Week 9 Matchups to Watch: Cardinals at 49ers

By Scooter_McG 

Sometimes one win is all it takes to turn a season around. For the 49ers, they will be hoping the win last week against the Bears was such a victory. They certainly need it to be, as the team now enters a stretch of two tough division rivalry games that very well could determine the fate of their season - lose both of these games and it would seem all but over for the 49ers in 2021. 

Sometimes a bit of injury luck, good or bad, is all it takes to turn a season around. It seems like when it comes to the 49ers it has mostly been bad injury luck, and bad injury luck certainly derailed their 2018 and 2020 campaigns. Things didn't get off to a good start injury-wise in 2021 either. But in 2019 the team experienced a rare vein of good injury luck, especially during their 8 game unbeaten start as they faced a number of backup QBs during that stretch to get their season rolling. 

At least for one week it appears the 49ers may be tapping into their 2019 injury luck. In a rare occurence the team is actually welcoming back more players than they are losing to injury, including a key addition in George Kittle. On the downside Deebo Samuel is listed as questionable, though he was able to be a limited participant at the team's final practice this week. 

More importantly, their opponent has some key players either out or as game time decisions. JJ Watt has already been lost for the season (McGlinchey and Brunskill can breathe a sigh of relief), while both Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins did not practice all week and are listed as questionable. It's possible one or both play, but even if they do, you have to think they will be limited which should play into the 49ers favour. AJ Green is also out, which means the team could be without two of its top WRs in this one. 

Given the uncertainty regarding who will and won't play at some key positions it makes determining the key matchups a bit of a challenge. But here is what I will be keeping an eye on.

49ers vs home field 'advantage'. A bit of a cop-out to start with, but the 49ers home field record in 2020 and 2021 stands at 1 win and 10 losses. That admittedly includes some games played away from Levi's due to COVID last year, but is nonetheless an abysmal record that belies any sort of home field advantage. 

What I will be looking for is a team that plays with the energy you expect a home team to play with, and get the crowd involved. Coming off a vital win last week in which the team showed some true emotion and team spirit, anything less than a high energy performance at home this week would be a massive let down. 

Jimmy G vs inconsistency. We finally got to see good Jimmy last week, for the first time this season. But throughout Jimmy G's career he has had a bad habit of providing inconsistent play week to week (and even drive to drive). For the 49ers to have any hope of making the playoffs they need to get good Jimmy to show up more often than not, and that consistency has to start this week. 

Kyle Shanahan vs abandoning the run. If the Cardinals have one weakness it is their run defense. They rank 31st in the league in yards per carry allowed. However, their high powered offense has meant teams have needed to abandon the run in many games which has helped mask this deficiency. 

The 49ers run game has been strong the past few games, and it will need to be again this week to keep the team in good down and distance situations. But equally important will be for Shanahan to stick with the run even if the Cardinals show some capability early at stopping it, or get out to a lead.  

49ers passing offense vs the Cardinals passing defense - and who steps up if Deebo can't go? This may be the 49ers greatest challenge this week, especially if Murray and Hopkins don't play - avoiding back breaking turnovers against the Cardinals stingy and opportunistic pass defense. The Cardinals have allowed the 4th fewest yards through the air this season, while also ranking 5th in take aways. 

And prior to last week the 49ers passing offense has looked disjointed and highly reliant on one player. The 49ers have 1,782 passing yards through seven games. Deebo has just under half of those yards with 819. The next closest player is George Kittle at 227 yards, despite missing three games. 

Obviously getting a good Jimmy performance as outlined above will be important for the 49ers passing offense to function well. But of equal importance will be having someone else other than Deebo step up, especially if Deebo can't play this week. Kittle coming back will help and he will no doubt be part of taking up the slack (even if Deebo plays), but it will also be vital for Aiyuk and Sanu to step it up a gear.

49ers defense vs short passing game. This will be more something I am looking at if Murray and Hopkins are out. If they miss the game, Rondale Moore and the RBs will likely be very highly used on screens and short passes to get the ball out of McCoy's hands (thus negating the 49ers pass rush) and into the playmakers hands in space. It will be vital for the 49ers defense to maintain discipline and rally to the ball in numbers, while not being over aggressive tackling in space that they whiff and allow big chunk plays after the catch.

Given the injury to Murray, even if he does play they may look to use a similar game plan anyway to minimise the amount of time he needs to spend in danger and limit opportunities for the 49ers pass rush to make Murray need to move on his bad ankle. 

49ers secondary vs the deep ball. This will be an area of concern until the defense proves it is a thing of the past. They have struggled mightily this season defending the deep ball, in particular giving away far too many DPIs. If Murray is able to play, even with a bad ankle you can be sure they will give him a few shots downfield to test the 49ers secondary and try and pick up some chunk yards. 

This may be less of an issue of McCoy starts, as McCoy has a notably weaker arm that can struggle to get the ball to the intermediate and deep areas of the field with velocity. However... the DPIs have also cropped up more commonly on underthrown balls, which may actually encourage Kingsbury to try a few deep balls even with McCoy at QB in the hope the 49ers DBs play it poorly. 

Making things more challenging for the 49ers is that they will be without both of their starting safeties. This will be a big challenge for the rookie Hufanga, as well as journeyman Wilson.