49ers what the heck! Arizona 21 - San Francisco 19. #despair

[JonLP24]

7. I have to defend my team as a fan

They are a different team than they were in the first half of the season, especially on defense. They would easily be in the playoff mix (they still got a distant shot) if the same D showed up first half of the season. 49ers easily could have had a huge lead at half with all the drives that started deep in Cards territory. I have one excuse, new D-Coordinator w/ no offseason. Only recently they showed some flashes of the Pittsburgh D formations the Coordinator had at Pittsburgh and they use it sparingly which shows that they're still learning it. The front 7 get great pressure, unlike I've ever seen from this team and this is going back to the Philadelphia game though they did a great job against Carolina. Peterson is starting to lock down #1 receivers on a consistent basis. It is nice to have a good D-Coordinator. The Cardinals' D has just been awful the previous 3 seasons including Super Bowl year.

I agree, a game San Francisco should have won. I chalk a lot of that up to energized home crowd as the past 5 seasons or so this has been the biggest rivalry in the division. Most likely a different game if played in SF.

My point is, I think SF will be fine even if they have a tough road ahead while they're neck and neck with the Saints.

----Cardinals also greatly benefited from the whistle after the snap on the attempted challenge(couldn't challenge because replay booth was down) where the refs said it was before the snap when it clearly wasn't. Different game because that fake FG was executed perfectly.