The 49ers on Monday night blew out the Cardinals 38-10 at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. While a four-touchdown blowout is hard to come by in the NFL, there’s still a tendency to downplay that kind of dominance against a team starting its journeyman backup quarterback the way Arizona did.
While a win over this iteration of the Cardinals is hardly reason to start planning a championship parade route, there are a handful of takeaways with significance for the rest of the season. Monday night just looked different than any of the 49ers’ previous five wins. Here were our takeaways from the NFC West showdown:
1
Back atop the division
With the NFC West-leading Seahawks on a bye, the 49ers had an opportunity to reassert themselves atop the division with a victory Monday night. They announced their presence with authority by shellacking the Cardinals and reclaiming first place in the division thanks to the head-to-head tiebreaker they own over Seattle. It sure feels like the 49ers-Seahawks showdown in Week 15 will decide the division.
2
This is how it's supposed to look
There were questions about the viability of the 49ers’ offense even after a win over the Chargers. In that game Deebo Samuel and George Kittle were very lightly used while San Francisco posted just 22 points. Monday night showed how it can really look. Christian McCaffrey with 14 touches (seven carries, seven receptions) and Samuel had 10 touches (three carries, seven receptions) were the only two players in double digits. Kittle hauled in four of his six targets for 84 yards and two touchdowns. Elijah Mitchell shouldered most of the second-half load and cranked out 59 yards on nine carries. Even Brandon Aiyuk, who had only two catches, turned both of his touches into touchdowns. This is a loaded offense that should see multiple players produce every game, even though some games might lean more heavily on some due to gameplan or game script. Monday answered a lot of questions about how high the ceiling is for this group, and it may be higher than we thought.
3
Another 2nd half shutout
The 49ers’ defense pitched a shutout in the second half for the third consecutive week. In that time they’ve given up only 39 total points. Particularly in the second half teams have had a hard time just moving the football, much less scoring. Since Week 8, teams have run 76 second-half plays against the 49ers and gained just 239 yards. That’s an average of 3.1 yards per play. If they keep that up, second-half shutouts would become the norm.
4
Elijah Mitchell the closer
Against the Chargers it was Mitchell who led the way on the ground with 18 carries compared to just 14 for Christian McCaffrey. The script was much different Monday night. McCaffrey in the first half had five carries for 31 yards while Mitchell notched only one carry. Then Mitchell took over in the second half. He carried eight times for 55 yards in the final two quarters, while McCaffrey had two totes for eight yards. Perhaps this was gameplan specific, but it looked like the first half goal was to spread the Cardinals out with McCaffrey, then bring the more powerful back in with Mitchell to drop the hammer and help close the game. It may look different on a week-to-week basis, but the split roles worked perfectly Monday night.
5
Jimmy Garoppolo good again
It’s easy to write off strong Garoppolo games as a product of the 49ers’ offensive scheme and its playmakers, but there are too many things Garoppolo is doing now that he’s never done in the past that are making him successful. He’s not taking bad sacks, he’s not trying to fit throws into traffic, he’s making plays out of structure, and in general he seems less frenetic in the pocket. Garoppolo finished Monday night 20-of-29 for 228 yards and four touchdowns. The completions and yards aren’t of tremendous import, but the four touchdowns matter considering how hard of a time San Francisco had scoring TDs vs. the Chargers. The biggest key here is that head coach Kyle Shanahan trusted Garoppolo to throw the ball in some key spots down the stretch that allowed the 49ers to expand their lead instead of just trying to grind clock. If they’re going to make a run, it’s going to require Garoppolo to make some plays, and it’s looking more like the head coach is willing to let him do that if it means putting games away.
