Football can be fairly simple sometimes when broken down to the basics and a certain amount of the noise is eliminated.
That’s especially true after the Arizona Cardinals ended the 2024 season with a 47-24 win over the San Francisco 49ers to finish 8-9 and double their victories from last season.
In Sunday’s game, the 49ers had more yards (436-393), more possession time (31:51 to 28:09), more net passing yards (298-242) and the teams tied in first downs with 26.
However, the 49ers also had way more penalties (13-85 to only 1-5 for the Cardinals) and most important more turnovers with three, while the Cardinals had done.
The latter is where it gets rather simple: There were five games this season where the Cardinals were plus in turnovers and they won them all. In those games, they were plus-8. In their nine losses, they were minus-9.
Sunday marked only the third game this season where the Cardinals had at least two takeaways: two in the win over the Chargers and three in the first victory over the 49ers.
So, here are some defensive and special teams observations and analysis from the game that got the Cardinals to 3-3 in division play after last season’s 0-6 ledger.