By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Sunday, September 21, 2014

GLENDALE, Arizona – If the Arizona Cardinals are missing injured quarterback Carson Palmer, it isn’t showing, at least over their last two games.

And for the San Francisco 493ers, it was a second-half nightmare revisited.

Backup quarterback Drew Stanton engineered a pair of third-quarter scoring drives for Arizona, the defense came up with a key blocked field goal attempt, and the Cardinals hung on for a 20-14 NFC West victory over San Francisco Sunday before a sellout crowd of 61,572 at University of Phoenix Stadium.

“Phenomenal,” was Palmer’s appraisal of Stanton’s performance – completing 18 of 33 passes for 244 yards, two TDs and no interceptions.

“Talk about resilient, he wasn’t getting any calls,” Palmer, out with a shoulder injury, said of Stanton. “He was getting lit up, and he just kept bouncing back, and just continued to play great football.”

John Brown, a rookie wide receiver from Pittsburg State, was on the receiving end of both of Stanton’s touchdown passes.

“Coming out the whole practice week, the game plan was around me to try to get the ball in my hands more, because a lot of people are looking at Larry (Fitzgerald) and Michael (Floyd),” Brown said. “It just opened up big time, so I was just prepared for it.”

It marked the second week in a row that the 49ers (1-2) lost a game due to a second-half collapse. Last week, it happened against Chicago and remains a sore point with Coach Jim Harbaugh – along with 52 second-half points given up in three games.

“No, I don’t understand,” Harbaugh said when asked why the Niners are being overtaken in the second half after taking a lead. “We’ve just got to play better. We’re not playing good enough right now.”

Asked if the 49ers experienced a falloff of attention or skill in the second half, Harbaugh responded, “I can’t put my finger on the things you just said.”

49ers linebacker Dan Skuta said, “We have to come out at halftime with our mind right and stay focused, and not let penalties bother us. We have to stay together.”

San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick didn’t have any solutions either, saying, “I really can’t say one thing. We just haven’t executed the way we should. … We have to score more.”

After San Francisco (1-2) built a 14-6 halftime lead, the undefeated Cardinals (3-0) went to work offensively, opening the second half with two scoring passes from Stanton to Brown to take a 20-14 lead.

First, the Cardinals closed their deficit to 14-13 at 9:25 of the third quarter when Stanton found Brown open toward the back of the end zone on a 24-yard pass. Later, with 4:39 left in the third, Stanton located Brown again, wide open on a similar post pattern from 21 yards out.

“(San Francisco) just forgot me on one play because we had a route coming in, and the cornerback jumped it, the safety flew all the way and I was just open down the middle,” Brown said.

Stanton said Brown is “so smooth, in and out of stuff. We ran a pump there and then the safety went flat-footed for just one second and we got him over the top.

“On the first touchdown, you have to respect Dre (Ellington) coming out of the backfield, and we just had the angle route where the corner sat and gave his eyes inside for one second and I had the safety over here,’ Stanton continued. “We had a quick motion and (Brown) just ‘whoosh’ (with a hand gesture). If you blink, he might be on the other side of you and it’s over.”

San Francisco was working on a 58-yard drive with 13:31 left in the fourth quarter, when Arizona defensive tackle Tommy Kelly blocked Phil Dawson’s 45-yard field goal attempt.

Asked if he saw the rush coming, Dawson explained, “I’m looking down. I don’t know what happened up front. Until I get a chance to look at the film, I would be guessing. Everything felt good in terms of operations.

“You expect to make every kick,” Dawson continued. “When you hear the dreaded double-thud, it seldom is a good thing.”

Kelly, pointing to the inside of his forearm, said, “I have a nice little red mark right there. It feels good, thought. It feels real good.

“Me, Big Dan (Williams), and Calais (Campbell) – I don’t think too many guards and tackles are going to be able to keep us from getting any penetration, so we just got low and when I saw it in the air, I just put my hand up and got that thing.”

Arizona’s ensuing drive included the first two completions of the day to Larry Fitzgerald. But on a slant pattern near the San Francisco 5-yard line, Perrish Cox recovered a Fitzgerald fumble – caused by strong safety Antoine Bethea, snuffing out the Cardinals scoring threat at 6:54 of the fourth quarter.

But the 49ers didn’t fare much better in that same end of the field. Arizona’s Tony Jefferson sacked Kaepernick on a safety blitz, and after a 49ers time out prior to a 3rd-and-20 from their own 10, an incomplete pass forced San Francisco to punt.

“It was big,” Jefferson said of the sack. “We needed to pressure Kaepernick and we did. That sack was huge for us.”

Scoring in the game began and ended with Cardinals rookie kicker Chandler Catanzaro, who booted a 35-yard field goal with :29 remaining in the game, and put Arizona on the board with a 51-yard field goal with 12:23 left in the first quarter.

The 49ers took their first lead of the afternoon on a 2-yard touchdown pass from Kaepernick to Michael Crabtree at 6:45 of the first quarter. Arizona responded with a 32-yard field goal by Catanzaro at13:42 of the second quarter.

Carlos Hyde’s 6-yard run inside the left pylon gave the 49ers capped an 80-yard drive with 8:35 to play in the first half, giving San Francisco a 14-6 lead.

Then came the dreaded second half.

“Look what they did,” 49ers running back Frank Gore said. “What we did on the field is the defensive looks they gave us. You can answer that.”

Crabtree caught 10 passes for 80 yards, Stevie Johnson caught nine passes for 103 yards, and Anquan Boldin caught six passes for 36 yards. Kaepernick was the 49ers leading rusher with 54 yards on 13 carries, while Ellington led the Cardinals with 62 yards on 18 attempts.

49ER NUGGETS: San Francisco pregame scratches included WR Quinton Patton, CB Tramiane Brock, C Marcus Martin, T Anthony Davis, TE Vernon Davis, TE Vance McDonald and DT Tank Carradine. … Prior to the game, the 49ers promoted TE Asante Cleveland from the practice squad and released QB Josh Johnson. … Cardinals CB Antonio Cromartie left the game early in the third quarter with a left knee injury and did not return. … Cardinals RB Jonathan Dwyer, recently implicated on child abuse allegations, was placed on the reserve/non-football illness list and is out for the season. … The 49ers hold a 28-18-0 edge over the Cardinals since the two teams first met in 1951. … San Francisco hosts Philadelphia next week at Levi’s Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:25 p.m. PDT.