49ers:
Which 49ers team will show up at Arizona?
Week 1: terrific. Week 2: terrible. Week 3: Any guesses? Yes, the 49ers might lead the NFL in mystery as they visit the Cardinals on Sunday at University of Phoenix Stadium.
In a season-opening 20-3 win over the Vikings, they dominated both lines of scrimmage and their defense bordered on impenetrable. In a 43-18 loss to the Steelers, they were tossed around in the trenches and their defense bordered on comical.
The 40-point disparity in points allowed was their largest in back-toback games since October 2009, when they beat the Rams (35-0) and then were hammered by the Falcons (45-10). They finished that season 8-8, a mediocre mark many have forecast for them in 2015 given their waves of personnel losses in the offseason.
Left guard Alex Boone, however, thinks the 49ers will fly over .500. He didn’t hesitate when asked the question of the week: Who is this team?
“It’s a great team,” Boone said. “Hell, it’s football. You can’t win them all. I remember somebody told me that my first year here, they said, ‘You’re not going to win every game, so get over it.’
“You lose a game, it doesn’t mean let’s all walk around, pout, and cry and be afraid. It just means let’s fix what we did wrong, let’s go to Arizona and let’s get a W. You get one more win you’re at the top of your conference. Simple as that.”
There will be nothing simple about beating the Cardinals (2-0). Arizona leads the NFL in points (79) and point differential (+37), hasn’t allowed a sack and has scored touchdowns on each of its seven red-zone possessions. Their seasonopening wins over the Saints and Bears have been headlined by quarterback Carson Palmer, who ranks third in the NFL in passer rating (124.4), has won eight straight starts and 15 of 17 dating to 2013.
Arizona’s opening has prompted straight-shooting head coach Bruce Arians to make sure his team remains grounded. According to Palmer, Arians greeted them with this salty message at their first meeting of the week Wednesday: “You ain’t s—-.”
Arians is obviously wary of the early season media hype the Cardinals have received.
“When they’re patting you on the back,” he said, “they are looking for a soft spot, where to stick the knife.”
Meanwhile, Arians has spent the week buttering up the 49ers. Three days after their blowout loss in Pittsburgh in which they allowed five sacks, 453 yards and the Steelers averaged 8.7 yards a play, he insisted they resembled the same group that went 44-19-1 from 201114.
“They’re probably the only team that had so much talent, they could lose four or five guys and still not miss a beat,” Arians said. “(General manager) Trent (Baalke) has always done a great job of stocking that roster. I don’t see any weakness anywhere.”
Inside linebacker NaVorro Bowman isn’t buying it.
“You’re comparing this team to what we had in the past,” Bowman said after the loss in Pittsburgh. “We had probably eight or nine vets on our defense.”
The 49ers now have three starters — tackle Quinton Dial, cornerback Kenneth Acker and outside linebacker Aaron Lynch — who have combined to make 14 career starts. In addition, the team’s top backups at safety (Jaquiski Tartt) and outside linebacker (Eli Harold) are rookies, and their three backup cornerbacks (Dontae Johnson, Jimmie Ward and Keith Reaser) are 2014 draft picks.
“We won (in Week 1) and we were being crowned,” said head coach Jim Tomsula. “There were a lot of people crowning us. I said it then and I’ll say it again: It’s a 16-week season and we don’t need to get on a rollercoaster.”