Originally posted by Krangthebrain:
Greetings, Cardinals fan here. Just going to say I'm nervous about this game because the Cardinals have a long history of losing games they should win.
And I do think the Cardinals are the better team overall. I thought so before the season started and I was laughing at all the media talking heads that had the Cardinals as the 4th best team in the NFC West. Why? The Cardinals have a really good QB and a bunch of weapons at his disposal. That's a recipe for success in the NFL.
I picked the Niners to be 4th in the NFC West because I don't believe in Jimmy and the Niners have a roster of good players made out of paper mache. The one thing I can depend every year recently is that the Niners will lose 4-5 key players for a good chunk of the season and as we are seeing, this is happening again.
Why do I think that the Niners will win though? The Cardinals have struggled to stop the run. Part of that is that they have sold out to stop the pass in most games. Last week against the Rams they ran a lot of 2 down lineman looks. That's not a lot of beef to stop the run and the Rams go a ton of rushing yards against that look. The Cardinals have also struggled against the stretch zone runs and I know Shanahan is going to exploit that. Additionally Byron Murphy Jr, who has looked like a top cover corner is going to miss the game and rookie CB Marco Wilson who has played very well might as miss the game as well. RB Chase Edmonds is questionable, though I'm not that concerned because the Cardinals don't really rely on RBs that much anyway and they have options to fill his spot.
I watched tape of Lance last week and I wasn't impressed. Not even a little bit. He's going to take a lot of time to adjust to the NFL game. WIth that said, I think the Niners need to commit to him now, because he will improve more by playing than he will by sitting. It will be a long season for the Niners, but he has tools to develop and the Niners need to figure out quickly if he is the guy. I think the smartest thing the Cardinals have done in the past few years was how they handled the drafting of Rosen and the subsequent drafting of Murray. Any team who has gone through the QB wilderness of not having a good QB knows that your team should go hard after a top guy and spend whatever it takes to get a franchise guy.
Murray is now in his 3rd year and he is starting to play really well. Don't let the highlights fool you, Murray is actually the highest rated QB in the league from the pocket and is completing 80% of his passes from the pocket. His mechanics have improved dramatically and he is starting to go through his progressions and check into better plays at the line of scrimmage.
But I think the Cardinals are going to blow this one. I see the Niners winning by 10.
Hey . . . greetings!
The Niners win by 10 in their opponents house, with crap at QB, their reliable pass receiving threat on the bench, and the best QB in the league on the other side?
How does that even make sense?
But thanks anyway.
