Tonight’s Sunday Night NFL preseason football game to wrap week three has the Minnesota Vikings seeking their first 2013 win by heading to the Bay to take on the Super Bowl runner-up San Francisco 49ers. The late game has a scheduled start time of 8/7c on NBC, the TV home of Sunday Night Football during the regular season, with live online streaming instructions waiting below.
Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder must be pondering his team’s chances tonight after two pitiful outings to start the 2013 preseason. He was sacked on the first play from scrimmage against the Bills last week and ended up going 5-12 for 53 yards in five possessions. A completion per possession is not the kind of output a coach likes to see from their NFL starting quarterback.
Looking at the positives, Vikings running back Joe Banyard had a nice 6.7 yards per carry average on 7 rushes for 67 yards, including a 38 yard sprint and a 1-yard touchdown run. The defense played well against Kevin Kolb before he was knocked out of the game, but the second and third stringers didn’t fare well against E.J. Manuel when he put up a 126.4 passer rating.
The 49ers snuck by former quarterback Alex Smith and the Chief last week 15-13 by putting a ton of pressure on their recently departed quarterback. Ponder should take notice of the 49ers excellent pass rush as he’ll surely be trying to run from it tonight. Even the 49ers second unit was able to pressure Smith and keep him off balance. By game’s end, Chiefs quarterbacks were sacked 7 times and rush more times than that.
A pair of veterans stood out for the 49ers last week. Phil Dawson, coming over after a long career with the Browns, booted a pair of 55 yard field goals that would have been good from 60+ yards. Frank Gore only had two carries, but one was a 52-yarder that could have been a touchdown.
NFL Sunday Night preseason football on NBC in high definition between the Minnesota Vikings and San Francisco 49ers gets underway at 8/7c. NBC does not offer a free live online stream of their NFL games. You can, however, pick up the NFL Preseason package for a prorated cost of $14.99 here for the remainder of the preseason to watch a free live online streaming of tonight’s game. I expect the 49ers to pound Ponder into the dirt and secure a victory by a minimum of 10 points in this nationally televised game.
