Game Overview ::
By >> Mike johnson
- Brock Purdy will be returning from a toe injury for the 49ers for the first time since Week 4.
- San Francisco will also be getting explosive wide receiver Ricky Pearsall back on the field after a multi-week knee injury.
- Arizona will be without their top wide receiver, Marvin Harrison Jr., due to an appendix issue.
- Cardinals QB Jacoby Brissett has been a consistent fantasy producer since becoming their starter, scoring over 20 fantasy points in four straight games.
- Both defenses have been struggling recently, allowing 29 and 30 points per game over the last three weeks.
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How san francisco Will Try To Win ::
The 49ers are turning the keys back over to QB Brock Purdy after a six week absence that had Mac Jones running things. To Jones’ credit, he kept their offense playing at a high level and moving the ball most weeks. However, Purdy’s ability to command things and do some different things is a slight upgrade for everyone involved. How big of an upgrade and whether it is enough to justify Purdy’s contract is unclear and a topic for a different time. For our purposes this week, the return of Purdy should be a good thing for San Francisco but there is a chance for some rust and a bit of an adjustment period. Some of the strong fantasy performances by Jones were games that were carried by high pass volume due to game script and matchup. The 49ers also get WR Ricky Pearsall back this week. This will be the first time since Week 1 that San Francisco has all of Purdy, Pearsall, CMC, George Kittle, and Jauan Jennings on the field together – and in that game they only had the full group for 10 snaps!!
The matchup this week for San Francisco is great as they face an Arizona defense that has been struggling recently and is designed in such a way that the Cardinals should have no trouble moving the ball and sustaining drives. Arizona plays a high rate of zone coverages and has middling blitz and pressure rates. Their run defense is decent, but has been gashed by stronger rushing offenses. San Francisco, on the other hand, has been running the ball much more efficiently since the return of George Kittle against weaker run defenses. There have been four games since Kittle’s return, two of which were against the porous Falcons and Giants run defenses and two against the elite run defenses of the Texans and Rams. CMC and the running game had their way in the good matchups and were shut down in the tough matchups. Arizona falls somewhere in the middle. As alluded to before, Arizona has allowed 150+ rushing yards in three of their last six games.
Purdy should be successful through the air with time to throw against an Arizona defense that hasn’t been able to get much pressure outside of the Dallas game this season. CMC has smashed on the ground and through the air against Arizona’s defense in recent seasons and the matchup schematically fits his role perfectly once again. Jauan Jennings is targeted at a higher frequency against man coverage, while George Kittle’s skill set tends to fit better against zone schemes like Arizona’s. Kittle also shouldn’t have to worry about being asked to block often due to the lack of pass rush the Cardinals create. Pearsall saw heavy volume early in the season when Jennings and Kittle were out, but is likely to work back into a big play type of role with lower volume but targets further down the field. This week’s matchup against Arizona doesn’t really fit that archetype, however, and it remains to be seen what kind of snap rate he will play in his first game back.
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