Defense stops the run, shows new formations
At halftime, San Francisco held a 5-3 lead, but the first two quarters weren’t exactly a defensive showcase at State Farm Stadium on Sunday. Both offenses hurt themselves early in the game. The Cardinals defense’s ability to contain the run and give fresh looks helped them leave with an 18-15 win over the 49ers.
The defense was missing starting tackle Corey Peters, but the defensive line still kept the pressure on quarterback C.J. Beathard throughout the game. They sacked Beathard four times and hit him an additional four. Defensive end Markus Golden got the ball rolling, sacking Beathard for a loss of eight yards on third down to force the 49ers to go three-and-out on their opening drive.
Antoine Bethea and Zach Moore each tallied a sack, and Budda Baker and Rodney Gunter split one. Baker got there first, seeing his opportunity before the play even began.
“The only person that could’ve blocked me was the tackle,” Baker said. “I just told myself ‘The tackle is not going to block me. I’m just going to beat him with speed.’”
Baker was right, and there were other times the Cardinals’ defense struck quickly. Defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche nearly intercepted Beathard after tipping a pass up and back toward his own hands.
The defense didn’t fully exploit the 49ers like their last matchup, a win in which Arizona forced five turnovers. This time, the 49ers had the edge, getting two takeaways while the Cardinals did not have any.
Instead, a big focus for Arizona was shutting down the 49ers’ rushing offense. Ahead of the game, the 49ers were second in the league in rushing yards per game with 137.4.
The Cardinals held the 49ers to 107. “That second half, we struggled a couple of times because, Number 1, we didn’t set the edge, and then another time, a linebacker should’ve went underneath, but he went over the top,” head coach Steve Wilks said. “When you look at the second-ranked rushing offense in the National Football League, I thought we did a pretty good job of stopping the run today.”
The Cardinals were missing starting safety Tre Boston, who usually plays alongside both Baker and Antoine Bethea. With Boston inactive with an injured shoulder and ribs, the Cardinals opted to play less nickel defense. However, Wilks said that was also because they were playing the 49ers for the second time in three weeks.
“We just wanted to mix it up a bit,” Wilks said. “When you play a team twice, you want to try and show them something different.”
It paid off, as a base defense had not been the focus of the 49ers’ preparation in the week leading up to the game.
“We hadn’t seen any base all year from them,” Beathard said. “It was all nickel going into it, even last game we played them. So, that was a little different from what we saw.”
Johnson ‘fine’ after in-game evaluation
The Cardinals knew it would be too large of a task to completely change their offense in 10 days. Byron Leftwich got the win in his first game as offensive coordinator. Now, he’ll have more time to toy around with how the team will use running back David Johnson.
Johnson finished the night with 100 yards total. His 41 receiving yards tied his season-high at Seattle.
“I liked the way we used David tonight in a number of ways – in the screen game and getting him out to the perimeter,” Wilks said. “Byron did a great job of just trying to utilize his talents.”
Johnson put up those numbers all while missing part of the game. He was evaluated for a concussion in the fourth quarter but would return to the field on that final drive. Wilks said after the game that Johnson “is fine.”
The Cardinals got the ball back down five with 2:16 left in the game. They opted to throw the ball on each of the 12 ensuing plays. Quarterback Josh Rosen connected with five different players, including Johnson once.
While the next few weeks may show more creative usage of Johnson, Rosen still saw a few differences under Leftwich.
“I think that’s a lot of credit to Byron,” Rosen said. “He has very good timing with a lot of his play calls. He’s got a good feel for how to mess around with defensive linemen and make sure they aren’t pinning their ears back too much. I think a lot of credit is to him.”