Studs, duds from 49ers drubbing of the Cardinals in Week 11

49ers Stud: Second-half defense

A suggestion for 49ers opponents who have thoughts about winning against San Francisco: Maybe get your scoring taken care of in the first half.

Four games ago, the Niners went into halftime against the Kansas City Chiefs down just 14-13. They ended up losing the game 44-23, giving up two touchdowns in each of the third and fourth quarters to turn a decent contest into a blowout.

Since then, defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans’ group has truly been in rare form, especially in the second halves of games.

In total, the defense has only allowed 14 points to the Rams, 16 to the Chargers, and now 10 to the Cardinals. But all the more impressively, none of those points have come after halftime in those matchups, with the 49ers outscoring their opponents 53-0 in those six quarters.

Monday night’s game got so bad that both teams went to their benches to throw in their third quarterbacks since each team was technically using its backup as a starter in the game.

And it isn’t just that opponents aren’t scoring points. It’s that they don’t even often appear a threat to do so. That’s a credit to the quality of players the 49ers’ defense has on all three levels.