Last October, the San Francisco 49ers visited the Minnesota Vikings to complete the seventh week of regular season play on a Monday night. In that game, Christian McCaffery fumbled on the 49ers first drive in the redzone on first down. The Niners ended the first half allowing a third down play to go for a 60-yard Vikings touchdown and their final drive of the game was blunted by a rare Brock Purdy interception.

It all added up to a 22-17 road loss for the eventual National Football Conference Champions.

This Sunday, Kyle Shanahan and his team meet the Vikings on the road again, and don’t you know they have revenge on their minds. In all likelihood, McCaffrey will still not be in uniform for the 49ers, he is nursing both a sore calf and tender Achilles, so he won’t get a personal chance to atone for his off game a year ago.

But want to bet on the rest of his teammates to earn that revenge in convincing fashion?

I do.

The 49ers are favored again, they were seven-point favorites last season and are favored by five points this Sunday. Statistically, only 16% of NFL games have the straight-up winner shifted by virtue of the point spread. I don’t think this will be one of them.

Consider this, what if the New York Jets go on to be a force in the American Football Conference this year? They could, we’ll know more after they meet the Titans in Tennessee this Sunday, but if they are good just how dominant are the 49ers to make the Jets look bad in their Monday Night Football season opener?

That is the challenge of early season results. One needs to evaluate if a team looked good because they were playing a team destined for a bad season, or if they looked good while playing a squad headed for a playoff berth. Aaron Rodgers has never opened a season in his professional career with back-to-back losses, but the 49ers made him and the Jets look like … well, the Jets. A team seemingly capable of losing every week.

But, what may have been masked in last Monday’s result is that the Jets are a pretty good team, which means this, the 49ers are a very good team. Good enough to win their first Super Bowl since the 1994 season.

So, off to Minnesota for their first road game, still looking to compensate for the likely loss of McCaffrey, and with a quarterback that continues to do the best impression in the league of Tom Brady.

If you think I’m biased for Purdy, you are right. I love the kid, love his attitude on and off the field and know this is not a man more concerned about his game day wardrobe worn headed to the stadium but how he performs in uniform on the field.

The 49ers are very special, and the Vikings are coming off both last year’s upset win over San Francisco and a victory last week, 28-6, over the talent challenged New York Giants. The idea Minnesota could rack another winner on that set of circumstances is, might I say it, nearly impossible.

Qoxhi Picks: San Francisco 49ers (-5) over Minnesota Vikings