Cardinals vs. 49ers: Full Week 9 preview for San Francisco

Week 9 by the numbers

There seems to be a new sheriff in town at the cornerback position. After a very rough beginning to the season, second-year cornerback Rashard Robinson had appeared to find his footing with some solid performances. But that obviously was not enough in the eyes of management, who traded Robinson to the New York Jets for a 2018 5th-round pick.

It was not without cause, as Robinson led the team with 10 penalties in eight games. This, combined with the emergence of rookie Ahkello Witherspoon, made Robinson expendable. And now, the first-year player out of Colorado is the 49ers’ new No. 1 cornerback.

In his first start, Witherspoon wasted no time establishing himself.

On a day he was facing an MVP candidate in quarterback Carson Wentz, Witherspoon was targeted eight times and only three passes were completed. One of those completions did go for a touchdown, but winning a 50-50 ball with Alshon Jeffrey is not the easiest task to complete.

For the first interception of his young career, Witherspoon took advantage of miscommunication between Wentz and wide receiver Mack Hollins:

As well as nabbing an interception, Witherspoon caused a handful of inaccurate throws due to his coverage. For the game, Wentz completed 56 percent of his passes, roughly 6 percentage points lower than his season average.

In all, it was a superb showing from Witherspoon:

Looking at the team has a whole, the 49ers are just about average for total offense and below average for total defense. On the offensive side, San Francisco ranks 19th in for most yards, with 2,456, and is averaging 307.0 yards per game (which ranks 24th).

For defense, the 49ers rank 28th with 3,056 yards given up. It has been an even attack against San Francisco, ranking in the bottom half of the league for both rush and pass defense — 29th and 26th, respectively.