An exciting 2014 NFL Week 3 regular season game took place at the University of Arizona Stadium in Phoenix, Arizona. The visiting San Francisco 49ers, 1-1 (3rd NFC West) were favored at -1.5 and took on the Arizona Cardinals (2-0) this Sunday, the 21st of September 21st 2014 at 4:05 PM ET and on Fox TV. The Cardinals took the victory 23-14.
The Cardinals starting QB Carson Palmer for the second week was replaced by QB Stanton and for the second week led the Arizona team to victory. In his first game as QB Stanton led the Cardinals to a similar score 25-14 in their win last week over the New York Giants. In the first half of this game the Cardinals were only able to muster 6 points on two field goals by kicker Catanzaro, one of 51 yards and the other 32 yards. However in the second half he excelled as he threw 2 TD passes to rookie receiver Brown, the first for 24 yards and the second for 21 yards, making it 20-14, then Catanzaro hit his third FG of 35 yards with just 0:29 seconds in the game, for the final score of the game 23-14. QB Stanton said his receiver rookie Brown is so fast and fast, and if you blink your eye, he is past you and in the open. So in this game they did not need their starting QB Palmer to beat a long time rival in the San Francisco 49ers. This was only the second time the Cardinals beat their rival 49ers in their last 11 games.
The 49ers led by QB Kaepernick orchestrated two 80 yard touchdown drives, the first in the first quarter finalized by a 2 yard TD pass to receiver Crabtree and the second drive on the second quarter ending with a 6 yard run by RB Dawson and the PAT were both successful by kicker Dawson. Unfortunately, the 49ers were unable to score in the second half, which is the same thing that occurred the week before in their game with the Bears when they lost at home 28-20 and led the game 17-7 and only scored 3 points in the second half. Thus far in their first two games of this 2014 season the 49ers outscored their two opponents 59-16 in the first half of those games, but then were outscored 52-3 in the second half of the games. The media was cited as thinking the 49ers played a sloppy game with too many penalties and team lacked field discipline.
The 49ers QB Kaepernick completed 29 of his 37 passes for 245 yards and 1 TD and carried the ball some 13 time for 54 yards while RB Hyde had 3 carries for 13 yards and 1 TD. The 49ers were plagued with injuries going into this game as TE Davis was out with an ankle injury along with his backup McDonald, with a knee injury and RT Davis, with hamstring and CB Brock, with a toe injury.
All in all the 49ers need to turn the second half offensive strategy around and score in the second half of their games or this will be a very dismal season. The 49ers now 1-2 in week #4 Sunday the 28th play the Philadelphia Eagles 3-0 (1st NFC West), and hard to believe but the 49ers are favored at -4.5 (-115) with the Ov/Un 50 ½. The Cardinals 3-0 now and (1st NFC West) have a bye week. So 49ers fans who bet on NFL football at a sportbook the odds are present but surely will move before game time, so cautiously take your picks this NFL Week #4.