LA Rams weekly Wednesday walk around the NFC West

Arizona Cardinals (1-0)

The Arizona Cardinals stunned the San Francisco 49ers, and perhaps the NFL with an impressive takedown of a wounded and vulnerable San Francisco 49ers team in the season opener.  The post-game analysis at Raising Zona attributes the win to a stout defense. While there is some evidence of a stingier defense, the 49ers were certainly limited in terms of offensive weapons.

Of course, the folks at Arizona are tickled pink with the opening performance of wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins and they have every right to be. He shredded the 49ers defense like a hot knife through butter, piling up 14 catches for 151 yards. Some debut, huh?  The Cardinals’ special teams came up big, blocking a punt when the score was 10-0. That put the offense onto the field in great field position and an eventual touchdown.

Some downside

The Cardinals kicker Zane Gonzalez hit both extra points but was only good on one of three field-goal attempts. Also on the list of woes is the fact that the Cardinals committed nine penalties for 102 yards.  Kyler Murray was over half of the Cardinals’ rushing offense.

The Cardinals defense appeared every bit as porous as we guessed. If the 49ers had more weapons, the outcome of this game would have been much different.  Kyler Murray rushed for nearly 100 yards, and of course, Hopkins was pretty active too. Remove those two pieces, and the Cardinals were just 160 yards of offense. The 49ers offense was a bit sub-par, but that seemed more on the 49ers than anything the Cardinals were doing.

Next game: The Cardinals next host the Washington Football team (1-0) at 1:05 pm PT.