Cardinals Can't Quite Come Back Against 49ers

[Big Red]

The Cardinals know they are chasing everyone else in the NFC West right now, and Thursday night they got a sense of the work they still need to do to play catch-up.


The undefeated 49ers came to State Farm Stadium and left with a 28-25 victory, in a game where the Cardinals's rally ended when they couldn't get one last stop.


New Cardinals running back Kenyan Drake was fantastic, rushing for 110 yards and a touchdown and adding four catches for 52 yards. The Cards (3-5-1) even came up with touchdown drives to open each half, and rookie Andy Isabella's 88-yard catch-and-run touchdown with less than five minutes left made it a one-score game. But the Cardinals could not get a stop, and the 49ers were able to run out the remainder of the game.


49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo threw four touchdown passes and San Francisco converted 11 of 17 third downs in compiling more than 400 yards of offense.


Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray had 241 yards passing and two touchdowns and again didn't turn the ball over. The Cardinals were the first team to have more than 100 net passing yards on the 49ers after a four-game stretch.


A key point in the game came on the final play of the first half. In a one-score game, the 49ers (8-0), facing a fourth down on the Cardinals' 1-yard line, let the clock bleed down to four seconds to have a final play at the end zone. A running play was stuffed by the Cardinals, but coach Kliff Kingsbury had called timeout before the snap. Given a second chance, Garoppolo found Emmanuel Sanders for a touchdown pass and a 21-7 lead.


More to come on azcardinals.com.

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