Arizona Cardinals vs. San Francisco 49ers

It would be a better story had anyone on the Cardinals proclaimed this week that, yeah, the San Francisco 49ers are a bad team Arizona should have little trouble beating.

The 8-2 Arizona Cardinals are riding a four-game winning streak – but in order to run that streak to five and get a tighter grip on first place in the NFC West, they’ll have to win somewhere they haven’t won since 2008.

Sunday, the San Francisco 49ers host the Arizona Cardinals.

The 49ers (3-7) are 10-point underdogs to the Cardinals (8-2), per MGM Mirage’s sportsbook in Las Vegas.

In fact, this week Cardinals safety Tyrann Mathieu told reporters that Gabbert looks like a much more effective passer than Kaeernick. “So, we just try to go in and play our style of football… and hopefully have some success, have the type of success those teams have had over the last couple years”. Arizona is No. 1 in the National Football League in offense, No. 3 in defense and has become a confident, consistent team under head coach Bruce Arians.

But whether it’s a sign of slowing down or simply a result of playing a pair of tough opponents, Johnson has been mostly ineffective in the Cardinals’ last two games.

But this team laments what might have been if not for the lousy first half against Cleveland, the two quarterback strips in Seattle, the third-down woes against the Bengals. They’ve been to the Super Bowl recently.

Coming through again Sunday would not only give the Cardinals their ninth win but slay a demon that has haunted them for far too long. And when I say last, I mean last: their 139 points scored through 10 games are a full 40 points behind the second lowest-scoring team, the St. Louis Rams. This Sunday, however, a different 49ers squad will take the field to defend the 49ers home turf at Levi’s Stadium. Not that it has even come up.

“We have Carson and Drew”, Arians said. “We haven’t won there in so long, so I don’t think we can dream about that”.

A twist to the 49ers-Cardinals rivalry is that it won’t include Colin Kaepernick for the first time since 2012.

For the most part, the Cardinals have been very good at taking care of business this season. They should be concerned with getting into the best possible draft position after seeing numerous players retire and making additional trades to stockpile picks in the 2016 and 2017 drafts. He would be guaranteed $11.7 million for next season if the 49ers retain him on the roster past that date. “I know he wanted to (face San Francisco) the last time and we kind of said, ‘Hey, you’re not ready yet, ‘ so yeah, I think he’ll have some extra energy and be ready to go for his old buddies”.

“We just knew Kaepernick’s tendencies”.

Arians appreciates that swagger, even if it might be a bit brash at times. I don t have a problem with it. Sometimes they need to shut up and play.

Armstead in spotlight: Arizona is sure to test the 49ers’ run defense after Seattle’s Thomas Rawls rushed for 209 yards. Armstead was used exclusively as a nickel pass rusher in the first nine games of the season.

AGELESS FITZ: Fitzgerald keeps climbing career passing lists and, given his history against the 49ers, he could add to those impressive numbers. That’s a drastic shift from San Francisco’s previous game against the Atlanta Falcons when the 49ers scored both of their touchdowns on third down while going 6-of-14 for the game. Palmer s 26 completions of at least 20 yards rank as the league s second-most behind Jacksonville s Blake Bortles, ProFootballFocus.com reports.

Fitzgerald, on pace to threaten or pass his single-season bests for catches, yards receiving and touchdowns, was transformed to a slot receiver by Arians. The veteran running back has totaled just 121 rushing yards on 43 carries (2.9 YPC) over his last two games and hasn’t seen the endzone since October.