Previewing Week 3 vs. Arizona Cardinals

The 49ers will suit up Sunday afternoon in Arizona against the 2-0 Cardinals. After a rough loss last week in Pittsburgh, the 49ers are trending down in the eyes of national media members while the Cardinals are skyrocketing to the top spots in power rankings. All wins matter in the National Football League but before anyone crowns the Cardinals as division favorites, it is important to recognize that they have played the New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears, a couple of teams with injured quarterbacks and some serious issues to start their seasons. Meanwhile, the Seahawks have played the St. Louis Rams and the Green Bay Packers to start their season with two losses. I enjoy a Seahawks loss as much as the next guy but it is important to look at opponents and put these Cardinals wins in perspective. The 49ers could use a win to get back on track and restore some confidence in a defense that got torched all day by Big Ben last week.

The Cardinals are a strong team, with an active and fast defense and a trio of wide receivers that could be one of the best in the league. The strength of the Cardinals offense is the speed of their receivers and strong-armed quarterback Carson Palmer delivering strikes quickly before his makeshift offensive line allows pressure. Palmer has had multiple season-ending knee injuries and has never been a great mover in the pocket, a trait that doesn’t improve with age. The Cardinals will routinely take shots down the field and force defenses to keep depth from safeties. I expected the Steelers to use the same game plan last week and Eric Mangini seemed to allow the Steelers to do so by creeping Eric Reid toward the line of scrimmage. The way to beat teams that routinely like to take shots deep is to play a conservative defense that rallies to the football underneath and forces the offense to consistently move the ball. The Cardinals use built-in shot plays to score quickly and score often. Ryan Sakamoto (@SakamotoRyan) tweeted that the Cardinals lead the league in points per game at 39.5. Again, Arizona has played two porous defenses over the first weeks but the 49ers did not exactly encourage much hope in the defensive backs in their trip across the country. If the Cardinals are able to replicate what Pittsburgh did to the defensive backs, specifically Kenneth Acker and Eric Reid, this one could get uglier even faster than last week.

I wrote last week that Mangini should take Wilhoite off the field often in favor of Jaquiski Tartt against Pittsburgh to contain the underneath routes that I anticipated would be available and not only did Wilhoite stay on the field but he was asked to play in coverage more often than necessary. Tartt gives Mangini a versatile, athletic defender similar to Kam Chancellor, a defender that can play in the box and bang while having the quick hips and fluid weight transfer skills to open up and run with tight ends and receivers. I recently responded to a tweet from @Tre9er asking as fans would we rather have Wilhoite or Tartt on the field and I don’t believe the choice is particularly difficult. Wilhoite, as a veteran, likely diagnoses offenses better but next to Bowman, in any capacity, I wouldn’t expect Tartt has to make many calls or worry much about reading offenses at the line. He can play fast and aggressively, perhaps his two biggest strengths over Wilhoite at this moment. I’m not calling for a complete position switch but it will be important to see how Mangini gets Tartt snaps this week after leaving him to enjoy the bench for much of the loss last week.

Arizona has perfected this sort of hybrid safety/linebacker player on their own defense with the use of Deone Bucannon. On defense, the Cardinals utilize a few highly versatile players, Bucannon included, to dictate the way offenses must play to counteract their speed. Deone Bucannon and Tyrann Mathieu offer the Arizona defense two hard-hitting and athletic defensive backs that actively attack running plays but can drop with ease. Mathieu, although worrying some teams coming out of LSU a few years ago, has lived up to his reputation as the Honey Badger, a player that is tenacious and attacking while on the field. The 49ers will have to be aware of where those two young players line up on defense on Sunday. Although the former defensive coordinator Todd Bowles is now head coach of the New York Jets, Arizona will still send pressure off the edge from these two, forcing quarterbacks to get rid of the ball faster than they would like. Without built-in hot routes and screen plays to slow the defense down, the 49ers will struggle to handle the speed of this defense all afternoon.

A matchup that the 49ers should be able to exploit against the Cardinals is Anquan Boldin lined up against defensive back Patrick Peterson. Although Peterson is an All-Pro, he has never played particularly well against the 49ers. One defining catch was a few seasons ago, in Arizona, when Michael Crabtree dominated Peterson at the line of scrimmage and caught a quick, low fade in the redzone against Peterson. Crabtree never became the receiver many 49er fans hoped but he routinely played well against Peterson. Anquan Boldin has some of the strongest hands in the NFL and although he won’t be able to beat Peterson with speed, he will be able to use his size,strength, and impressive hands to make catches and keep the offense in a rhythm. Peterson flashes all of the measurables that make him a top corner in the league but I’ve never been particularly impressed with him. He seems to be more of an athlete and less of a specifically defined position player. The man can play football but I’m not sure that he could consistently stop Anquan Boldin if the 49ers make an attempt to feed him the ball. After last week’s beatdown, it wouldn’t hurt to see Anquan catch a few slants and run over some defenders, reestablishing some of the toughness on this team.

Sunday will help clear up what type of team the 49ers will be this year. Are they going to be the impressive, efficient team that moved the ball and played shutdown defense in Week 1 against the Vikings? Or will they be the team we saw in Week 2, a team that struggles to stop big plays and can’t finish drives in the redzone? The Cardinals likely haven’t played a team as solid on defense as the 49ers so this week will be a good measuring stick for them as well. While Bruce Arians, Head Coach of the Cardinals, suggested he doesn’t see any holes in SF after last week, one can assume he has a few shots dialed up for his trio this weekend. The 49ers will need to right the ship quickly to slow down some of the attention from the media as people are hammering for their 49ers narratives and predictions to be accurate. If the 49ers are able to contain the big plays, create pressure on an oft-injured and aging quarterback, and establish some toughness that was lacking last week. They have a chance of wrapping up Sunday among the top of the division.