The Arizona Cardinals lost on Sunday 36-30 to the San Francisco 49ers, their eighth consecutive loss to NFC West opponents, but Cardinals fans got to see the beginning of the Jeremiyah Love era. After the third overall pick in the draft was given a shared role in the run game through the first two weeks of the season, it was the Love show against the 49ers.
Love got the start at running back and played 56 snaps offensively, while Tyler Allgeier played 31. And Love got a lot of touches.
He finished the game with 109 total yards of offense on 26 touches, and he scored a touchdown.
He ran the ball 21 times for 90 yards, averaging 4.3 yards per carry, an improvement over the 3.7 yards he averaged in Week 1 and the 3.2 yards he averaged in Week 2. His
21 carries were more than the 20 he had in the first two games of the season combined.
He didn't have any explosive runs, his longest run being only eight yards, but that meant he was a far more consistent runner this week against a decimated 49ers defensive line.
He also caught five passes for 19 yards and a touchdown.
Allgeier only had two rushing attempts in 31 snaps, and he was targeted four times in the passing game, catching four passes for 10 yards.
Head coach Mike LaFleur has said multiple times that the playing time and usage would be shared. He wouldn't commit to the same usage for Love in future weeks. "We'll do what we think is necessary each week,” he said postgame.
He also said, "We'll see what (his workload) is moving forward."
If Sunday was the start of a lot of Love, it was a pretty good start.
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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Jeremiyah Love gets first big workload for Arizona Cardinals
