Glendale, AZ — The San Francisco 49ers just lost 47-24 to the Arizona Cardinals. Here are the 49ers’ grades for this performance.

QUARTERBACK: D

Joshua Dobbs turned the ball over three times and was one of the main reasons the 49ers lost. He’s not a good backup quarterback and the 49ers should not re-sign him this offseason. And yet, he led the 49ers offense to 24 points on the road while playing with backups and against the Cardinals starters. As opposed to Brock Purdy, who led the 49ers’ starters to just 23 points at home against Arizona in Week 5. If Brock Purdy truly is worth $60 million per season, the offense would perform much better with him on the field than with Dobbs on the field, but it doesn’t. The 49ers need to keep their options open at quarterback. Extending Purdy to a big-money deal would be a huge mistake. This season exposed Purdy for what he is — a liability in the second half of close games.

RUNNING BACKS: A

Isaac Guerendo left the game early with an MCL injury — he may not be durable enough to succeed as an NFL running back. To be determined. After he left the game, Patrick Taylor Jr. replaced him and gained 109 rushing yards on 17 carries. No matter who the running back was this season, the 49ers were able to rush the ball effectively, which makes this 6-11 season all the more baffling.

FULLBACK: A

Kyle Juszczyk caught a 36-yard touchdown pass when he was wide open in what hopefully was his final game with the 49ers.

WIDE RECEIVERS: B

Jauan Jennings got ejected after committing personal fouls on back-to-back plays. After the game, instead of taking responsibility for his penalties, he said that the referees made a mistake. He seemed pleased with himself despite his team losing its seventh game in the past eight weeks. The 49ers are so undisciplined. Meanwhile, Ricky Pearsall had another good game — 6 catches for 69 yards and a touchdown. If only the 49ers had gotten him involved earlier this season, they might have won more than six measly games.

TIGHT ENDS: C

George Kittle played half the game and finished with 27 receiving yards. After the game, he said he’s going to talk to Kyle Shanahan tomorrow about Shanahan’s performance this season. When I asked Kittle how he thought Shanahan did this season, Kittle said he’d save his thoughts for Shanahan. Sounds like Kittle has something serious to say.

OFFENSIVE LINEMEN: B-PLUS

The 49ers averaged 4.9 yards per carry and Joshua Dobbs got sacked only twice. Not a bad performance considering all the backups who are starting for this unit.

DEFENSIVE LINEMEN: F

Went through the motions and sacked Kyler Murray zero times.

LINEBACKERS: F

Went through the motions and gave up 5.6 yards per carry against an offense that was missing its starting running back.

DEFENSIVE BACKS: F

Went through the motions and gave up 4 touchdown passes and a 128.5 passer rating to one of the most inconsistent quarterbacks in the NFL.

SPECIAL TEAMS: F

Played like they usually do, which means they got burned by a fake punt and Jake Moody missed his weekly field goal. How many games would the 49ers have won this season if their kicker were anyone else?

COACHES: F

The defense simply stopped playing for Nick Sorensen. Three weeks ago when the season was on the line, the defense gave up just 12 points in a loss to the Rams. Then the 49ers were eliminated from playoff contention. Since then, the defense has given up 116 points in the final three games. Shameful. The 49ers have no choice but to fire Sorensen now. Clearly, promoting Sorensen to defensive coordinator was one of Kyle Shanahan’s biggest football sins of the year. But Shanahan’s football sins were numerous. In today’s game, his team committed a whopping 13 penalties while the Cardinals committed just one. That’s because the Cardinals are well-coached and the 49ers are not. Shanahan can blame this humiliating season on injuries, but he should blame himself. His utter refusal to honestly assess himself and hold himself responsible for the Super Bowl collapse is precisely how the 49ers scapegoated Steve Wilks, replaced him with Sorensen and ended up 6-11. Now Shanahan has to figure out what went wrong, and his analysis must begin with a deep dive into himself. Will his ego allow him to look in the mirror, or will he continue to blame others for his failures? We’ll find out.

GLENDALE — San Francisco 49ers TE George Kittle will play in Week 18’s regular season finale against the Arizona Cardinals.

Kittle was questionable with hamstring/ankle injuries entering this week. He’s played in 14 games for San Francisco thus far and has tallied 76 receptions for 1,079 yards and eight touchdowns, which was good enough for another Pro Bowl nod.

More on Kittle’s season from 49ers.com:

“In 14 games this season (all starts), he has registered 76 receptions for 1,079 yards (14.2 average) and eight touchdowns. Among NFL tight ends, Kittle ranks fifth in receptions, third in receiving yards, second in yards per reception and second in receiving touchdowns. His eight receiving touchdowns are the most among NFC tight ends. He has also registered four games with 100-or-more receiving yards this season, the most by any tight end in the NFL. Kittle’s 1,079 receiving yards mark his fourth career and second-consecutive 1,000-yard season. His four career 1,000-yard seasons are the third-most in franchise history and tied for the second-most by a tight end in NFL history.”

The 49ers’ season hasn’t exactly gone to plan, as injuries derailed the defending NFC champions to a 6-10 record with one game remaining. Their loss last week to the Detroit Lions secured their spot as fourth in the NFC West.

Similar sentiments could be carried for Arizona, as their 6-4 start quickly cooled off to a 7-9 record entering today. They’re locked into third in the division.

Kickoff between the Cardinals and 49ers is set for 2:25 PM local time here at State Farm Stadium.

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.