The San Francisco 49ers will face the Arizona Cardinals for the second time this season. This time the game will be played in Arizona and the Niners will be without superstar LB Patrick Willis. Willis hurt his right hamstring last week during the game against the St. Louis Rams and is officially listed as doubtful for the game, but other sources declare it is a safe bet that he will be playing in Arizona. Niner fans should not panic because even without Willis for most of the game last week, the defense shutout the Rams on route to a 26-0 victory. I know that was against the Rams, but shutting out any professional team is a great feat to accomplish. Backup LB Larry Grant did a fabulous job stepping up and filling in for Willis. The defense will be fine without Patrick. Many Niner fans have agreed that sitting out Patrick is the right thing to do because we do not want our captain to risk further injury with the playoffs around the corner. Here are other keys points of the game: (more…)

In the first installment of our 3 part series around the NFC West I’ll take look at the 1-5 Arizona Cardinals and try and figure out what’s gone wrong in the desert sun. A lot of what we do here on Ninernoise or any sports news outlet is play Monday morning QB, we judge and analyze the decisions made by professionals on something less than 1% of us could ever do in our lives. I love to sit back and say what’s wrong with the 49ers front office? Why won’t we try and trade for Kevin Kolb or Kyle Orton? Well both teams stink and since we’re here to discuss the Cardinals we’ll just stick to Kolb today. The Cards gave up a very good corner back in Dominique Rogers-Cromartie and a second round draft pick for Kolb. That’s not Carson Palmer territory but still a steep price for a QB with a losing record and a lifetime QB rating in the 70′s. Thus far the 49ers decision to pass on Kolb has looked brilliant as he and the entire Arizona Cardinals offense has struggled this season. I chose to begin my look at the Cardinals by keying in on Kolb because he is the biggest reason they are 1-5 right now he has been simply awful.

Since losing Kurt Warner to retirement the Cards have been searching for a franchise QB (sound familiar?). By investing so much in Kolb who signed a 6 year deal worth more than $60 million as part of the trade with the Eagles the Cardinals essentially put all their eggs in Kolb’s basket. Kolb so far this season has performed on par with the way he played in Philadelphia in 6 starts he’s sporting a 78.8 passer rating, 57.7 % accuracy, with as many interceptions as touchdown passes-7. The biggest problem for Arizona at this point will be figuring out what to do next. Where do they go from here? With this much invested in Kolb they can’t give up on him now as the financial ramifications of the decision to acquire him will be felt for many years. Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt recently came out and supported Kolb as his starting QB despite his poor start, a risk, but one he must take given that they are already knee deep and there is no turning back now.

PAGE 2: A LOOK AT THE REST OF THE CARDINALS
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Last week I made a post a few hours before NFL owners and players agreed to disagree with the NFLPA decertifying and the owners locking out the players that called for the 49ers to trade their top draft pick for Eagles quarterback Kevin Kolb (Read here).  I wrote the post knowing the NFL was either close to an extension, a new CBA agreement or a lockout.  Wishful thinking had me hoping for anything other than a lockout knowing how it would affect the 49ers trading for Kolb.  A hearing has been set for April 6 with a federal court judge to lift the lockout after ten NFL players filed an anti-trust lawsuit against NFL owners.  According to the Washington Post, “if the players’ request for a preliminary injunction is granted, the lockout would be lifted and the sport would reopen for business. The league would have to establish work rules, likely the same ones that were in place last season, which was played without a salary cap. Either side could appeal the decision to a higher court.”

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