San Francisco 49ers: Is there now a formula to beating this team?

Another week and another win for the undefeated San Francisco 49ers. With the New England Patriots losing Sunday night, they’re now the last undefeated team remaining in the NFL.

By no means was this game easy, but Jimmy Garoppolo stepped up big time and the San Francisco 49ers hung on to their undefeated season with a 28-25 win over the Arizona Cardinals this past Thursday.

Here’s the thing about Thursday games, I don’t really love them. I don’t love the short week factor that teams have to turn around and prepare for after a Sunday game the previous week.

It’s not particularly conducive to keeping players healthy. And for a long time, the matchups were garbage/throwaway matchups that the league just put there to jam in.

But on the plus side, the Thursday games (at least in the last couple of years) have gotten more competitive and fun to watch. There are more divisional games. There are better quarterback and coaching matchups.

And now we can look forward to the Thursday game instead of merely tolerating it.

Why did I just go on that little rant? I don’t know. But let’s get to the Niners game because I think we saw a bit of a weakness and formula to eventually beat them.

Teams with mobile quarterbacks and legitimate downfield threat offenses may very well be the 49ers’ kryptonite. Kyler Murray, a very mobile quarterback, put together a huge second half for 18 points as the Cardinals came within a field goal of knocking off the undefeated Niners.

Murray wound up throwing for 241 yards and two touchdowns on the night, but we saw how much trouble he gave the 49ers defense in the second half.

Yes, the pass rush was able to get to Murray and sack him three times in this game, but evidently it wasn’t good enough to keep him at bay and keep the Cardinals off the scoreboard.

Murray’s mobility and ability to avoid the sack is what gave him the edge in the second half of this game and facilitated his near-comeback.

When we look down the line, who’s a team that has a mobile quarterback and can throw the ball down the field? Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers is one. Baltimore with Lamar Jackson is another. But maybe the most important one is Seattle with Russell Wilson.

More from San Francisco 49ers

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• 49ers: George Kittle and Deebo Samuel cleared to return to practice
• 49ers expected to place DE Dee Ford on injured reserve
• 49ers sign TE Daniel Helm off the Buccaneers practice squad
• 49ers: Jordan Reed could miss up to two months, will be placed on IR

San Francisco faces all three of those teams this season, and what they all have in common that Arizona lacked this week — a good offensive line.

Murray and the Cardinals may not have been able to finish the job against this undefeated powerhouse, and they may still lose in two weeks when they play the 49ers again.

But the blueprint has been laid out. It’s going to be interesting to see how the Niners cope with that and if they can still overcome it.

On to the good stuff because although we saw a bit of a flash of weakness from the 49ers on the defensive side, how about Jimmy Garoppolo and how good he was in this game?!

More from Golden Gate Sports

• Raiders: Rookie stock report following Week 3 performance
• 49ers sign new long snapper amidst a flurry of roster moves
• Oakland Athletics win Game 2 of Wild Card round with late-inning drama
• 49ers: George Kittle and Deebo Samuel cleared to return to practice
• 49ers expected to place DE Dee Ford on injured reserve

I literally JUST got done saying how Garoppolo was actually the weakness of this powerhouse team in my last 49ers article due to his slippery fumbling fingers and seven interceptions on the year up to that point. And he came out in this Cardinals game and TORE IT UP.

28-for-37 and 317 yards passing with four touchdowns and a QB Rating of 136.9 for the former Tom Brady/Bill Belichick protege.

Once again, the 49ers proved they can win in a multitude of ways. For most of the year, it’s been the run game and defense with Garoppolo (sort of) hobbling along and managing the games for the most part.

This week, however, belonged to the $137.5 million dollar quarterback as the offense actually got outgained on the ground by the Cardinals 153-101. There may very well be a formula exposed now as to how to beat these 49ers, but one thing is for sure.

You’ll still have to show up and execute perfectly if you want to knock these guys off because they continue to find ways to win games.