Talanoa Hufanga calls out lack of effort after 49ers drop second straight to Vikings

The San Francisco 49ers' defensive performance was the most mystifying aspect of their Week 7 defeat to the Minnesota Vikings.

San Francisco gave up 452 yards to the Vikings as the Niners slumped to a 22-17 loss, suffering an upset for the second successive week after losing to the Cleveland Browns in Week 6.

The Niners continually let slip opportunities to get off the field, with the Vikings going eight of 13 on third down, and safety Talanoa Hufanga was blunt about what he felt was the main issue behind the 49ers' struggles in that specific area.

"I think it was just a lack of effort," Hufanga said. "We need to tighten some things up and, like I said, go back to the drawing board. 

"I can’t put it on anybody other than ourselves. We need to go out there and just be better. I think there’s always a good accountability towards us effort-wise. We’re always trying to run to the ball, that’s what we do, but just putting ourselves in a better position to make plays."

Niners quarterback Brock Purdy thew interceptions on each of the 49ers' final two drives with a chance to take the lead, but Hufanga had no desire to put any blame on his shoulders.

"We just got to stick together. We can never put a two-minute drive on the offense and say that they got to score," added Hufanga. 

"That’s not who we are as a defense. They scored too many points at the end of the day and we take that on our hands. To go out there and if we can hold them to zero, or at one point less than us, that would get us a win."

Asked about the defense potentially having to carry more of the load because of injuries to Trent Williams and Deebo Samuel on offense, Hufanga concluded: 

"For us, we’re going to play our ball regardless. You can have all of the guys on offense or none of the guys on offense; our defense is our standard. We got to go out there and execute that standard each and every week, and today we didn’t."