GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona had 488 yards of offense, eclipsing San Francisco by more than 200. Jacoby Brissett set an NFL record for completions, had a career high passing and threw two touchdown passes.
The Cardinals never stood a chance.
Plagued by a record number of penalties and multiple miscues, the Cardinals were thumped 41-22 by the 49ers on Sunday for their second straight blowout loss.
“This like a stain,” said Brissett, who completed 47
of 57 passes. “You try and put baking soda on, you try to put club soda on it, you wash it, try to figure something out.”
The Cardinals (3-7) seemed to have bottomed out in last week’s 44-22 loss at Seattle.
They found new depths of ineptitude against the Niners (7-4).
Brissett threw two interceptions — one when two receivers ran similar routes — to offset his NFL-record 47 completions for a career-high 452 yards. Elijah Higgins lost a fumble just before he crossed the goal line. Arizona gave up two long kick returns, missed one field goal and had another blocked (it still went through).
And the penalties — wow.
The Cardinals had a franchise-record 17 penalties for 130 yards after being flagged seven combined times the previous two games. One was a holding call that negated a touchdown, another gave the Niners an extra field goal shot after the initial one was blocked.
San Francisco had one penalty for 15 yards.
The result: Arizona allowed at least 35 points in consecutive games for the first time in 17 years.
The 2008 team went to the Super Bowl.
This one doesn't have much of a shot.
“I just told them we’re on the mat,” Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon said. “When the alarm goes off tomorrow, wake up and come to work, you better get off the mat.”
Arizona opened the season with seven of nine games decided by a touchdown or less.
The Cardinals fell behind by at least a touchdown before fans even had time to settle into their seats each of the past two games.
Against Seattle, it was a 35-0 hole by the midpoint of the second quarter.
Sixteen seconds was all it took to fall behind against the Niners.
Skyy Moore returned the opening kickoff 98 yards and Christian McCaffrey punched it from 1 on the next play. The deficit grew to 13-0 four minutes later when Brock Purdy, back after missing six games, lofted a 30-yard touchdown pass to tight end Greg Kittle.
That put Arizona in an ignominious place in recent history as the only team since at least 2000 to allow two touchdowns in the opening six minutes in consecutive games.
“That's not the way you want to start,” Gannon said.
The Cardinals showed a little fight with Zonovan Knight's 6-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, but the game devolved into a comedy of errors from there.
Chad Ryland pulled a 58-yard field goal wide left and had his next attempt blocked, though the 26-yard kick still wobbled through.
The Cardinals appeared to have come through with a big special teams play when Calais Campbell blocked Eddy Pineiro's 62-yard field goal on the final play of the first half. Instead, Campbell was called for unnecessary roughness and Pineiro kicked a 47-yard field to put the 49ers up 25-10 at halftime.
The penalty was the 11th by Arizona in the first half — for 85 yards — matching the most in the NFL in a half since 2000.
The Cardinals opened the second half by negating Knight's 60-yard touchdown run with a holding penalty. Brissett was intercepted on a forced throw not long after that and a 64-yard return set up Kittle's 4-yard touchdown catch that put the Niners up 35-10.
“There were plays where we’re just not on the details and I really don’t understand how we’re not on those details,” Brissett said. “It’s us.”
___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
