By Morris Phillips

Nobody looks good on Thursday night football.  Not the winner, and certainly not the loser, in this case the 49ers, who fell 33-21 to the Cardinals at Levi’s Stadium.

Whether it was the abbreviated week, the shortened preparation and recovery time, or just the static nature of the team’s offense, the 49ers stunk up the joint in dropping their fourth straight, after opening the season with an impressive win over the Rams.

But the victorious Cardinals didn’t look much better.  Just better than their opponent.

“The biggest thing was whatever it took to get this win,” Arizona defensive lineman Calais Campbell said.  “Find a way to get it done and try to figure it out from here.”

Campbell was a big part of the small part of this football game that was smartly executed, that being the Arizona defensive effort.  The Cardinals made life miserable for 49ers’ quarterback Blaine Gabbert, picking him off twice and sacking him seven times.  After the 49ers took an early 7-0 lead, all lanes closed, as the turnovers and mistakes doomed the home team’s effort, which saw them trailing by as much as 31-14 after David Johnson’s two-yard touchdown with 4:44 remaining in the game.

While the 49ers struggled on both sides of the ball—allowing 157 yards rushing to Johnson alone—Gabbert was the lightning rod for the team’s failures, as the calls for Colin Kaepernick intensified as the game went on.  Gabbert finished 18 of 31 for 162 yards and one touchdown.  He targeted deep threat Torrey Smith once without a completion, and ran the ball himself 10 times, just two examples of how unfocused the team’s attack was on Thursday.

But make no mistake this wasn’t just Gabbert’s fault, Carlos Hyde didn’t run well and briefly lost his cool drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, the blocking up front wasn’t effective, and the team as a whole failed to take advantage of Arizona’s snail-like start to the game in which they punted on seven consecutive possessions to start the game.

“I don’t think anybody played well on offense. Nobody.  I don’t think we protected well enough, I don’t think we threw it well enough and we had too many drops and two interceptions,” Coach Chip Kelly conceded.

Most glaring was the 49ers inability to take advantage of early momentum, a problem on Sunday as well in the loss to the Cowboys.  In both games early 49ers’ leads meant too little, and were all but forgotten after halftime of both losses.  In this one, the Cardinals punted seven times to start, but they finished with 26 points after halftime while punting just twice.

All of that with the absence of normal starter Carson Palmer, who was replaced by Drew Stanton, who frankly wasn’t that good.  Stanton completed 11 of 27 passes for 124 yards but didn’t turn the ball over.  While both Stanton and Gabbert had the national television audience and the crowd at Levi’s squirming with their incomplete passes, Stanton at least had the support of his teammates, who didn’t panic with the slow start.

Defensively, the 49ers missed emotional leader NaVorro Bowman, who underwent surgery and will miss the remainder of the season.  In his place, Nick Bellore had nine tackles and was serviceable, but no match for the elite running of Arizona’s Johnson.  Behind Bellore, the 49ers’ secondary had their hands full with wily veteran Larry Fitzgerald, who caught a pair of touchdown passes despite facing frequent double teams.

Both teams entered the game in last place in the NFC West at 1-3, and the Cardinals’ win allowed them to look ahead confidently with games against Seattle, Minnesota and the Jets coming up.  For the 49ers, not having to admit the shortcomings to the media after the game might be a reasonable, short-term goal.

“I’ve got to play better,” Gabbert admitted.  “I have to do a better job executing this offense.  That’s the way it goes.”

“We’re going to get this thing right.”

The 49ers travel to Buffalo following their extended week of preparation.  They’ll face the Bills, who also are looking for improvement after a slow start to their season.  They did get good news, getting defensive standout Marcell Dareus back from suspension, then shutting out the Patriots on Sunday, who were playing without Tom Brady for the last time.