49ers fall in last-ditch effort at the hands of the Arizona Cardinals

The San Francisco 49ers fell to the Arizona Cardinals by a final score of 24-20 in Week 1.

The San Francisco 49ers entered Week 1 looking to put to bed the cries of “Super Bowl hangover” ahead of their matchup against the hot-topic Arizona Cardinals.

Unfortunately, following a 24-20 loss in which they blew a fourth-quarter lead, the conversation will be exactly what they feared.

The 49ers jumped out to a hot start scoring on their first two offensive possessions following a 52-yard field goal from Robbie Gould and a 76-yard catch and run from Jimmy Garoppolo to running back Raheem Mostert.

Mostert took a swing pass around left tackle Trent Williams, mad a man miss, and was off to the races. However, things would soon take a turn for the worse.

San Francisco would go three-and-out on their next possession before a missed Dontae Johnson block led to a blocked punt by Arizona. The Cardinals would score on the very next play cutting the lead to 10-7.

The teams traded field goals in the second quarter before a scoreless third. Then things got interesting again in the final 15-minute period.

The 49ers and Cardinals ramped up again in the fourth quarter.

The Cardinals capped off a 14-play, 94-yard drive with a 22-yard Kyler Murray scramble for a touchdown — something the 49ers saw a lot of on Sunday.

On their next drive, however, the 49ers responded with a touchdown of their own courtesy of a five-yard pass to the returning Jerick McKinnon who was playing in his first game in three years.

But Arizona wasn’t done there as the very next drive, they executed a nine-play, 75-yard drive to take back the lead on a one-yard Kenyan Drake rushing score.

The 49ers would try their hand at a final comeback attempt but to no avail following a few errant passes to Trent Taylor. And that was basically it — the 49ers were handed a slice of humble by their division rivals.

Garoppolo started off hot before tailing off. Kyle Shanahan’s offense couldn’t do much in the second half as the team clearly missed both Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk.

Meanwhile, the defense struggled to contain Kyler Murray all game long with the pass-rush not providing much help. And the less said about DeAndre Hopkins the better.

The 49ers will now lick their wounds as they head into a road matchup against the New York Jets that promises to be a much easier battle.

At least George Kittle should be alright.