49ers vs. Cardinals: 4 worst performances from dismal loss

It wasn’t pretty. In fact, it was ugly. The 49ers lost in ugly fashion to the Cardinals, and Niner Noise breaks down four terrible performances.

Just when you thought the San Francisco 49ers were ready to turn their season around, they fumbled any chance they had in the ugly drubbing that was the Week 9 home loss to the Arizona Cardinals.

It wasn’t for lack of intensity, though.

In the first half, head coach Kyle Shanahan needed to be held back after a bogus unsportsmanlike penalty on defensive lineman Arik Armstead who thought he had a sack.

Later in the half, cornerback Josh Norman was flagged for taunting after he and Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury got into a war of words. Kingsbury was also flagged for taunting for being too far on the field.

However, fumbles by wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and tight end George Kittle turned into points for Arizona, foreshadowing how the rest of the game would go.

The second half wasn’t much better for the 49ers. The Cardinals running back James Conner tore apart the defense. Without quarterback Kyler Murray, Conner helped backup quarterback Colt McCoy steamroll the Niners for over 100 yards of total offense.

So who’s to blame here?

For the first time in a while, we can leave quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo’s name off the list. He did what was expected of him and was throwing some passes which may have been risky earlier this year.

Luckily in this one, there is plenty of blame to pass around.

We’ll begin where the problems first started: the turnovers from the offense.