San Francisco, CA
Overreacting to Cardinals’ Upset Win vs 49ers
If you had told Arizona Cardinals fans they would be 2-3 after the first five games, they would take it.
If you told them it included wins over the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams, most Cardinals fans would have rejoiced.
In what has been a roller coaster of a week, many Cardinals fans feel back on top of the world after Arizona beat the team that has plagued them for many years in San Francisco.
Not to bring those fans back to earth (or anyone for that matter) but there are some overreactions to the game – and some correct reactions:
Verdict: Overreaction
At least for one day, yes, the Cardinals did play like the best team in the division. With the Rams losing respectively to the Packers (and sitting at 1-4) on top of Seattle losing to the Giants at home (rather shockingly), indeed Arizona is back in the division race.
But the best team in the division? There’s a long way to go yet.
But today’s victory was a huge warning sign to the division, that despite all the injuries, issues that plagued both sides of the ball, and their recent history, the Cardinals are not messing around.
Verdict: Slight overreaction
Some teams just get hot early in the season – Washington is one of those teams right now, after dismantling Cleveland in similar fashion to the way they dismantled Arizona last week.
Did Arizona’s flaws and weaknesses get exposed last week? Yes – those should still concern even the most optimistic of fans.
But every team has bad games. And Arizona bounced back in, what many would describe, amazing fashion.
Verdict: Slight overreaction
Petzing has drawn the ire of Cardinals fans and analysts this past week, and rightly so. His first two play calls couldn’t have gone better as a rebound against the 49ers – culminating in a Kyler Murray 50 yard run.
The rest of the game left something to be desired – especially on third down. Now, to be fair, Petzing cannot control the blocked field goal, the dropped touchdown pass from Trey McBride, or some other misses from Kyler Murray.
But there were the usual head-scratching choices (some that even commentator Tom Brady couldn’t help but question) that Petzing threw in throughout the game. Perhaps one of the more head-scratching ones was calling play action in the red zone on a long third down.
To give Petzing his flowers, he did settle down in the 4th quarter and kept it simple by feeding James Conner a lot on the game-winning drive.
But there is still some nervousness from Cardinals fans – and the main question boils down to whether he can figure out how to keep the offense consistent outside of the first drive.
Verdict: Overreaction
395 and 406. 35 and 45.
If you guessed that these were the yardage and point totals from last years two games, or rather losses, against San Francisco, you would be correct.
Today, they allowed a similar amount of yards – 384. The Cardinals took advantage of several strange decisions for the 49ers, however, along with 3 opportunistic turnovers to hold them to 23 points – really only 17 given up on defense with the blocked kick return accounting for 6.
Now, this is certainly an improvement – but if you watched the game, there was usually very little Arizona could do to stop the 49ers offense. So while yes, it’s a step in the right direction, I do believe we need a bit more of a consistent sample size before we say the defense has improved.
The next two games should tell us a lot about this team, and particularly this defense, against two teams that have great offensive lines in Green Bay and the LA Chargers.
Verdict: Overreaction
Kyler has been, rightfully so, at the center of much debate amongst Cardinals fans this past week after a poor performance against the Commanders. Today’s showing won’t necessarily silence the doubters – but it should make it clear that Kyler will, or at the very least should, be part of the solution – and it not the problem in Arizona.
His throw to Marvin Harrison Jr. on fourth down in the fourth quarter to save the game was not luck but incredible skill. And there are very few quarterbacks, perhaps only a couple, that could make his first quarter run to the end zone.
No quarterback is perfect – but it’s really up to the Cardinals staff to continue to figure out how to continue to use his unique skill set.
Verdict: Overreaction
In some other comforting thoughts, Marvin Harrison Jr. will be ok. He was covered pretty well in today’s game, but came up with a clutch catch when it mattered the most.
Just because he’s not putting up Malik Nabers-esque numbers does not mean he’s not proven his importance to this team and this offense. Much like Murray, it’s now on the staff to figure out how to best unlock him.
This is a tough thing to keep perspective after a roller coaster of a week, but it’s important for Cardinals fans, even while at a high point, to know that this may keep taking time for things to come together.
The good news? It does appear Arizona is on the right track.
A California sea lion pup found last week on a San Francisco street corner is malnourished but “active and quite feisty,” The Marine Mammal Center said Monday.
The sea lion, believed to be about 10 months old, had apparently wandered into city’s Outer Sunset neighborhood and was discovered early Thursday morning, authorities said.
The pup was spotted near 48th and Irving Streets, one block from Ocean Beach and Sunset Dunes park. A trained responder from the Marine Mammal Center was joined by San Francisco park rangers and police officers to safely corral the pup, now named ‘Irving’, into a carrier crate.
Dubbed ‘Irving’ by his rescuers, Irving weighed in at 40 pounds and is considered malnourished, the Marine Mammal Center said.
“The sea lion is active and quite feisty which is a positive initial sign in terms of general behavior,” the center said in a news release on Monday.
During an exam by veterinarians, a series of blood samples were also taken to determine whether there’s any underlying ailment.
Irving is being tube fed a fish smoothie blend two times per day to boost hydration and weight; offers of whole herring will also begin shortly.
The quick actions by police, recreation and parks staff and Ocean Avenue Animal Hospital gave the young sea lion a second chance at life, said Lauren Campbell, animal husbandry manager at The Marine Mammal Center.
“As a roughly 10-month-old pup in his first year of learning how to forage on his own, this animal has a long road to recovery due to his severe malnutrition,” Campbell said. “We are hopeful that in the coming weeks with continued specialized care that this pup starts to make positive strides toward recovery and release.”
Irving will be held in the Center’s Intensive Quarantine Unit until clearing medical protocols, before likely being transferred this week to a traditional rehabilitation pool pen. A long-term prognosis and potential release timeline are not currently known.
After Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the Washington Nationals, the San Francisco Giants headed back to the West Coast. They’re going back to the Bay Area, too.
The Giants have a date with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a three-game series at Oracle Park starting Tuesday night.
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So, San Francisco probably wanted to get out of Washington, D.C., with a win. That didn’t happen at Nationals Park on Sunday afternoon.
Nationals reliever Andrew Alvarez, the third pitcher used by the team on Sunday, picked up the victory with 4 1/3 innings of work. Giants starter Robbie Ray absorbed the loss, falling to 2-3 this season.
Ray worked six innings, giving up seven hits, three runs (all earned), walking one, and striking out seven Nationals. If the Giants’ offense had found a way to tack on some runs, then Ray’s outing wouldn’t have looked so bad.
The Giants’ bats, though, had eight hits. The big number for Giants manager Tony Vitello to look at in the box score after this one was, well, pretty big. San Francisco left 10 runners on base on Sunday, going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. This indicates that San Francisco had plenty of opportunities to score some runs.
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They just didn’t get the job done.
Let’s go to the bottom of the fifth with the Giants and Nationals in a scoreless tie. With nobody out, the Nationals’ Keibert Ruiz connected for his third double this season. Nasim Nuñez scored to put Washington up 1-0.
With one out, Curtis Mead sent a Ray pitch over the left-field wall, a two-run blast that gave the Nationals a 3-0 lead.
San Francisco had a scoring threat in the top of the eighth inning. With runners at first and second base and nobody out, Casey Schmitt grounded into a double play. Matt Chapman, who was on second base, went to third. But the Giants were unable to bring him home.
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Rafael Devers and Drew Gilbert went 2-for-4 at the plate for the Giants, producing half of the Giants’ hits.
The Giants fall to 9-13 this season, sitting in fourth place in the National League West Division. The Nationals’ record goes to 10-12, good enough for third place in the National League East Division.
All eyes now turn toward Oracle on Tuesday night. It’ll be a chance for two longtime rivals to renew their rivalry.
Baseball fans know that the Giants-Dodgers matchups usually are must-see TV.
That’s probably going to be the case once again as Giants fans watch their team battle the Dodgers. Those lucky to have tickets to the three-game series at Oracle Park will show up in Giants colors, hoping to see Los Angeles head back to Southern California with either a series loss or a Giants’ sweep.
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Buckle up, Giants fans. It’s about to get rowdy at Oracle Park.
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The 4,140-sq-km bay is the largest estuary on the west coast of the US. Before 2018, this species of whales wasn’t known to stop seasonally or consistently in the bay, bypassing it on their migration route down to Baja California and back up the Arctic, said Josephine Slaathaug, who led a recent study on gray whale mortality in the bay.
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