Week 8 - With the San Francisco 49ers hitting the road to visit the division rival Arizona Cardinals in the desert, the contest between the two 1-6 teams would be as winnable a game the Niners would see away from home this season. But having lost eleven straight games in the month of October and riding a seven-game losing-streak to the Redbirds, nothing would be easy, nor guaranteed for Kyle Shanahan's group. Looking to avenge a Week 5 loss at home in which the 49ers obliterated the Cardinals in almost every major statistical category and yet still suffered defeat, San Francisco would need to play a much cleaner game as the turnover department was the lone outlier in that contest, 5-0 in favor of Arizona.
Not only would the 49ers manage their first turnover-free game of the season, but they would also force a pair of turnovers to go along with a safety. By halftime, the 49ers took a 5-3 lead into the locker room in what resembled more of a baseball score, highlighted by a pair of field goals and a safety cashed in by the San Francisco defense. Collecting only their second interception of the season, Niners defensive back Jaquiski Tartt jumped in front of a pass intended for Arizona's Christian Kirk to come up with the rare pick that put his team in field goal range. After throwing for a career-high 349 yards in the earlier meeting between these two teams, quarterback C.J. Beathard had a more modest performance thru the air in the rematch, throwing for only 190 yards on Sunday. Receiver Marquise Goodwin would provide the only fireworks for the San Francisco offense as he caught a pass and turned on the afterburners to blow by Patrick Peterson for a 55-yard touchdown. Following another Robbie Gould field goal, the 49ers took a 15-3 lead into the fourth quarter and appeared to be on their way to a second win of the season. But rookie quarterback Josh Rosen and long-time Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald would have other plans.
Having been a thorn in the side of the 49ers since being drafted in 2004, Fitzgerald has had plenty of memorable games throughout his illustrious career which will ultimately send him to Canton, Ohio one day. Sunday was another one of those games as the Cardinals lifer who tallied 102 yards on 8 receptions, caught a pass for the 219th straight game to inch his team closer in the early part of the fourth quarter as he hauled in a 13-yard score that landed him seventh on the NFL's all-time touchdowns list. Now trailing 15-10, the work of Rosen & Fitzgerald would be far from over, but would hit a bit of a speed-bump on their next possession as Cardinals tight-end Jermaine Gresham fumbled the ball after crossing midfield. The turnover would give the 49ers a golden opportunity to potentially score and put the game out of reach for good, but instead had virtually no effect as San Francisco suffered a costly sack that would put the ball back in Rosen's hands with just over two minutes remaining. After watching Aaron Rodgers work his magic just two weeks earlier to help Green Bay pull off the comeback victory that would hand the Niners a crushing loss, Rosen would pull a similar stunt.
Streaking past a defender in the back of the end zone, Rosen found a wide-open Christian Kirk for the go-ahead touchdown. Electing to go for the two-point conversion to make it a 3-point lead, Rosen and Fitzgerald would hookup once more to make it an 18-15 Arizona advantage with only 39 seconds remaining in regulation. With the tables suddenly turned and what was once a 12-point lead now squandered, Beathard and company would need to pull off some late-game heroics of their own to avoid another heartbreaking loss. After making it across midfield with one timeout and seven seconds remaining, the Niners were in need of a quick pass and a gain of 8-yards or so to give their kicker a shot at tying it. Unfortunately, things would end before Gould would be given that opportunity as an errant snap sailed over the head of Beathard, icing the game and handing San Francisco their 12th straight loss in the month of October, their eighth consecutive loss against Arizona and their sixth straight loss overall. Rosen who's only two career victories have come against San Francisco, became the first rookie QB to overcome a 12+ point deficit in the fourth quarter by throwing multiple TD passes since Andrew Luck in 2012. He would finish the game with 252 yards to go along with his pair of touchdowns and one interception.
Neither team's rushing attack would prove to be much of a factor on Sunday as Cardinals running back David Johnson rushed for a game-high 59 yards on 16 carries and remains without a single 100-yard rushing performance this season, failing to rush for more than 71 yards in a game all year. San Francisco's Matt Breida also logged 16 carries but only managed 42 yards on the ground in what was a game-time decision for the 49er running back. Kendrick Bourne would lead all 49ers receivers with 7 receptions for 71 yards. While Richard Sherman would collect his first quarterback sack since 2012 in what was a three sack performance by San Francisco's defense, the 49ers offensive-line allowed four sacks on Sunday which now ties them with the Cleveland Browns for allowing the most sacks this season with 31.
Week 9 Preview - The 49ers (1-7) will have to put their latest loss behind them quickly as they get set to host their Bay Area rival on Thursday Night Football when the 1-6 Raiders make the short trip from Oakland to Levi's Stadium. Coming off a 42-28 loss at home to the Colts in which the Raiders also blew a late lead by allowing 21 unanswered-points in the fourth quarter, the two struggling franchises will square off in what will likely be the last Battle of the Bay before the Raiders relocate to Las Vegas after next season. Playing without their first-string running back in Marshawn Lynch who is dealing with a groin injury that could keep him sidelined for the remainder of the season, what better way to bid their cross-bay rival a final farewell than to hand them their fourth straight loss of the season and seventh overall. With San Francisco having the third easiest strength of schedule the rest of the season, their best chance at stringing a winning streak together will be these next two weeks before heading into the Week 11 BYE. Whether those games will be played with C.J. Beathard under center for the 49ers or Nick Mullens is anyone's guess at this point as Shanahan might be considering a change at the QB position.
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Week 5 - Returning home to host the 0-4 Arizona Cardinals, the 1-3 San Francisco 49ers had a much different outcome in mind than the one that played out at Levi's Stadium on Sunday. If you looked up the offensive stats by both teams in the final box score, you'd be hard pressed to believe that it was the visiting Cardinals who walked away with the 28-18 victory. For a pair of NFC West rivals struggling for two different reasons -- the Cardinals who are rebuilding under first-year head coach Steve Wilks and the 49ers who were expected to take a huge step forward in their rebuild this season and perhaps even compete for a playoff spot before they were hit hard with injuries, Sunday's meeting would see more of the same from the two lowly franchises. Whether it was the 447 yards of total offense by the 49ers compared to Arizona's 220 or San Francisco's 33 first downs which more than tripled the Cardinals' 10, the 49ers dominated their opponent in almost every aspect of the game. Not to mention the 40:12 time of possession San Francisco owned in comparison to Arizona's 19:48. And then there's the 92 offensive plays that San Francisco ran which set a franchise record and dwarfed Arizona's 49 plays on offense. But the one area that Arizona managed to stay clean in where the 49ers continued to shoot themselves in the foot, was the turnover department as San Francisco turned the ball over five times and failed to force a single turnover on defense.
Entering Sunday's game last in offense, rookie quarterback Josh Rosen who in his second career start, would try to put an end to that dubious mark on Arizona's first play on offense. After the Niners opened the game with an impressive eight-play drive that was capped off by a Brett Favre shovel-pass from C.J. Beathard to Matt Breida, Rosen would need only one play to answer and put his team on the board. A 75-yard touchdown pass to rookie receiver Christian Kirk would even things up at six before former Niner kicker Phil Dawson gave his team a 7-6 lead as Robbie Gould failed to get a kick off on San Francisco's point-after attempt due to a poor snap and hold. Then began the miscues as San Francisco's next drive would last only two plays before a pass bounced thru the hands of receiver Pierre Garcon and into the paws of Cardinals defender Tre Boston. Things would only get worse as the Niners' fourth possession ended in a fumble after the Niners were beyond midfield and in enemy territory. Running back Matt Breida who had rushed for 56 yards on 8 carries in the first quarter, would leave the game with an ankle injury, making way for special-teams specialist and fourth-string running back Raheem Mostert who fumbled on his first carry of the day. Taking over in the red zone, Rosen would hand it off to David Johnson who scored on a 2-yard rush.
With already eight starters missing at least one half in the last two weeks, Breida would be the latest name added to the list as he would be ruled out for the rest of the game, taking away yet another weapon from Kyle Shanahan's offense that was already without receiver Dante Pettis and Marquise Goodwin on Sunday. Pierre Garcon would also go down with an injury, albeit briefly as he left in the first quarter with a shoulder injury before later returning after being checked by the medical staff. San Francisco's first drive of the second half would also end negatively as the 49ers were once again in enemy territory before Beathard was stripped from behind by Arizona's Chandler Jones who had a monstrous game on defense. Looking to redeem themselves one possession later, Robbie Gould's franchise record of consecutive made field goals would come to an end at 33 as he missed a 45-yard try at the start of the fourth quarter. Seeking the end zone for the first time since their touchdown-scoring opening-possession, the 49ers would get all the way to the 1-yard line before needing four plays to finally score on 4th down as Beathard connected with Trent Taylor alongside the front pylon for a touchdown. But a failed 2-point conversion attempt to tie the game, would give Arizona a 14-12 lead with under seven minutes remaining.
After forcing a three and out, another strip-sack of Beathard would doom San Francisco's hopes of taking a lead, only this time the fumble would be recovered and taken to the house by Arizona's Josh Bynes. A second interception by Beathard on their following possession would setup David Johnson's second rushing touchdown of the day. Beathard would inch his team closer with a garbage-time touchdown by running it in himself, but by then the self-inflicted miscues were already too much to overcome as San Francisco fell by a final of 28-18 to give the Cardinals their first win of the season and the first victory in the careers of head coach Steve Wilks and quarterback Josh Rosen. Coming off a career-high 298 yards passing in the Week 4 loss to the Chargers, QB C.J. Beathard surpassed that mark on Sunday by throwing for 349 yards in the loss as the 49ers have now dropped seven straight at the hands of the Cardinals, Arizona's longest active winning streak against an opponent. San Francisco's 92 plays on offense is tied for the third most plays run in a loss since 1990. If there's any silver lining from this game, it would be that the defense bounced back with a solid performance, holding the opposition to only 56 yards rushing and benefiting from the return of cornerback Richard Sherman logged another stellar outing despite playing at less than 100%.
Week 6 Preview - The 49ers will have an extra day off before they hit the field again when they make the trip to Lambeau to face the (2-2-1) Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football. Coming off a 31-23 road loss to the division rival Lions in which Aaron Rodgers tallied 442 yards passing, the Pack will look to keep pace in the NFC North with the first place Chicago Bears. Like the Niners, the Packers dominated their opponent in total yards in Week 5, logging 521 yards of total offense to Detroit's 264. Also like San Francisco, the missed kicks and turnovers were what proved to be the difference as kicker Mason Crosby missed 4 of 5 field goal attempts and an extra-point, and a trio of fumbles including two by Rodgers dug too big a hole for Green Bay to climb out of. With a game-time temperature expected to be in the 40's, the 49ers will endure their first game in chilly weather this season, but nothing close to the frigid temperatures we've seen in San Francisco's recent trips to the frozen tundra. Off to their worst start to a season through the first five games since 2012 when Green Bay began 2-3, Kyle Shanahan will try rallying his guys to their first road win of the season and second victory overall. Hopefully this time around he'll have the duo of Goodwin and Pettis healthy and on the field. One guy he won't have available in time for Monday's game is Breida who will be sidelined for at least a week with a mid-ankle sprain.
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