Opening the game with possession of the ball, the 49ers' hopes of playing injury-free football on Sunday lasted all but four plays as rookie running back Isaac Guerendo saw his third career start end rather quickly as he would need to be carted off the field after suffering an injury to his left leg. Initial reactions and fears had indicated that Guerendo might've suffered a torn MCL and perhaps a broken ankle as he was ruled out for the rest of the game immediately. Thankfully, results after the game revealed that the speedy running back had only suffered sprains to both his MCL and ankle which is a huge sigh of relief considering you could hear Guerendo screaming on live television as the injury took place. Settling for a 51-yard Jake Moody field goal on the drive, the Niners would take an early 3-0 lead. But just when you thought Moody had regained his confidence, he missed a 47-yard field goal attempt one possession later. With the game tied at 3 after a made field goal by Arizona's Chad Ryland, the 49ers would throw an interception which the Cardinals capitalized on.
Making his first start of the season for San Francisco, backup quarterback Joshua Dobbs would face his former team whom he started 8 games with a season ago. And while Dobbs would throw for a career-high in passing yards on Sunday and showed flashes, he would have his fair share of miscues as well including an interception near the end of the first quarter. Turning the turnover into points, Cardinals QB Kyler Murray connected on a 23-yard touchdown to receiver Greg Dortch who would later record his first career multi-touchdown game. Dobbs would make up for his mistake a few possessions later, tying the game with a 1-yard touchdown run thanks to the help of his trusty fullback Kyle Juszczyk who gave Dobbs an extra push that catapulted him over the goal line and into the end zone for the score. With the Cardinals again jumping ahead via a Murray touchdown thru the air to tight-end Trey McBride, the 49ers again answered with a touchdown of their own as Dobbs drove the team into the red zone where he would find rookie receiver Ricky Pearsall. Playing in his home state of Arizona for the first time as a pro, Pearsall's homecoming would be a memorable one as he hauled in a 6-yard touchdown, tying the game just before the half. Unfortunately, with 16-seconds still remaining in the half, the 49er defense would be unable to keep the Arizona offense at bay as they marched 39-yards on three plays to setup a 49-yard Ryland field goal.
After throwing for a season-high in passing yards a week ago against the Rams, Arizona QB Kyler Murray would log a season-high in passing touchdowns on Sunday with 4, including another to Greg Dortch to open the scoring in the second half. Dobbs and company would keep pace with a 36-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Juszczyk who dashed along the sideline before leaping into the end zone for the score to make it a 26-24 game. Unfortunately, that would be as close as San Francisco would get as they were skunked in scoring in the fourth quarter, 21-0. What was once a 2-point game with less than 5-minutes remaining in the third quarter, quickly turned into a 23-point blowout as San Francisco's next three possessions ended on a fumble, interception and turnover on downs, leading to a 47-24 loss. Dobbs finished with a career-high 326 passing yards, the most by a 49ers quarterback making his first start with the franchise. Dobbs also logged 2 passing touchdowns and 1 rushing touchdown, but also threw 2 interceptions and a fumble lost. His counterpart Kyler Murray threw for 242 yards, 4 touchdowns and no turnovers. 49ers backup running back Patrick Taylor had a solid game playing in relief of the injured Isaac Guerendo, rushing for a game-high 109 yards on 17 carries. Ricky Pearsall led all receivers with 69 yards receiving and a touchdown on 6 receptions. Another rookie that impressed on Sunday was Arizona's Marvin Harrison Jr. who caught 5 passes for 63 yards and a touchdown, tying him for the most receiving TD's in a rookie season in Cardinals teams history with 8, a mark set by Anquan Boldin in 2003 and tied a season later by Larry Fitzgerald in 2004.
But the biggest bummer of the day for San Francisco, even more so than the loss, would be the shortcoming of 49ers receiver Jauan Jennings who entered Sunday's game just 77-yards shy of his first career 1,000 yard season. Jennings had 7 catches for 52 yards in the first half alone, but that's as close as he would get as he was ejected with 6:34 remaining in the second quarter, falling 25 yards shy of the century mark. After wrestling Arizona's Sean Murphy-Bunting to the ground on a pancake block, both players would be called for offsetting unnecessary roughness penalties and would be ejected from the game, ending both Jennings' season and his bid at his first 1,000 yard season.
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