By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Sunday, September 27, 2015

GLENDALE, Arizona – Thanks to stellar efforts on both sides of the football, the Arizona Cardinals are off to a 3-0 start for the second consecutive season after routing the San Francisco 49ers 47-7 Sunday in an NFC West contest at University of Phoenix Stadium.

“Bad day,” 49ers Coach Jim Tomsula said. “That starts and ends with me. Today’s performance starts off with a hats off to the Cardinals for what they were able to accomplish today, and the rest starts and ends with me.”

Cardinals running back Chris Johnson rushed for 110 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries, and wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald snared nine passes for 134 yards and two scores. Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer enjoyed excellent protection all afternoon and completed 20 of 32 passes for 311 yards, the TD passes to Fitzgerald, and one interception.

“I don’t think we’ve played our best football yet,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re winning; we’re putting a lot of points up and it looks good on paper if you haven’t been watching the games. But we’re not clicking on all cylinders yet and it’s scary to think about that – that we can get much better.”

Cardinals Coach Bruce Arians was quoted earlier in the week saying he still tells his team that “they aren’t s—t,” but said after the lopsided win, “They smell a little bit better.”

San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick had a forgettable day, completing 9 of 19 passes for 67 yards. He was also intercepted twice – both converted to Cardinals touchdowns – and was sacked twice as the 49ers fell to 1-2.

Kaepernick said turning in this type of performance “never crossed my mind,” adding, “It’s very hard to deal with. Very hard to see myself go out and play like that and hurt this team the way I did. I nullified all the efforts of every other player on that field today and that’s something I have to fix.

“I have to be better for this team moving forward.”

Arizona outgained the 49ers in total offense 446 yards to 156. Carlos Hyde was the top rusher for San Francisco, gaining 51 yards on 15 attempts, and Bradley Pinion punted six times for a 49.5 yard average.

“I felt like we were ready to play,” Tomsula said. “The preparation went well, and we did a nice job of practice. We practiced hard and worked hard. We’ve got to look at what we’re doing. That’s me.”

Defensively, NaVorro Bowman and Tramaine Brock led San Francisco with nine and seven solo tackles, followed by Kenneth Acker with six to go with his interception.

Rashad Johnson and Kevin Minter each had six solo tackles for Arizona, with Tyrann Mathieu adding five. Matieu picked off Kaepernick twice, with Justin Bethel and Jerraud Powers collecting the other two picks.

“Our defensive backs read the quarterback extremely well and broke on him,” Arians said. “They were standing there waiting on the ball.”

The Cardinals jumped to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter on a pair of pick-6’s off Kaepernick. The first one came at 11:05 when Bethel intercepted a Kaepernick pass, intended for tight end Vernon Davis, and returned it 21 yards to open the scoring.

Two minutes later, Mathieu stepped in front of former Cardinal receiver Anquan Boldin and raced 33 yards for the second Arizona score.

“We started up front, forcing (Kaepernick to throw some wild balls,” Mathieu said. “Us on the back end anticipated some balls and jumped in front of them.”

Powers added, “Nobody was expecting pick-6’s obviously, but J.B. (Justin Bethel) said he envisioned it before it ever happened, him picking off that exact same play. It gave our fans something crazy to cheer about, and we turn around next series and Ty gets one, and now the stadium is absolutely nuts.

“That’s the most perfect possible way to start a game on defense and the crowd stayed in there for four quarters and it made it tough on them.”

Mathieu said the Cardinal defense talks “a lot” about scoring, saying, “I think the theme and the model every week when we prepare is to put our offense in a position to score points. If we can’t do that, then we have to score points.”

Meanwhile, Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson held Torrey Smith, the 49ers top receiver, to zero catches.

“That’s Patrick,” Arians said “I think after the first two interceptions, they weren’t going to try him.”

On the first play of the second quarter, Johnson ran six yards up the middle, and after 15 minutes and four seconds of play, Arizona built a 21-0 lead. During that stretch, Fitzgerald already had 90 receiving yards on five catches.

Arizona extended its lead to 28-0 on a 1-yard plunge by Johnson at 7:49 of the second quarter.

San Francisco caught a break when Jarryd Hayne returned a short Drew Butler punt 37 yards to the Arizona 19. Two plays later, at 2:03 of the second quarter, Kaepernick ran 12 yards around left end on a quarterback keeper for the 49ers’ first score.

In the final minute of the first half, the teams swapped interceptions. First, Acker picked off a Palmer pass at the 49er 19 yard line. But three plays later, Mathieu intercepted a Kaepernick pass, returning it 17 yards to the San Francisco 25. A replay review determined that Mathieu had not stepped out of bounds, upholding the original ruling.

With one second left in the half, Chandler Catanzaro booted a 23-yard field goal, giving the Cardinals a 31-7 halftime advantage.

The Cardinals extended their lead to 38-7 when they cashed in on their third interception of Kaepernick. Jerraud Powers’ pick at the Arizona 42 set up a 4-yard touchdown pass from Carson Palmer to Fitzgerald at 12:29 of the third quarter.

“I thought Jerraud’s interception to start the second half was huge to set the momentum for the first five minutes of the third quarter,” Arians said. “Then, to answer that with a touchdown, we kind of shut the door right there, I thought.”

“We have to keep playing,” Kaepernick said. “We’re not going to quit playing football because something bad happened again. Once again, that was a bad play on my part and I have to be able to make those plays for this team.”

Adding insult to injury, Arizona increased its lead to 40-7 nearly eight minutes later when the 49ers surrendered a safety. With the ball at their own 1,Hyde was tackled by Minter in the end zone.

The Cardinals tacked on their final touchdown at 5:15 of the fourth quarter when Fitzgerald scored on an 8-yard pass from Palmer to complete the scoring.

After giving up a combined 90 points in the last two games, Tomsula conceded the Niners need to “play better defense,” concluding, “We’ve also got to play better offense, play better special teams, play better everything. We’ve got to keep getting better.”

Next week, the 49ers return home to host Green Bay. Kickoff at Levi’s Stadium is set for 1:25 p.m.

49ers NOTES: This was the first time the Cardinals scored 40 or more points in back-to-back games since 1969 (the final pre-merger season) in the team’s St. Louis days – losing 51-42 to New Orleans and defeating New York 42-17. … Injuries – 49ers TE Vernon Davis (knee) Cardinals LB Alex Okafor (finger). Status for both is undetermined. … This is the 48th meeting between the two teams in a rivalry dating back to 1951, when the Cardinals were in Chicago. The 49ers lead the series 29-19.