Primetime Preview: San Francisco 49ers vs. Arizona Cardinals (TNF Week 9)

The surprise of the NFL season has been the undefeated San Francisco 49ers who enter Week 9 with a record of 7-0. Jimmy Garoppolo is back and healthy this year and it seems like he was the missing piece to unlocking this team’s potential. Things don’t rest only on the right arm of the quarterback, the offense has been one of the most dominant run teams this season. On Sunday, they completely embarrassed the Carolina Panthers by scoring 50 points and looked like the clear class of the NFC. They now have a short week and they get to go on the road for a divisional game against the Arizona Cardinals. Kliff Kingsbury and Kyler Murray are the two calling the shots now and the results to date have been mixed to date. Things didn’t start off great but in their last four games, they have gone 3-1. Murray isn’t exactly taking the league by storm but he is playing exceptionally well for a rookie quarterback. The new offense brought in by Kingsbury hasn’t exactly turned the NFL upside-down but it has allowed them to get the most out of Murray. A win tonight could really cement them as one of the top young head coach and quarterback duos.

QB Matchup: Jimmy Garoppolo vs. Kyler Murray

Ever since being traded from the New England Patriots to the Niners, Garoppolo has shown that above all else, he is a winner. In San Francisco, he’s amassed a 13-2 record as a starter. Regardless of what numbers he puts in the box scores, the only thing people will judge him on is the wins and losses that get accredited to him when he calls it quits. With Kyle Shanahan as his head coach, they have created one of the best offenses in the NFL this season. As was the case in his other stops, a strong running game complemented with play-action passing has helped to spark the resurgence of the 49ers this season. The young quarterback is still prone to bad throws and turnovers occasionally but when he’s clicking he looks really good. Murray, on the other hand, hasn’t really strayed too much from his norm. Unlike his time with Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners, he hasn’t been destroying opponents with record-setting aerial displays. However, he’s been consistent, completing 20-plus passes in each of his first six games. The potential is there for him to live up to the hype that helped lead him to become the number one pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.

RB Matchup: Kenyan Drake vs. Tevin Coleman

Running backs have been key in both offenses so far this season. The Cardinals started the year off with David Johnson and Chase Edmonds compromising their two most-used players in the backfield. Yet, Johnson missed Week 8 and Edmonds was hurt during that very game. Arizona was aggressive on the market and quickly pounced on former Miami Dolphin running back Kenyan Drake. Drake had lost his starting spot in South Beach but due to circumstances he now has to be the go-to guy on the ground for his new team and it begins with tonight’s game. San Francisco should have no such problems. They average a 181.1 yards per game on the ground, which is second-best in the NFL this season. Tevin Coleman is their main guy to turn to in the trenches but they are just as comfortable handing the ball off to Raheem Mosert or Matt Breida and expecting similar production. Look for the 49ers to try and get the ground game established first and then pick apart the Arizona defense when they load the box in an attempt to slow them down.

WR Matchup: Emmanuel Sanders vs. Larry Fitzgerald

One player (Larry Fitzgerald) has seemingly been with the same team forever and the other (Emmanuel Sanders) just was brought in via trade before the deadline. Fitzgerald has miraculously put together a certified Hall of Fame career despite a past-his-prime Kurt Warner being his best quarterback he’s shared the field with, With Murray coming in, he’s been rejuvenated and is looking like the player of old who would on routinely make the impossible catches look simple. Any rookie would want a veteran like Fitzgerald on their team as the veteran is more than qualified to show any player the in’s and out’s of what to expect on an NFL field. Sanders provides San Francisco with a top-level receiving threat that the team had yet to find as youngsters Dante Pettis and Deebo Samuel continued to grow and develop. With the Broncos, Sanders was running a system orchestrated by the Niners former quarterback’s coach so he’s been able to get up to speed rather quickly in his new surroundings. He can play any of the positions out wide making him a valuable commodity for the team.

TE Matchup: George Kittle vs. Charles Clay

No disrespect to Charles Clay but the Arizona Cardinals have been more known for their inability to defend tight ends then what their own are able to do in games. Clay had some nice seasons with the Buffalo Bills in the past and is serviceable for the Cardinals but San Francisco defensive coordinator Robert Salah is unlikely to have spent much time game planning to slow him down. For the Niners, George Kittle was the team’s best receiver prior to the addition of Sanders. Kittle comes from Iowa (aka Tight End U) and has been a revelation for Shanahan’s team these last two seasons. He’s no Rob Gronkowski or Travis Kelce but he is able to combine good catching and blocking skills in one player that makes it hard for the opposing team to key in on his actions for any tip as to what the team might be trying to do in a given formation. Look for Kittle to be very active in this matchup.

DEF Matchup: Nick Bosa vs. Chandler Jones

With the second overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, the 49ers took defensive end Nick Bosa out of Ohio State. Bosa comes from a family with deep roots in the league–his dad and his brother have both played in the NFL–yet he has been in a league of his own as a rookie. He is as disruptive of a presence as the NFL has had entered the league in some time. He’s a legit candidate for both Defensive Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year this season. Given San Francisco’s previous investment in its defensive line through the draft, the fact that they went after Bosa with their most recent draft pick speaks volumes to what they saw in him. He’s now showing that promise to everyone on a weekly basis. The Cardinals have a phenomenal defensive end in their own right in Chandler Jones. Jones was acquired via trade from the New England Patriots in 2017. In his time in the desert, he’s racked up 49.5 sacks compared to just 36 in four seasons with the Patriots. If he can get into the San Francisco backfield early and often tonight he could be very disruptive to what Shanahan is trying to do.

PREDICTION: 49ers 33 , Cardinals 17