Colin Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers head to Glendale, Arizona to take on the Cardinals in a huge NFC West matchup. Arizona is favored by -6.5. The 49ers have seen two polar opposites this season. We saw a dominating performance over the Vikings, and saw them get absolutely crushed against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Will we see the dominating 49ers team from week 1? If so, how will they be able to do that?
Offense
Offensively the 49ers have a few things they need to do. The first is control the tempo of the game. This means dominate the time the 49ers are on the field on offense, and slow the game down instead of making it a high-scoring game. They do that by running the ball consistently with Hyde, and making high-percentage throws from Kaepernick. The 49ers should use Kaepernick all over the field on Sunday. They should have designed zone reads for him and Hyde so that they can dominate the run-game.
The second thing they need to do is to limit the three and outs. Three and outs kill defenses. If the 49ers get a quality stop or punt out of the Cardinals they have to capitalize on that. That doesn't necessarily mean score the next drive, although it would be beneficial. It means the 49ers need to at least take off some game clock and give their defense rest. Kaepernick has shown the ability to do that and pounding the ball with Hyde is a great start to that.
Defense
Defensively goes a bit hand in hand with offense. Although the defense can't control whether the offense scores, they can dictate the momentum of the game, the speed of the game, and score. The first thing the defense needs to do is limit the big plays. Carson Palmer has a cannon for an arm and the Cardinals love to launch the ball and create big plays. The 49ers can not let them do that. If the Cardinals get consistent long balls then the 49ers chances are severely hurt of winning.
The next thing the defense should do is put pressure on Palmer. Mangini loves blitzing and different blitz packages that can affect turnovers and apply pressure onto Palmer's decision making.
We also realized this season that one guy is still a beast, Larry Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was plagued with bad quarterbacks as well as an injured Palmer last year, but so far this season it looks like they are on the same page. The 49ers need to find a way to stop one of the league's most consistently dominant receivers. That may include double-coverage, zone reads and blitzing to try and create turnovers.
Other
It's a tough matchup for the 49ers. The Cardinals are rolling so far this season and if the 49ers take this one it'll take a lot of controlling of the tempo, the speed of the game, and not allowing big plays. A little bit of luck never hurt anybody either.