The Arizona Cardinals lost their fourth straight game on Sunday, falling to the San Francisco 49ers 36-26 on the road. They built a 16-0 first-half lead and it disappeared.
They are now 3-7-1 heading into their bye week.
What did we learn in the loss?
David Johnson has been benched
Kliff Kingsbury said it would be running back by committee. It wasn’t. Kenyan Drake started the game. David Johnson got seven first-half snaps and didn’t appear to get any playing time in the second half.
Johnson did not even get to touch the ball.
He has gone from workhorse to benchwarmer. This doesn’t look good.
Back to the original offensive line
Tackle Justin Murray was active for the game but when inactives were announced and Joshua Miles was left inactive, it appeared that Murray would come off the bench and the combo of Justin Pugh at right tackle and Mason Cole at left guard would be the starting lineup for the third week in a row.
It wasn’t. Murray returned to the starting lineup at right tackle and Pugh moved back to left guard.
The Cardinals got off to a great start
The Cardinals scored on three of their first four drives. It was exactly what they needed to do against a shorthanded 49ers team. The problem is they couldn’t hold the lead defensively.
Defense can’t stop replacements
No Matt Breida, George Kittle and an injured Emmanuel Sanders? No problem, at least for the 49ers. The Cardinals could not stop their replacements from having huge impacts.
Running back Tevin Coleman only had 14 rushing yards on 12 carries but had 48 yards on three catches, including a 37-yard catch.
Tight end Ross Dwelley had four receptions, but two were for touchdowns. They were the first touchdowns of his career. Of course the Cardinals gave up touchdowns to a tight end.
Rookie receiver Deebo Samuel had eight catches for 134 yards.
Defense stopped the run
The 49ers have one of the best rushing offenses in the league. The Cardinals took that away. It was the one thing they did defensively. The Niners finished with 19 carries for only 34 yards.
But. . .
Jimmy Garoppolo lit them up again
Garoppolo threw for 317 passing yards and a career-high four touchdown passes two weeks ago against the Cardinals. On Sunday, he did even better. He had another four touchdown passes but this time had 424 passing yards, a career-high.
He has had two games with at least 300 passing yards. Both have come against the Cardinals.
Third down is a problem again
Whether it is on offense or on defense, the Cardinals have struggled all season on third down. That trend continued Sunday. Offensively, they converted on only 3-of-10 but they allowed the 49ers to convert on 6-of-13.
They were able to run on the 49ers again
The Cardinals rushed for 135 yards against the 49ers. Kenyan Drake was effective, gaining 67 yards on 16 carries, almost 4.2 yards per attempt. Kyler Murray also ran for 67 yards.
So many penalties
It was a flagfest on Sunday between the two teams. Both teams were penalized 10 times each. San Francisco was flagged for 127 yards and Arizona had 104 penalty yards. Some of them were ridiculous, like the pictured penalty called on Cardinals linebacker Joe Walker for pass interference.
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