San Francisco 49ers cornerback Charvarius Ward joined KNBR's Greg Papa and Tim Ryan after Monday night's 38-10 win over the Arizona Cardinals. The two teams will meet again in Week 18, and the 49ers corner might have just given the Cardinals' top wideout some bulletin board material.
Ward was unimpressed with DeAndre Hopkins and felt the Cardinals wide receiver was playing dirty in the Mexico City matchup. Hopkins finished the game with nine catches for 91 yards. However, he had just two catches for 14 yards in the second half as the 49ers defense continued its post-halftime dominant play.
"D Hop, he think he a tough guy," Ward said, per Jake Hutchinson of KNBR. "He think he still one of the best receivers in the league and he really not. He was trying to talk noise and talk hard all game. We not scared of him. He thought we was scared of him. He tried to intimidate us, but forget him, we did our thing. We went out there and got a dub and we did our job. He was just yip-yapping all game, but we don't care about that. We just wanted to win."
Ward briefly exited the game in the first quarter. The 49ers announced that the cornerback was dealing with a groin injury. He returned and looked to be playing through some discomfort, leading the team in tackles with 10. According to Pro Football Focus, Ward has yet to miss a tackle this season.
While Hopkins might intimidate some NFL defensive backs, Ward was more troubled by how the veteran wideout was trying to get under his skin, even adding a jab regarding Hopkins' earlier six-game suspension for violating the NFL's policy on performance-enhancing drugs.
"He was getting locked up. He was doing some dirty things," Ward said. "He tried to clip me, he grabbed me by the throat. He grabbed my facemask on one play, so I don't respect his game. That's steroid boy."
The Ward-Hopkins Week 18 matchup should be an interesting one.
