Better late than never: Vote for the 2009 49erswebzone.com Team MVP

A week ago, it seemed like the Arizona Cardinals would easily fall to the San Francisco 49ers. But after the Cardinals handled the Dallas Cowboys to notch their first victory last Sunday, the 49ers will have to work hard not to overlook Arizona. In the NFL, you really shouldn't overlook any team. That especially goes for teams in your division. So what are the keys to the 49ers beating the Cardinals and moving to 4-0? Let me give you four quick thoughts: Don't let Arizona run on you. The Cardinals ran the ball 30 times against the Cowboys and gained 222 yards. They weren't quite as dominant in the two games before that and lost both, but they still had some success, especially against the Giants. According to Steph Sanchez, "Arizona's offense has

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk recently attracted criticism for bizarrely questioning San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy's worthiness of the "franchise quarterback" label because his name resembled "Turdy." "I think people have a hard time looking at that name and saying that's a franchise quarterback," Florio noted. The Pro Football Talk writer joined 95.7 The Game on Wednesday morning and explained the comments, noting that they were part of a broader conversation about why some are reluctant to embrace the 49ers' second-year player as a franchise quarterback. "I had given various other reasons, including, for example, last player taken in the draft, QB3,

Even though Brock Purdy's numbers were far from awful during the 49ers' win over the Rams on Sunday, it's easy to think of what could have been had he connected on a few missed opportunities to put more points on the board. Purdy finished 17-of-25 for 206 yards, zero touchdowns, zero interceptions, and a rushing touchdown in the 30-23 win at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The touchdown number in that stat line could have been much better had Purdy connected on three passes in particular to open receivers that wound up being overthrown. The first came in the second quarter a deep ball intended for wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, then two more came later in the game on a pass over the middle towards the end zone intended for wide receiver Deebo Samuel and a

Christian McCaffrey played 57 offensive snaps on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams. The next closest running back was ... no one. No other running back took the field with the offense during the 30-23 win at SoFi Stadium. That was not the plan going into the Week 2 game. McCaffrey has now taken 115 snaps through two games this season. The only other running back who has lined up with the offense is Elijah Mitchell, who had 10 snaps in Week 1. "Yeah, we definitely got to get Elijah in there more and do better with our rotation than we did yesterday," head coach Kyle Shanahan said via a conference call on Monday. "That wasn't the plan going in. It just ended up that way,