Vs.
By Scary Barry Rodriguez October 13, 2013
Candlestick park , San Francisco - It was another normal San Francisco day . The sun was shining and the breezes were coming in from the bay. The real questions in this game between between the Arizona Cardinals and the San Francisco 49ers centered around Colin Kaepernick and the Niner offense or lack of it !
In the last game against the falling Houston Texans, the ball hawking 49er defense did most of the work while Kaepernick was just required to clean up afterwards. In the first quarter it appeared that this would also be the case versus Arizona. The Cardinal's QB Carson Palmer was intercepted twice. Once by Eric Reid and once by Carlos Rodgers. Unfortunately the inept San Francisco offense could only produce 6 points on two Phil Dawson field goals ! Even with a very short field the Niner offense and Kaepernick were terrible in the red zone.
Then when Carlos Rodgers attempted to make another interception and missed, it allowed Larry Fitzgerald to to rumble 75 yards for a touchdown. These type of mistakes don't show up on the post game stat sheet or fantasy football conversation but the game film tells the whole story. Despite looking lost in the first quarter the Cardinals outscored the NIners !
Coming into the second quarter the questions still remained about Kaepernick and the 49er offense. Then Kaepernick took advantage of an Arizona offside to hit Vernon Davis 61 yard bomb for a touchdown ! Arizona came right back with their own touchdown when Andre Ellington ran it in from 15 yards for a touchdown . Vernon Davis stepped up again and caught a well placed Kaepernick pass for a 35 yard touchdown. Like a sleeping giant the Niner offense had now come to life ! Another possible 49er touchdown opportunity was blown when Kaepernick made an ill advised pass from the Arizona 7 yard line and had it intercepted. Still rather inexperienced the over hyped young Kaepernick forgot to just toss the ball away. The defense scored when C. Lemonier playing in place of Aldon Smith , sacked Palmer in the end zone for a two point safety. The score at the half was 22-14.
The third quarter was a bust for the Niner offense. The Arizona Cardinal offense opened up the quarter with mostly run plays and this confused the Niner defense. When the smoke cleared the Cardinals had scored again on a 10 yard pass from Palmer to Michael Floyd. Their attempt at a two point conversion flopped when Rodgers intercepted a Palmer pass in the end zone. San Francisco didn't score any points in the quarter. Arizona had closed the score to 22-20 . It started to feel like the Niners would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory !
Up until the fourth quarter the very physical Arizona defense had managed to hold the Niner offense at bay. Returning to what we would all like to think of as " 49er " football , the coaching staff opened the playbook. As a result , under the direction of Kaepernick , the Niners went on a 18 play 83 yard scoring drive that consumed 9.32 minutes of game clock. It was grind them out , smash mouth football. This included a gutsy 4th down and one play at the Arizona 34 yard line. They converted thanks to Bruce Miller the fullback and the drive continued. Kendall Hunter scored on a 6 yard run.
Behind 29-20 , the Cardinals had to pass. The stout 49er defense did what they do well and shut down the Cardinals. Phil Dawson added a 44 yard field goal to the score. Arizona ran out of time and fumbled the ball away. The face of the highly emotional Jim Harbaugh relaxed. The Cardinals were no push over ! The final score 32-20 betrayed how much of a slug out the game really was.
To wrap it up Kaepernick regained his confidence. The running game was solid with Frank Gore gaining 100 yards on 25 carries. Vernon Davis gets the game ball for finally providing an open target for Kaepernick. Davis had 180 receiving yards on 8 catches with two touchdowns ! Greg Roman let Kaepernick be Kaepernick ! Patrick Willis was back in the saddle on defense. The Niners have to play tough for the rest of the season. They needed a tough game and they got it !
In a 2013 NFL season filled with weekly upsets the San Francisco 49ers need to prove they belong in the ranks of legitimate contenders for the Super Bowl. The NFC West is much improved . Until they can handle the Seattle Seahawks they will remain suspect ! Scary Barry says , prove it to your fans that you 're contenders not pretenders !
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