49ers grades from Mexico City domination of Cardinals (lots of A’s)

The 49ers walloped the Cardinals 38-10 in Mexico City on Monday night, so it’ll be easy to dish out grades that favor the ‘road’ team.

Perhaps the NFL should have thought harder about making the San Francisco 49ers the “road” team in Week 11 on Monday Night Football against the “home” squad Arizona Cardinals from Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, Mexico.

If anything, the Red Birds were in a wholly hostile environment that almost unanimously supported the red and gold.

While the opening few minutes seemed rather inconclusive, particularly with Arizona getting out to a 3-0 lead, nearly everything thereafter went in the Niners’ favor, including many of head coach Kyle Shanahan’s top offensive weapons putting together dominant games in one fashion or another.

And while San Francisco’s defense had some difficulty defending against Cardinals All-Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins during the first half, this unit ended up clamping down once more after halftime and did more than just frustrate Arizona’s head coach, Kliff Kingsbury.

When it was all said and done, the 49ers improved to 6-4 on the season after the commanding 38-10 victory, seizing first place within the NFC West and grabbing another vital divisional win.

Needless to say, it should be pretty easy dishing out positional grades after such a one-sided win, and it might actually be harder to find the faults, mistakes and gaffes that would otherwise stain a peerless performance by Shanahan and Co.

Seriously, that’s how dominant things were.

Disclaimer: You’ll see a lot of A-grades from this point forward.

49ers offensive grades vs. Cardinals

The Niners were going to have a tough time moving the ball on the ground early against a good Arizona run defense, yet Kyle Shanahan had to know the Cardinals were susceptible against the pass, particularly when it came to giving up yards after the catch.

As such, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo could take advantage of chunk plays in an offense that delivers no shortage of “YAC.”

That’s what he did.

Quarterback

Garoppolo tied a career-best mark by tossing four touchdowns in the game, and he’s now gone three consecutive bouts without throwing an interception. Sure, there were a handful of off-target passes, but those don’t work against him much at all.

And a 20-of-29 line for 228 yards, the four scores and a 131.9 passer rating are quite exemplary by any account.

Oh, and rookie quarterback Brock Purdy got into the game during garbage time. Good for Purdy.

Yet the chatter will be about Garoppolo, who is easily playing the best ball of his San Francisco tenure to date, and it was on full display under the bright lights and on an international stage.

Grade: A+

Running back

The Cardinals entered the game with a solid run defense that allowed only 4.4 yards per carry, so the fact the 49ers’ rushers averaged 5.7 yards per attempt is more indicative of Shanahan setting up the run by starting off with the pass.

It worked, and Christian McCaffrey gained over 100 all-purpose yards, while Elijah Mitchell came on in relief during the second half and added 59 yards of his own after Arizona’s defense had been worn down.

Heck, even undrafted rookie Jordan Mason got in on the action.

Perhaps not the commanding takeover-type performance on the ground, but no one will complain.

Grade: A-

Wide receiver

Fans have been waiting for the proverbial “pick your poison” description of the wide receiver room, hoping that both Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk would dominate in a single game at the same time.

Well, Week 11 happened.

Aiyuk’s two-touchdown performance was arguably overshadowed only by Samuel’s terrific 39-yard end-around score (with plenty of beautiful blocking along the way):

Vintage 2021 Samuel right there.

None of the Niners’ other wideouts recorded a reception, but that didn’t matter. Both Aiyuk and Samuel were exceptional on the night, completely overpowering Arizona’s secondary.

Grade: A

Tight end

Good things happen when George Kittle is part of the offensive game plan, particularly when he’s not being used solely as a blocker and getting a mere two targets as he did a week ago.

Instead, Kittle finished with a team-high 84 yards on four catches, and then he doubled his touchdown total on the season by adding two more during the game, including this one when he was left entirely uncovered:

San Francisco can’t afford to forget about Kittle’s presence, and it was refreshing to see him have yet another dominant outing that helped epitomized the offense’s own dominance.

Grade: A+

Offensive line

Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph was going to blitz a lot, yet Garoppolo and the rest of his blockers did a good job picking those pressures up and getting the ball out quickly.

All told, Garoppolo was mostly kept upright, and the Cardinals failed to sack him and registered only four quarterback hits.

However, what was more impressive was just how effective the 49ers offensive line was in run blocking, especially later in the game after Arizona’s defense started to tire out.

Go back and look at some of the lead blocks on that Samuel touchdown run, and you’ll see why. It’s impressive.

Aside from a handful of gaffes, including a presnap penalty on center Jake Brendel, it’s hard to fault this unit at all.

Grade: A

49ers defensive grades vs. Cardinals

For the third week in a row, coordinator DeMeco Ryans’ defense pitched a scoring shutout in the second half.

Arizona might have had some momentum in the first two quarters by involving DeAndre Hopkins, but that was entirely stymied in the second half. And while the Cardinals would have preferred to start Kyler Murray at quarterback instead of the perennial backup, Colt McCoy, Niners fans can recall too well how McCoy dominated San Francisco a year ago in embarrassing fashion.

No repeat of that effort this season.

Defensive line

Still shorthanded and without Arik Armstead (foot) and Samson Ebukam (quad, Achilles), the defensive line nevertheless commanded the effort at the line of scrimmage. And while McCoy stressed getting the ball out quickly, EDGE Nick Bosa was still able to pick up a sack and added three more quarterback hits:

In tandem with the linebackers, the D-line was a major reason why Arizona couldn’t move the ball on the ground, averaging just 2.8 yards per rush and also having a whopping six plays that went for a loss of yards.

Excellent effort in the trenches.

Grade: A

Linebacker

One of the three sacks the 49ers got on McCoy, one of them went to Fred Warner, who also picked up two tackles for a loss.

Fellow backer Dre Greenlaw, who exited the game late with what appeared to be a wrist injury, boasted nine tackles of his own but added a pass broken up along with a forced fumble, too.

Quality work from a quality unit.

Grade: A-

Secondary

The Cardinals did manage to gain some yardage through the air, particularly during the first half when McCoy was regularly hitting DeAndre Hopkins, who finished the game with nine catches for 91 yards.

Yet it was fellow wideout Greg Dortch who ended up leading Arizona with 103 yards on nine catches, including that broken coverage on which he ripped off 47 yards on one play.

That cuts both ways, suggesting the Niners succeeded in taking Hopkins out of the game plan in the second half, but Dortch shouldn’t be the X-factor.

Oh, and cornerback Charvarius Ward led San Francisco with 10 tackles, while rookie corner Samuel Womack picked up a meaningless garbage-time interception.

Safety Jimmie Ward’s interception earlier in the game mattered a lot more.

Grade: B+

49ers special teams, coaching grades vs. Cardinals

Kyle Shanahan needed to show his team’s dominance against an inferior and banged-up opponent under the bright lights of prime time.

That’s what happened.

Anyone tuning into the ESPN broadcast could listen to analysts talking about how the 49ers were serious threats within the conference, potentially up to and including the Super Bowl.

Quite the turn of events after a so-so 4-4 start to begin the year, right?

Special teams

Kicker Robbie Gould is going to get some deserved love for making his lone field-goal try and five extra points, but punter Mitch Wishnowsky was absolutely excellent, pinning Arizona inside its own 20-yard line twice and nearly doing so a third time if it weren’t for gunner Tarvarius Moore slipping across the goal line for a touchback.

Greg Dortch had one return for 15 yards, that’s it.

Grade: A

Coaching

Shanahan didn’t coach scared, and his approach of wearing the Cardinals down by the passing game in the first half ultimately led to all those chunk plays on the ground after halftime.

More importantly, Shanahan ultimately learned to properly distribute touches, too, involving each one of his top offensive weapons in one fashion or another, and that kind of distribution is going to be awfully stressful on the Niners’ remaining opponents down the stretch.

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San Francisco needed a statement win, and that’s what Shanahan delivered on offense.

However, not to be outdone, one has to give plenty of credit to DeMeco Ryans, too, whose defense was outstanding despite having to contend against DeAndre Hopkins, Dortch’s surprisingly good game and the challenges of playing at an extreme altitude.

Few watching would have noticed these were major factors working against Ryans and Co.

Excellent work by the coaching staff on all three phases, and the 49ers are 6-4 as a result.

Grade: A+