It looked in the middle of the season like the San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals may be playing for the NFC West crown in Week 18.

The opposite turned out to be true.

Both teams are eliminated from the postseason and the NFC West standings are set with the 49ers in last place. Whichever team wins Sunday at State Farm Stadium will drop in the draft, but beyond that small consolation there isn’t a ton at stake.

We checked in with our buddy Jess Root from Cards Wire to get an idea of how Arizona’s season went and what we should be watching for from the 49ers’ final opponent of the 2024 campaign:

Niners Wire: Have the Cardinals been better or worse than you expected?

Jess Root: It’s a weird mix of both better and worse. If they win on Sunday, the 8-9 record will be exactly what I predicted back in May. Big picture, they achieved what was the best-case scenario for even the most optimistic projections — they would be better and still be not quite there.They were more inconsistent offensively than I expected. They had stretches when they were way better defensively than I expected.At 6-4, I thought they were gonna finish with 10-11 wins and win the division, and then they fell apart. So it was a roller coaster of being surprised and then fully disapointed.

NW: What are your thoughts on Marvin Harrison Jr. after Year 1?

JR: Man, he can be so good. He didn’t live up to incredibly lofty hopes for him. The projections of 1,100-1,200 yards were just too much.He looks so good at times and also has looked very much like a rookie. He has not gotten on the same page as Kyler Murray consistently. He has not been as great at contested balls as expected.But he is could flirt with 900 receiving yards. He will end up with better numbers as a rookie than his Hall of Fame father and future Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald. He will have nearly (if not more than) 900 yards when there he has a 100-catch, 1,100-yard teammate in Trey McBride. He will likely have the second-most receiving yards for any Cardinals rookie ever. He needs one score to match legends Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin for the most rookie touchdown catches. He’s had a pretty solid rookie campaign.I do think he needs a little more edge and “dog” to his game to take his production to the  next level. He has to want the ball with the same intensity as many of the greats, at least when it comes to attacking the football coming his way. But my guess is he will be really, really good as early as next season.

NW: How hard are we rooting against the Rams in the playoffs?

JR: Yeah, it stinks when someone in the division does well, although it does bring a little satisfaction when they do more than flame out in the first round as a sort of justification for them eliminating the Cardinals.

NW: Is Kyler Murray still the long-term answer for Arizona?

JR: There is beginning to be a little bit of doubt from the public. Thus far, that doubt has not crept into the minds of the coaches. What I try to point out is that Murray’s worst is average QB play. The ceiling is there but he isn’t hitting in consistently. And he is showing he can’t be a consistent top-five guy. But he has the tools to be great year in and year out.So as for moving on, one must tread lightly because it will be hard to do better.

NW: Who do you wanna see win the Super Bowl?

JR: I’m a Patrick Mahomes fan and, as long as it isn’t a team I actively root against, historically great things are something I love to watch. I want a three-peat. I want Mahomes to prove to everyone he’s still that guy. After that, I root for players or coaches. I like Baker Mayfield. I like Dan Campbell. I like Jayden Daniels and Kliff Kingsbury. I kind of root for Russell Wilson, even though I still have issues with wanting the Steelers to be successful.

NW: Prediction for this one.

It was the first road game in the Big 12 for the men’s basketball team, and the Wildcats came out with a close win against Cincinnati 72-67. Arizona is now 2-0 in Big 12 play. The road trip continues on Tuesday when it plays West Virginia.

Our game recap can be found here. Below is what Tommy Lloyd and forwards Henri Veesaar and Carter Bryant had to say afterward:

Lloyd on the differences in finishing between Cincinnati and UCLA: The biggest situation is we found a way, and, you know, our guys kind of hung in there. We had a big lead, and it’s happened to us before. This year, happens to UCLA a couple weeks ago. We’re up 13, and the games get tough, these other teams are good, they’re talented. They amp up the pressure. I thought our guys did a good job of hanging with it. The turnovers crushed us. The offensive rebounding hurt us. Then KJ Lewis made two amazing kind of driving plays where he didn’t have much at the end, he got on two feet, pivoted, pivoted, and just found a way to wheel in two baskets. That’s what we didn’t do against UCLA. We were never able to kind of hold on to that lead a little bit longer and and then, then the game got tied. I’m like, come on, we got to find a way on this one. These guys deserve it. They’re amazing, and it’ll be a kind of a pivotal moment for our season.

On what went on during the final moments of the game: We kind of drew up something out of the time out that we’d never really done before. It allowed Jaden Bradley to get downhill and make a layup. The play wasn’t necessarily for that, but that was one of the options, and he made a layup. I think when the game was tied, we got that two point lead, and I think we got to stop, and we were able to, kind of possession by possession, find a way from there.

On Carter Bryant’s performance: Carter is really making progress and the one thing about Carter is, I’ve told him, he checks two boxes that are really hard to check. He’s an elite talent, and he has elite character. The game is going to come to him, the refinement is going to come, the experience is going to come. The progress he’s made in the last month has been game changing for us and I’m really proud of him. When you’re somebody with Carter’s stature, and you come to a place out of Arizona, the expectations might be a little unrealistic. Sometimes it works out for freshmen right away. A lot of times it doesn’t, and you just kind of hang with it, and he’s hung with it. He’s continued to get better, he has an amazing attitude. He’s five for five, three for three. He should have made that other free throw. He had a perfect night. Super proud of him, super proud of him, and the person that he is.

On Caleb Love’s shooting: They’re good defenders. Cincinnati is a great defensive team, and we knew that coming in. We knew they were going to pay a lot of attention to Caleb and really make his touches harder. I thought he had a few good looks and a few drives that were 50/50 foul calls he maybe could have got, but he didn’t. I know we ran an out of bounds play for him at the end, he got stripped at the top of the key, three that kind of iced the game that rimmed out. Those are shots I want him taking. He’s a winner. Caleb is someone I love and, and I love being in the fight with him and I love that. Sometimes maybe people aren’t rooting for him, because you know what? We love the guy, and we’re gonna ride with him every day.

On trying to pull away when up 19 points: I’m hoping, you know you never know, right. These games are tough, and you’re hoping. It’s obviously a great environment when you show up before tip off, and every seat’s full, it’s going to be something special. I thought for 30 minutes we did an unbelievable job keeping that crowd really quiet, and then we maybe got a little fatigued. The sense of urgency amped up a little bit, created some turnovers, and they got out in transition and got themselves back in the game. That’s something for us to continue to look at. It’s tough to get a 19 point lead at a place like Cincinnati, so we got to put that in our back pocket, and know we can do it. The next thing is, how do you manage that? I think we can grow there.

On how Trey Townsend and Anthony Dell’Orso have adapted to the expectations at Arizona: Well, they’ve been great. I mean, they’re first class individuals, first class dudes. One of the things we try to spend a lot of time on, some of these guys won’t be at Arizona for three or four or five years. We really do as good a job as we can educating them on the history and the legacy of Arizona basketball, the former players, the great teams, the tough moments. We spend a lot of time talking about that stuff. There’s a lot of conversation between former players and current players, and they’ve been awesome and they’re helping us so much. Everybody that got on the court today really contributed, which makes us a total team effort.

On Veesaar playing more minutes: The only indication on this team is how the game’s going. Henri’s getting better and better, and Henri knows this. I stuck with him through thick and thin, and I’ve always been a huge Henry Veesaar fan. He and I have always had great conversations. And you know what? He’s finally getting his chance. He’s getting some game confidence, and so is Carter. Game confidence is a huge deal to have confidence in games. You get better in workouts, you get better in practice, but to be able to do it in games really kind of cements it. I think these guys are taking the next steps as players, and I look forward to that. They know that I’m going to probably come with three or four things on film tomorrow that they can do better and, and that’s just how we operate.

On Tobe Awaka struggling in the game: He had a couple of tough fouls, you know, the intentional foul or the flagrant foul, and he had another play where he chucked the guy in the lane. Henri gets in there, I think Henri was plus 20. That matters, you know. I don’t know the stats in the moment of the game, but you feel him as a coach, and the guy that’s got a guy that’s plus 20 and helping you move the ball and handle the pressure. You kind of roll with that guy. Other days it might be Tobe, but Tobe has been getting better and better and better. His feel for the game, his understanding of what we’re trying to do is getting better every day as well.

On Love and Jaden Bradley playing more minutes: One thing I’m learning about the Big 12 that I guess we weren’t doing right early. Since our inaugural year, they have longer timeouts. These timeouts are like three minutes against honestly, it’s like the NCAA tournament. Your guys get rested, and you don’t have back to back games. You don’t have a game between games very often. I think you’re comfortable playing, you know, some of your guys more minutes.

Lloyd on the significance of equipment manager Brian Brigger: I’m just gonna say this, and I’ll probably get a little bit emotional. Brian Brigger, that’s a great effing dude. This guy, he’s an Xavier guy, so he doesn’t love the Cincinnati people, but what he’s been to our program, and he came before I was there, it’s so special. What we told our guys, we have to dig deeper today. Think of Brian Brigger. The passion he brings, and this is our equipment manager, the passion he brings every day, the professionalism he brings to his job, the team player that he is, It says something about our culture and our guys. I think, you know, the easiest guy to pick up. I think they picked him up after the game in the locker room. I thought we might have to wheelbarrow him out, but they picked him up, and so hey, I mean, Brian Brigger, someone we love. Our love for him helped us dig a little bit deeper today. I know normally coaches don’t start out talking about an equipment manager at a press conference, but this dude is something different. He’s special.

Veesaar on responding to losing the 19-point lead: We just knew we had to pull away with this one. Obviously, we had the UCLA game, so we had experience already from the season. So this one, we just knew we had to win that like state poise and make play by play.

Bryant on responding to losing the 19 point lead: Coach Lloyd said it was just one we had to get. We fought with it. We started building. We trusted our game plan. We executed everything to not necessarily a tee, but as well as you can ask for with the environment and playing against a great defensive team like this.

Bryant on his role with the team right now: Just being ready when my number is gone. I think me and everybody that played did a great job of contributing the way that we needed to. We know every night it’s gonna be somebody’s night, because we have such great players, and we work on it every day. I see all these guys in the gym every day, so I don’t think it’s necessarily the position that I’m in or the spot. I think it’s just a game to game thing.

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Saturday temperatures will be 5 to 10 degrees cooler than Friday’s record of 81 degrees. Highs will be near 72 in the Valley today, which is still above the average high temperature of 66. The record for today is 83 degrees, set in 1927.

A No Burn Day has been issued for Sunday for Arizona. Highs will stay in the low 70s on Sunday and Monday. An upper-level center of low pressure will move in from the north on Tuesday into Wednesday.

This will bring partly cloudy skies to the Valley, with highs in the low 70s on Tuesday and then the upper 60s on Wednesday.

Breezes may also pick up on Wednesday to add to the cooler temperatures. Temperatures will likely stay in the upper 60s for the end of next week, but the exact numbers will depend on the evolution of the upper-level low.

For the high country, winds will pick up today with a wind advisory starting at 11 a.m. for parts of eastern Arizona, including Show Low and Window Rock.

In this region, gusts of 35 to 45 mph are possible. The north central mountains will also get breezy, possibly in locations like Flagstaff, with 25 to 30 mph gusts. Colder temperatures will arrive for the mountains next Tuesday through Thursday, with a 20% to 30% chance of rain and snow showers.

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