Struggling San Francisco 49ers drop second straight game - ESPN

MINNEAPOLIS — Just more than two weeks ago, the San Francisco 49ers were undefeated and the talk of the league after demolishing the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night football.

Inside the Niners' locker room after Monday night's sloppy 22-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, that game might as well have been two years ago. Among the 49ers' mistakes on Monday: three turnovers, Minnesota's 60-yard touchdown just before halftime on a rare for the situation all-out blitz and a missed 40-yard field goal.

The result was their second consecutive loss, something San Francisco hadn't experienced since this day one year ago and an overwhelming sense that it had all come crashing back to Earth after a dominant 5-0 start.

«The NFL will humble you every step of the way,» defensive end Nick Bosa said. «And getting off to a 5-0 start you kind of get that confidence that we are who we need to be but the NFL does that. Good players, good schemes and we're going to face another good team this week so we've got to be ready.»

In order to turn it around, the Niners must find a way to pull out games like Monday's and last week's loss to the Cleveland Browns. In both contests, the Niners struggled to play the complementary football they did in the first five weeks but still had opportunities to win in the closing minutes.

That the Niners came up short both times has left the Niners frustrated that they seem to be fine when they can control the game from the start — they won the first five games by an average of 19.8 points — but struggle when things get hairy.

As linebacker Fred Warner is quick to point out, teams that advance deep into the postseason can win any type of game they play.

«I think the thing right now is we've got to find ways to win