How the Cardinals Match Up with the 49ers
The 49ers open the regular season Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. To preview the matchup, I interviewed Sports Illustrated's AllCardinals publisher Howard Balzer about the Cardinals, and Howard interviewed me about the 49ers.
Here are snippets of the first part of the interview:
COHN: What are the Cardinals strengths?
BALZER: One of the big strengths is the offensive weapons they have now. They added DeAndre Hopkins. They'll have Kenyan Drake for a full season -- he was there for only the second half of last year. And the offense really started to come on in that second half of the season once he arrived.
COHN: Have you seen Hopkins in person yet?
BALZER: I've only seen him a little bit. I wasn't here for training camp unfortunately. But all indications are he's everything that everybody says he is. Certainly I've seen him in past years. He can do a lot of things. He can play in the slot. He can play outside. He didn't practice a whole lot during training camp, so the key will be he and Kyler Murray getting on the same page. How long will that take? When it happens, that's going to be a pretty dynamic duo.
COHN: What are the Cardinals weaknesses?
BALZER: I'll tell you something -- I look at this roster and I don't see a lot of weakness. Maybe the offensive line, because they signed Kelvin Beachum in the middle of July just to be another guy to compete on the line and give them depth, and then Marcus Gilbert, who was supposed to be the starting right tackle, decided to opt out. So Kelvin Beachum is now going to be the starter. They have experience on the line but, going against good defenses like the 49ers are going to put out there, it's a challenge.
And the beginning of the year is going to be a challenge for a lot of offensive lines. Without the contact and physical play of the preseason, they're going from 0 to 75, going from practice to game speed. But if there's one thing this team needs, it's a good line, because Kyler Murray was sacked 48 times last season, and 35 of them came on first or second down. They have to improve on that to be able to take advantage of all the weapons they have.
COHN: Is Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury a complete head coach, and is he in the same class as Kyle Shanahan?
BALZER: I don't think you would put him in the same group as Shanahan yet, mainly because of what the 49ers accomplished last year. They showed that they can win games. The previous two seasons, they didn't win. Obviously there were lots of injuries to different players. But the games they won last year show the ability of Shanahan beyond being just a great play caller. Kingsbury has to prove that. And he's new to the NFL. When he was in college at Texas Tech, they threw the ball all over the place but didn't win a lot of games. So no, the jury is out on him.
But the one thing I have seen and heard players talk about is how much he listens to the players, he's not all hung up on himself. Last year he adjusted during the season to running the ball a little bit more when things weren't going well. He's not in love with himself to where he won't change if he has to. I think he has a good approach to the game but, bottom line, you have to win. And he has to show he's capable of doing it at this level.
COHN: Who will win and why?
BALZER: I think this is going to be a heck of a game. I would not be surprised if the Cardinals win, but I think the 49ers probably win this game, mostly because of their experience in big games. An opener is always a big game, and the Cardinals have to prove they can win against good teams and get off to a good start. They've been a bad September team for four seasons. So I think it will be a close game, but I think the 49ers will probably win.
Watch the full interview below.
