GLENDALE, Ariz. — The 49ers offense got off to an extremely slow start Sunday in Arizona and ultimately couldn’t get the job done when they had the chance.
It was a torturously slow start to the game for the 49ers offense. Luckily for San Francisco, the Cardinals were equally as inept on offense, which helped them stay in the game up until the final minutes. The 49ers dropped to 1-7 on the season, and the only real sign of progress for the offense was that they didn’t turn the ball over.
The first quarter stats for the 49ers offense are paltry at best. They ended the quarter with -11 yards net passing, as a result of quarterback C.J. Beathard being sacked twice for -22 yards. They gained 39 yards on the ground which gave them a whopping total of 28 total yards.
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The second quarter wasn’t much better for Beathard and his offense. They went into the locker room with a two point lead but not much else. They were only able to score three points after safety Jaquiski Tartt’s interception put them in field goal range. At the half they only had 61 total yards, 44 yards rushing and 17 yards passing.
Beathard addressed the slow start after the game. He was asked if the offense had a conservative gameplan.
“I think we know our defense is going to play well,” Beathard said. “There was nothing really conservative about it. It’s just what we were doing wasn’t quite working like we wanted it to or needed it to."
San Francisco 49ers
The third quarter was then the offense finally showed some signs of life. They were able to put together a 6-play, 70 yard drive that resulted in the teams only touchdown. Of course the majority of the drive was was a 55-yard touchdown pass from Beathard to wide receiver Marquise Goodwin.
The offense put together a second drive of 11 plays and 73 yards but couldn’t get the ball in the end zone and settled for a field goal at the beginning of the fourth quarter. That gave the 49ers a 12-point lead with 13:33 left on the game clock.
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In the remaining three drives, the 49ers couldn’t even muster 60 yards. Beathard only completed half of his 10 pass attempts. Matt Breida and Alfred Morris ran the ball seven times for a total of seven yards combined.
The Cardinals offense showed up in the fourth quarter and scored 15 unanswered points to seal the the 49ers fate, winning the game 15-18.
C.J. Beathard finished the game competing 14 of his 28 pass attempts for 190 yards and a 83.9 rating and was sacked four times.
After the game coach Kyle Shanahan was asked about Beathard’s performance.
“He did a good job of not turning the ball over,” Shanahan said, “but no one on offense had a very good day.”
The 49ers are going to need more than 267 yards of offense and 15 points to keep up with the Raiders on Thursday night. The Raiders scored 28 points with 347 yards of offense in their loss to the Colts.