The San Francisco 49ers blew out the Arizona Cardinals 41-22 in Brock Purdy’s return to action, dominating on both sides of the ball to return to the win column.
Offensively, head coach Kyle Shanahan called a great game, and Purdy executed for the most part with 200 yards and three touchdowns. Defensively, the 49ers forced three turnovers and neutralized the run game, leading to a one-sided affair on Sunday.
Here are three quick takeaways from the 49ers 41-22 win over the Cardinals.
Purdy to Kittle connection is back
Brock Purdy and the 49ers offense had a quick start, scoring touchdowns on their first two drives, with George Kittle being the recipient of the second.
That set the tone for the day, as Kittle led the 49ers with six catches for 67 yards and two touchdowns. We saw this connection back when the two last played together, as Kittle had four catches and a touchdown on the opening drive against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 1.
While Ricky Pearsall wasn’t featured much on Sunday, Kittle dominated, and Purdy looked at him early and often.
Overall, it was a good return for Purdy, who was efficient and hit the throws he was supposed to, aside from a few turnover-worthy plays that he’ll need to clean up. Kittle has now stacked back-to-back big games after having nine catches for 84 yards and a touchdown last weekend against the Rams.
Line of scrimmage
The line of scrimmage battle is always important in divisional games, and the 49ers dominated on both sides on Sunday.
San Francisco ran the ball efficiently with Christian McCaffrey, who had 81 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries for his most efficient game of the season.
On the flip side, they held Arizona’s rushing attack in check, allowing only 36 yards on 14 carries and making them one-dimensional offensively. The 49ers’ pass-rush didn’t manage any sacks, but they had four quarterback hits and played well against the run.
Jacoby Brissett did have 452 yards, but that mainly came because Arizona had 195 yards in the fourth quarter after being down 35-10. Stopping the run was key against this Cardinals offense, and the 49ers did their job there.
Turnovers
The 49ers defense is forcing turnovers.
They’ve struggled to rack up interceptions, which can be luck-based, but they had a pair on Sunday. Malik Mustapha had a big one near the end of the first half that the 49ers parlayed into an Eddy Piniero field goal to go up 25-10 at the break.
Then, Deommodore Lenoir got one as Arizona was driving in the third quarter and took it back all the way to the Cardinals 14-yard line. The 49ers scored their fifth touchdown of the game shortly after and essentially sealed the deal there.
Rookie Upton Stout also forced a fumble at the one-yard line on another drive where the Cardinals marched down the field, which Keion White recovered for the 49ers third takeaway of the game.
The latter two turnovers came when the game was getting out of hand, but it’s good to see the 49ers taking advantage of those opportunities, which hasn’t been the case as much this season. They came into Sunday 28th in the NFL in turnovers.
They had three against Arizona and got two key scores out of them, while saving points on each drive.
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