No Denying It; The Cards are Contenders

[Harry]

Any time a team goes on the road in its first game and beats the Conference Champion, they’re legitimate. They aren’t a lock to win the division and they did play SF close last season; however, the Cards are for real. They’re a threat to win every week. It wasn’t a dominant performance, but they displayed enough talent on offense, defense and special teams that they can win in many ways. There’s still plenty of room for improvement. That may be the biggest concern other teams will have. As a young team, it’s hard to say how far they can go, but no one can dismiss them. If teams take them for granted, they do so at great risk. In a mostly depressing year, we may finally be in for some fun. There is no such thing as winning ugly in the NFL. Every win in this league is a thing of beauty.

 

[slanidrac16]

I would say they showed resilience. The niners were on the verge of burying us early but the defense really stepped up.

That being said we need to cut down on the negative plays whether it's conservative 20 yard passes for 1 yard gain and penalties.

It's nice to have the weapons to overcome the negative plays it's not the way you want to live.

Oh and one other word....HOPKINS!

 

[GatorAZ]

We just won as 7pt dogs. Take care of business the next two weeks vs bad teams and I’ll start believing big time.

 

[Proximo]

This was a better performance than most seem to believe.

other than the one blown coverage on Mostert, the D really played very well.

Kyler had a fluke interception, but used his legs to perfection and his decision making was good overall.

also 2 missed fg’s which hopefully is not the norm.

once we get our run game going again, so we can mix in some play action we can get some big plays in the pass game.

There is a lot of reason to believe we have a lot of room to improve.

 

[AZman5103]

The defense overall played well, and showed that they can be what we need them to be this year...middle of the road. I don't think they are an elite unit yet, and thats fine...they just can't blatantly cost us games like last season. The 49ers were shut down on 3rd downs....last year they would have converted most of those.

Kyler played well, and while there might have been a couple of times he could have run and didn't....even his run and slides for 1 yard losses got into the D's head and helped keep them honest.

He is a threat for 100 yards rushing every week, and thats all he needs to be is a threat.

I would still end up more excited to see the 400+ 4TD passing game then a 100 yard rushing game...but I think we may get that this year.

All that being said, and a win, on the road, with no preseason games is nothing to sneeze at...I'm not buying the 49ers this year. They aren't going to make the playoffs, and will finish last in our division. Seattle looked really good, they are the team to gun for.

 

[Cheesebeef]

We just won as 7pt dogs. Take care of business the next two weeks vs bad teams and I’ll start believing big time.

yup. Two very winnable games at home. Must wins if we’re really going to contend.

 

[Solar7]

Some of that looked bad, and I was unhappy in the 1st quarter, but that was a no-joke, gutty win.

No flukes, no wild nonsense, just a team putting in the work after being in a hole. My kind of football.

 

[SeattleCard]

Great win. DHop and Murray for years to come = goodness.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Nice to see the special teams play a positive role. That punt block stunt was really well designed. And a 42 yard kickoff return. Field position matters. This game proved it.

gutty win. Proud of defense for stiffening at the end instead of rolling over as it looked like might happen. The two fourth down stops are the things that create confidence. (Though I am not forgetting that they had no wrs).

kyler let the game come to him. When he finds a rhythm - a game rhythm running and passing not just throwing, he becomes difficult to stop. Looking at pass distribution it’s shocking to see he pumped 16 passes Nuk’s way and next most was Fitz with 4.

not ready to crown as contenders. We played the niners tough last year. Sometimes some teams have others numbers. But this was definitely a big step from last season.

 

[TJ]

Not there yet. Good win, but need a larger sample size before I start doing my Jim Mora impression

 

[82CardsGrad]

The 9ers missing Samuel was a factor, but of course, we are once again without Alford... Kittle also played hurt the entire second half.
This was a great, gutty win. But predicting anything this year coming out of a bizarro preseason, is next to impossible.
Gotta hope the injury bug, including Covid, stay away from this team!

 

[AZ Native]

Nice to see the special teams play a positive role. That punt block stunt was really well designed. And a 42 yard kickoff return. Field position matters. This game proved it.

gutty win. Proud of defense for stiffening at the end instead of rolling over as it looked like might happen. The two fourth down stops are the things that create confidence. (Though I am not forgetting that they had no wrs).

kyler let the game come to him. When he finds a rhythm - a game rhythm running and passing not just throwing, he becomes difficult to stop. Looking at pass distribution it’s shocking to see he pumped 16 passes Nuk’s way and next most was Fitz with 4.

not ready to crown as contenders. We played the niners tough last year. Sometimes some teams have others numbers. But this was definitely a big step from last season.

Agreed. We had some really good teams under Arians but the special teams killed us. It hard to have all 3 (offense, Defense and ST) play well each week but you need all 3 to succeed in the long run.

 

[Goodyear Card]

week one grades

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...ll-wilson-cook-cowboys-earn-a-b-despite-loss/

A

Cardinals
The Arizona Cardinals didn't play a perfect game on Sunday, but they came pretty darn close. Going into the game, the Cards' defense was viewed as the potential weak link of the team, but it definitely wasn't the weak link in San Francisco. The Cards defense continuously came up big, especially on third down, holding the 49ers to just two conversions on 11 attempts. They were also able to get constant pressure on Jimmy Garoppolo, who was sacked three times. Of course, the star of the game was Kyler Murray, who thoroughly outplayed Garoppolo. Not only did Murray pass for 230 yards and a TD, but he also led the team in rushing with 91 yards and another TD. Kliff Kingsburry also made it clear that DeAndre Hopkins is going to be a big part of Arizona's offense. In his first game with the Cardinals, the receiver caught a career-high 14 passes for 151 yards.