced the other direction.
Thielen shouldered blame afterward for not extending his route in front of Sherman or making a stronger attempt at the ball, failures that contributed to Sherman's pivotal third-quarter interception in the Vikings' 27-10 loss to the 49ers on Saturday. Thielen's isolated mistake was easy to frame and assess responsibility.
More difficult for Minnesota to speak on? Finishing with 147 total yards and struggling to connect all afternoon after hearing sharp criticism of its offense throughout the campaign.
The Vikings now enter the offseason needing to sort out why they've yet to progress from their 2017 run to the NFC championship game despite a stable of talented skill position players on either side of the ball.
"They took it to us," Thielen said. "They punched us in the mouth, and we didn't help ourselves when the plays where there to be made."
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Earlier this season, the Vikings managed to control play with their run game, led by Dalvin Cook. That identity evaporated down the stretch — Cook didn’t surpass 4 yards per carry in a contest after Oct. 24. Cook managed 18 yards on nine attempts Saturday.
So, coach Mike Zimmer tried the screen game. The 49ers, already creeping forward with their front seven, had no problem stopping short tosses to Cook. The Florida State product turned six catches into only 8 yards.
As for deep balls? Not an issue for San Francisco outside of a 41-yard Stefon Diggs score in the first quarter, which led to the benching of defensive back Ahkello Witherspoon. Cousins did not crack 100 passing yards until the fourth quarter. Often when he sat in the pocket waiting for downfield routes to develop, he ended up on the ground. The 49ers recorded six sacks.
Without a reliable way to move the ball, Minnesota could not afford to make critical mistakes if it wanted to keep the game close. The Sherman interception and a muffed punt late by Marcus Sherels allowed San Francisco to pull away.
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"When you don’t get in rhythm and you don’t get the running game going and get things going," Cook said, "they can just sit back and fly around and make plays."
Zimmer attributed most of Minnesota’s shortcomings Saturday to San Francisco’s talent level. The 49ers' defense, after all, ended the regular season ranked second in yardage allowed. Zimmer avoided taking a big-picture look at what went wrong with the offense during a stretch of three losses in five games to close the season. He said there would be more time to reflect in the coming months — about the offense overall and how the organization approaches its quarterback situation in the long term (though he did confirm his comfort with Cousins).
Players were not in the mood to consider topics beyond the season-ending loss, either.
When Diggs was asked whether Saturday’s dud offered any indication of how far Minnesota stands from genuine Super Bowl contention moving forward, the receiver waited to speak for several seconds, laughed and said, "I don’t know."
When Cousins was asked a similar question, he also chose not to engage.
"Today, they were the better team," Cousins said. "That's really what you take from it."