Photo credit: @MySportsUpdate
By Jeremy Harness
This season, Jimmy Garoppolo has simply played the role of a distributor this year, whether it be handing off or making kay passes to keep the chains moving. On Halloween night, he stepped up and put the scare into the Arizona Cardinals.
The 49ers remained undefeated on Thursday night, but they had to stave off a furious second-half comeback from the Cardinals in the process, getting out of the desert with a 28-25 victory.
Garoppolo completed 28 of their 37 passes for 317 yards and four touchdowns, for a pass rating of 136.9.
The defense, which has been stellar all season, suffered a major hiccup in the second half and allowed the Cardinals back in the game, particularly when rookie quarterback Kyler Murray found receiver Andy Isabella for an 88-yard catch-and run, after which Kenyan Drake converted a two-point attempt to cut the lead to a field goal with just under five minutes remaining.
Murray wasn’t too bad himself, passing for 241 yards while completing 17 of his 24 throws with a pair of scores. Meanwhile Drake, who was just picked up days ago in a trade from the woeful Miami Dolphins, carried the ball 15 times for 110 yards and a touchdown.
The offense, however, was able to pick up the defense by holding on to the ball and getting key first downs to get the Cardinals to use their timeouts and, eventually, run out the clock.
The 49ers caught a huge break at the end of the first half, when they took a gamble and watched as Jeff Wilson, Jr. was stopped cold at the Arizona 1-yard line to supposedly end the half with only a seven-point lead.
However, Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury, who apparently wasn’t comfortable with the personnel he had on the field at the time, had called a timeout prior to the play being run, nullifying the stop and give the 49ers another chance.
They made good on that reprieve, as Garoppolo found Emmanuel Sanders in the corner of the end zone to extend the lead to 21-7. Sanders, who has been with the team for a little more than a week after being traded from the Denver Broncos, had seven catches for 112 yards.
They dodged another bullet in the first quarter, when tight end George Kittle caught a helmet to his left knee and, for a moment, looked to be in pretty bad shape. However, two series later, he was able to get back into the game and capped off the final drive of the quarter with a 30-yard catch-and-run to tie the game at 7-7. Kittle caught six passes for 79 yards with that score.
The 49ers return home to host the rival Seattle Seahawks on ESPN’s Monday Night Football at 5:15 p.m.
