Week 9 - Thursday

'89 San Francisco vs. '15 Arizona

San Francisco traveled to Arizona...

The Niners got off to a good start, scoring on the opening drive on a 4 yard run by Roger Craig.

Moments later, Carson Palmer came to life with a series of throws, ending with a 13 yard pass to Fells to tie the game.

Just seconds before the first quarter was over, Montana came back, finding Rice in the end zone on a 4 yarder to take the lead.

It was at this point, however, that some wires got crossed. Arizona's defense would find a way to hold off the Niners for the rest of the game, and the Niners D couldn't contain Arizona either. Palmer would throw for 325 yards and 2 TD's with laser accuracy, completing an outstanding 23/29 attempts. Larry Fitzgerald came up the biggest target, taking 10 catches for 133 yards.

On special teams, Johnson had a 94 yard kick return for a TD, and Catanzaro was 100% on the day, hitting 6 PATs and 1 FG.

For the Niners, Craig had a big game, averaging 7.1 yards per carry with 100 yards and Rice caught 8 for 112. The struggle for Montana was he couldn't get yardage out of anyone else, and couldn't quite get the ball into the end zone. San Francisco only had 15 first downs in the day. In addition, Joe Cool was picked off twice by Arizona, which Palmer quickly capitalized on.

Arizona takes home the win, 45-14, to kick off our first week of game 9.

I'm still working on some stats to help evaluate just what kind of schedule each team has ultimately faced, and look at how things might shape up for the next 8 weeks. Be looking for bigger picture items in the weeks to come.

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