TAKING A WIN
Cardinals’ defense leads the way to first victory
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – To say the Cardinals’ 28-18 victory over the 49ers wasn’t exactly a thing of beauty would be an understatement.
It had the makings of a disaster written all over it. If it weren’t for the defense forcing five turnovers and the Cardinals turning three of them into touchdowns, including a 23-yard fumble return by linebacker Josh Bynes with 4:33 left to play, Sunday’s game would have ended in an ugly loss or even a hideous tie.
“There’s no such thing as an ugly win in the National Football League, particularly when it’s your first one,” said Cardinals coach Steve Wilks, who received a game ball for finally picking up his first win.
Oh, but it was ugly, all right. It didn’t even have a nice personality. Other than rookie quarterback Josh Rosen hooking up with rookie wide receiver Christian Kirk for a 75-yard touchdown bomb on the Cardinals’ first offensive play of the game, Sunday’s soiree into Levi’s Stadium was a blind date gone bad.
Unless, you know, you like turnovers and bad offense. Not that veteran wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald seemed to mind, even if for a third straight week he barely was able to make a difference with just two receptions for 35 yards. He didn’t care if it was ugly.
“No, we’ll take all the ugly ones we can get,” Fitzgerald said. “It wasn’t pretty, but we started off with a bang. The fireworks came early and they came late. So that was good.”
As he met with reporters at a podium down the hall from the visitor’s winning locker room, Wilks looked more relieved than excited or impressed. After all, he and his Cardinals entered the day as the only winless team in the league at 0-4.
But, oh, did walking out of that building ever feel special for him.
“Definitely. Definitely. Yes, it does,” he said. “You know what I’ve been dealing with for the last four weeks? Really? Yeah, it was great. Hopefully, this is just the first of many moving forward.”
The Cardinals won’t win many more games this season if their offense keeps leaking oil, blowing gaskets and rupturing hoses the way it has since Week 1. This game was no different, even with the fancy long ball to start the game, an idea that was concocted during Friday’s practice, according to Kirk.
The 49ers, already missing their franchise quarterback in the injured Jimmy Garoppolo, playing without injured starting wide receiver Marquise Goodwin and then losing their best running back, Matt Breida, to a left ankle injury in the first quarter, completely dominated the Cardinals for most of the afternoon.
San Francisco whipped them in total yards gained (447 to 220), first downs made (33 to 10), third-down percentage (59 to 17), rushing yards (147 to 56) and passing yards (349 to 170). The 49ers also held an overwhelming edge in total time of possession (40:12 to 19:48).
“We shut the run game down. We got pressure on the quarterback. We’ve just got to create turnovers,” 49ers defensive tackle DeForest Buckner said. “That’s why we lost. We lost the turnover battle. That’s how Arizona ended up winning.”
Early on, it looked like it could have gone either way. The 49ers opened the game with new starting quarterback C.J. Beathard using effective screen plays to move the chains. Beathard completed four of them for 55 yards, including a 5yard shovel screen to Breida for a touchdown.
Robbie Gould’s extra-point attempt failed because of a poor center snap-andhold transfer, which became hugely important later in the game.
The Cardinals then answered right back with Rosen boldly going deep to Kirk, who hauled in the pass and easily ran into the end zone. Asked if it was meant to send a message or prove something, Rosen, who was a very pedestrian 10 of 25 for 170 yards, shook his head no.
“Nothing in particular,” he said. “I think we were just trying to get a spark in any way possible and just try to get our offense rolling. We haven’t been scoring as many points as we wanted to, so I think we took a really good first step.”
Except the offense rarely provided any other glimpses that it can even be remotely interesting or capable. You know there’s big-play potential between Rosen and Kirk, but the continuing downward spiral of Fitzgerald and his involvement in the offense, plus David Johnson’s inability to ignite Arizona’s wishful power running game and the offensive line’s failure to open up any holes for him, has to be a major concern.
“I think every week, regardless of if we’re sitting here 2-2 and got though this one today, there’s always something you can work on as far as making corrections and trying to get better,” Wilks said. “That’s our mindset. … We’re going to watch this tape tomorrow, we’re going to make the corrections and we’re going to get the guys in there and watch it and move forward.”
The Cardinals, once again, can thank their defense. It was that side of the ball that kept them within striking distance of beating both the Bears and the Seahawks the past two weeks. It was the defense that lifted them to their first victory thanks to five turnovers and four sacks.
Rodney Gunter’s forced fumble and Patrick Peterson’s subsequent 49-yard return in the second quarter set up the first of Johnson’s two rushing touchdowns. Later, with the Cardinals holding a slim 14-12 lead with just under five minutes remaining in the game, Haason Reddick knocked the ball out of Beathard’s hand and Bynes scooped it up and ran the fumble back for the game-changing score.
“I was just trying to scoop and score,” Bynes said. “Coach preaches all the time, ‘City or Country?’ It was as clear as country. There was nobody around. I was appreciating that (we) were able to get the strip sack. It was definitely a needed touchdown for us.”
Bene' Benwikere’s interception of Beathard for the Cardinals’ fifth takeaway of the game led to another Johnson touchdown run and a 28-12 advantage with 3:21 left on the clock. Even though the 49ers scored right away, it was over and it was because of Arizona’s forced turnovers.
“I always felt like it was coming around,” said Cardinals defensive end Chandler Jones, who had his best game of the season and made big play after big play. “The biggest thing is just everyone buying in to what the coaches are coaching. The sky’s the limit for this team. We just have to have the snowball effect and stack the good weeks.”
If the offense doesn’t come around, they don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell.
Reach McManaman at bob.mcmanaman@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @azbobbymac and listen to him live every Tuesday afternoon between 3-6 on 1580-AM The Fanatic with Roc and Manuch and every Wednesday afternoon between 1-3 on Fox Sports 910AM on The Freaks with Kenny and Crash.