The Cardinals left Levi’s Stadium with a 36-30 loss to the 49ers, but the final sequence told the whole story: Arizona clawed back from a three-possession hole in the third quarter, only to have San Francisco finish the job with an onside kick recovery in the closing seconds.
That kind of finish drops Mike LaFleur’s team to 1-2, and it also sharpened a few things that were already starting to stand out. Most notably, the Cardinals looked far more dangerous when Jeremiyah Love was the centerpiece of the ground game.
Arizona’s rushing attack took a step forward, and Love’s workload was a big reason why. He handled 21 carries for 90 yards, added five catches for 19 yards, and scored a receiving touchdown.
The contrast with Tyler Allgeier was hard to miss, and the game seemed to reinforce the idea that the offense has more juice when Love is the one getting the bulk of the touches.
Protection remained a major issue, too. Jacoby Brissett spent much of the afternoon under pressure, and Arizona’s offensive line continues to struggle across the board.
The problems are showing up inside and at tackle, and even though Brissett was officially sacked only twice, the pocket rarely looked comfortable. LaFleur’s handling of blitzes and heavy boxes also came into focus, since the Cardinals didn’t consistently answer what San Francisco was throwing at them.
On the other side of the ball, Arizona couldn’t do enough to disrupt Brock Purdy. The Cardinals came away without a sack, and Purdy made them pay with 297 passing yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.
The outside linebacker group was supposed to help change that equation, but so far that hasn’t happened. Josh Sweat and Walter Nolen were mostly quiet, and defensive coordinator Nick Rallis has a problem on his hands if he wants more pressure without relying on just four rushers.
There was also a clear snapshot of how Arizona’s passing game is sorting itself out. Marvin Harrison Jr. posted his best numbers of the season with five targets, three catches and 40 yards, but he still didn’t sit near the top of the pecking order.
Trey McBride was targeted 17 times, Michael Wilson got 11, and Love matched Harrison with five targets. Tyler Allgeier had four, while Elijah Higgins had three.
The usage says plenty: Harrison is part of the mix, but he’s not carrying the spotlight right now.
Special teams continued to be one of the Cardinals’ more active areas. This has been a trend for three straight weeks: a recovered punt turned into a touchdown in Week 1, a kickoff nearly got recovered in a tie game in Week 2, and in Week 3 a recovered fumble on a punt eventually led to a touchdown. The 49ers also missed two extra points, though those miscues belonged to San Francisco more than anything Arizona forced.
Even with those flashes, the Cardinals still have to clean up the self-inflicted stuff. They were flagged 10 times for 86 yards, and in a game that ended up being decided by a single possession, those penalties mattered.
The encouraging part for Arizona is that this wasn’t a repeat of last week in Seattle, when the Cardinals got punched in the mouth in the second half and never answered. This time, they pushed back.
There’s no such thing as a moral victory here, but the fight mattered. For a young staff and a 1-2 team, that comeback effort is at least something to build on.
In Other News...
Cardinals Fans Got An Awkward Viral Officiating Moment They Cant Ignore
The Cardinals Week 3 loss to the 49ers already had enough attention attached to it, but one strange sidelight from Levis Stadium is now living on its own. In a game San Francisco won 36-30, a viral photo captured an NFL official making awkward contact with an Arizona player while spotting the ball, turning an otherwise routine sequence into the kind of clip fans cant stop replaying.
The image quickly spread across social media, where the moment drew far more conversation than the play itself. The player involved was never identified, leaving the scene as an unresolved and uncomfortable footnote to a tight divisional game, one Cardinals fans are likely to remember for reasons that have nothing to do with the final score. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Showed Just Enough Fight To Change The Mike LaFleur Debate
The loss to the 49ers left Arizona at 1-2 and kept the divisional skid going at eight straight, but there was still enough visible fight to make the bigger conversation around Mike LaFleur a little more complicated. In a rebuilding season, the Cardinals are still learning how to compete snap to snap, and the early returns under a first-year head coach have been shaped as much by the process as by the results.
LaFleur pointed to the effort he saw Sunday while also stressing the need for patience and improvement, which is where this team now lives: somewhere between encouraging signs and the hard reality of a long climb back. The record is still the record, and the losses in the division keep piling up, but Arizona at least showed enough against San Francisco to suggest the conversation about this coaching staff is not as simple as the standings say. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Let Upset Bid Slip Away For One Frustrating Reason
The Cardinals had a real shot to turn Sunday into one of those early-season wins that can change the tone of a locker room, but their trip to San Francisco slipped away in a game defined by self-inflicted damage. Arizona fell 36-30 to the 49ers in Week 3, and the frustrating part was how often the Cardinals helped make life harder on themselves with penalties and missed tackles at key moments.
Jacoby Brissett gave Arizona enough to stay in the fight, finishing 38 of 52 for 280 yards and two touchdowns, even if the offense took too long to get rolling. There were positive signs, too, including Simi Fehokos recovery of a muffed punt, but those flashes were drowned out by 10 penalties for 86 yards and the kind of tackling breakdowns that can erase a strong stretch in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]