The Arizona Cardinals fell to 1-5 on the road on Sunday, dropping a decisive loss to the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers dominated the first three quarters of play and the end result was a game that was not as close as the final 23-7 score would indicate.
Two general stats that tell much of the story are time of possession and turnovers. The Niners had control of the football for a staggering 44:16, whereas the Cardinals only held the ball for 15:44. Arizona also had five turnovers compared to San Francisco's one. The Cardinals were 1-for-9 on third downs, 0-for-2 on fourth down conversion attempts and only had 11 total first downs (three of which were first downs awarded on penalties).
Arizona defense wasn't able to get to quarterback Alex Smith very often, only registering one quarterback hit and no sacks.
On offense, it was a shaky day at best for Cardinals quarterback John Skelton. He was hit five times and sacked twice en route to compiling a line of 6-for-19 on passing attempts with a total of 99 yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions. He ended up sporting an NFL rating of 10.5. Backup QB Richard Bartel fared much better, going 8-for-16 with 64 yards and a touchdown.
Running back Beanie Wells had 33 yards on eight carries, although Chester Taylor's one carry for 34 yards put him in first place for Arizona rushing yards for the day. On the receiving side, Andre Roberts topped receivers with 51 yards on three catches, while Early Doucet had 50 yards on six catches. The only Cardinals touchdown came on a 23 yard pass from Bartel to Larry Fitzgerald.
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