Thursday Night Football Recap Cardinals-49ers

By Djack

With Palmer inactive for this game we all knew it'd be an ugly football game for both sides, usually it'd just be an ugly game for the 49ers, but with Palmer out this Cardinals offense doesn't have much of a passing game. Nine punts started off this game so they set the tone early, neither team was going to be able to move the ball down the field with ease, and each team would have to rely heavily on their running games. Automatically advantage Arizona, not only do they have the better running back in David Johnson, they also have the better defense, not only would they be able to run the ball a lot more efficiently, they'd also make it a lot tougher for Carlos Hyde to run on them. Blaine Gabbert was probably for once in his career the better starting quarterback going into the game, the sad thing being, he got outplayed by Drew Stanton. Blaine Gabbert got outplayed by a backup, if that doesn't scream get him off the field, I really don't what will. I'm not saying Stanton played good by any means because he didn't, Blaine Gabbert was just that atrocious. Gabbert averaged 5.2 yards per attempt, had two interception, and threw for a buck 62. That's not going to win you many, if any ball games. They did have an effective run game as they were able to rush for over 150 yards as a team. They put together three touchdown drives somehow, which if I'm a Cardinals fan, kinda concerns me. Cardinals also forced a safety and turnovers in general, that's how their defense plays so they'll let up some points, but they'll certainly take the ball away from you, and put their offense in a good position to score. Stanton only completed 11 passes on the night, two of those were touchdowns, Fitzgerald caught both of those, and Fitzgerald had more catches than the rest of the team combined with 6. Like I said when Palmer went down, this game was going to be a blessing in disguise, why you might ask, because David Johnson finally got a good amount of touches, and showed great things happen when he has the ball. He rushed for 157 yards, he had 2 TD's, and had 3 receptions for 28 yards. Cardinals didn't look perfect tonight, but they got their run game going, and they got a 33-21 victory on the road against a division rival. I'd say Bruce Arians is content with his team's performance tonight.