Position grades, analysis from SF 49ers ugly Week 1 loss vs. Cardinals

I was awfully tempted to give the linebackers an F-grade, but truth be told they didn’t play quite that badly.

And to be fair, it wasn’t their fault, but bad defensive playcalling (more on that later) that let them down a lot at times.

The Cardinals were generally held quite well on the ground, and the coverage was good enough that the team forced Kyler Murray to throw underneath the zones a lot, but the linebackers didn’t seem especially potent on defense.

Particularly with linebacker Kwon Alexander ineffectively spying Murray throughout the game.

They were responsible for the defensive play of the day, though, when Dre Greenlaw tipped a pass that led to an interception. It was the sole defensive takeaway for the game for either team.

Emmanuel Moseley had a really tough day at the office trying to contain Arizona wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins and, unfortunately, looked totally incapable in doing so.

Other receivers did chip in, but 14 of the 26 completions went to Hopkins and he just abused the secondary of the 49ers all by himself to the tune of 151 yards.

The most damning stat is not a single pass deflection was recorded by the 49ers corners. They just couldn’t make a play.

The best player was Jaquiski Tartt, but even then most of that was feasting off an easy interception thanks to Dre Greenlaw.