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Trap game? Causes for optimism and pessimism before 49ers’ first Kyler Murray matchup

By

Jacob Hutchinson

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© Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

Nick Bosa doesn’t blame the Arizona Cardinals for drafting Kyler Murray. While he said before the NFL Draft it would be a “big mistake” not to draft him No. 1 overall, he said at the time that he was speaking more to his self-belief than critcizing Murray.

He said Tuesday there’s no resentment or chip-on-the-shoulder attitude in facing the Cardinals on Thursday.

“Definitely not,” Bosa said. “They needed a quarterback, so they picked a quarterback. I was definitely curious to see if they would pick me number one. I heard Kyler Murray was going to be the pick, but I didn’t know, so I was just waiting anxiously, and I heard his family go crazy.”

Now, Bosa—with a team-leading 7.0 sacks and two Defensive Player of the Week nods—and the rest of the 49ers’ front will attempt to remain as exasperating for Murray as they have been for every other quarterback they’ve faced through the first seven undefeated games of the season.

Cause for pessimism

It’s a short week for an offense that the 49ers have never seen before. With Kliff Kingsbury at the helm and a rookie quarterback who’s demonstrated impressive arm strength, intelligence and the ability to escape the pocket, that could be a difficult recipe to counter just four days after playing the Carolina Panthers. Thursday games tend to be bizarre and less-than perfect displays. If it does get sloppy, that will favor the underdog Cardinals.

Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh was quick to dissuade the notion that the youth, both from a coaching and quarterback perspective, will make things easier for the 49ers.

“No, it’s a challenge,” Saleh said. “This is not a simple offense. They’ve got a lot of cool designed plays, they do a lot of things. Having the quarterback run game is a problem, so on a short week you’re actually more comfortable going against a system that’s been in place for a while because you have a good feel for what is going to happen. Them being new, new quarterback, not having a lot of tape is always going to be an issue, especially on a short week.”

While Murray is a rookie, he has the pedigree and talent of a veteran. Richard Sherman wasn’t short on praise for Murray when asked what makes him difficult to defend against.

“He’s got a good arm. He’s got great vision. He can read the whole field,” Sherman said. “He does a great job of obviously setting the plays and getting out of trouble. He takes his shots to run it when he gets a chance, but a lot of times he scrambles just to find a guy and make a play downfield. He’s done a good job in both the run game, like keepers and the pass game.

“I’d say he’s well-coached and been well coached from an early age. As you can see, he’s looking downfield, he’s keeping his eyes downfield a lot of times. A lot of young quarterbacks, they’ll start to look at the rush, they’ll start to keep pulling eyes down especially after a sack or two. He hasn’t done that, he’s been disciplined in that regard and keeping his eyes downfield and trying to make a play.”

As far as the Cardinals’ defense goes, head coach Kyle Shanahan said that despite the woeful numbers (29th in passing yards allowed per game, last with 20 passing TDs allowed, t-last with 2 interceptions, 25th in rushing yards allowed per game), he was impressed with their performances in film review.

“I know it’s a huge challenge,” Shanahan said. “I never look at the numbers right away, I just watch the tape and I thought they were ranked very high in a lot of areas. Teams have gotten some yards and stuff and some big plays and things like that, but when you turn on the tape, I see as good of a defense as we’ve played this year.

“[Arizona Cardinals LB] Chandler Jones is rushing the quarterback as good as anyone in this league. [Arizona Cardinals CB] Patrick Peterson is the best corner, if not tied for the best. He’s been doing that for a while and he’s back. [Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator] Vance [Joseph] does a lot of things schematically.

“That game versus the Saints, they came to play and they played very well against the Saints. That was a very low scoring, tight game until the end and then just a couple things that happened that made the score look a little bit different. When you watch the silent tape, you realize it is a very good defense.”

Cause for optimism

The Cardinals are both inexperienced and coming off that same short rest as the 49ers while also having to travel back from New Orleans. Both of their No. 1 and No. 2 running backs, David Johnson and Chase Edmonds, will be out for Thursday, something which left them to trade for running back Kenyan Drake from the Miami Dolphins.

While Murray is athletic, the 49ers’ coverage and pre-snap identifications have been tremendous this season. If that coverage remains rigid, it will provide more of those coverage sacks forced against the Panthers.

While Saleh talked about Murray’s ability to create things off-schedule in a positive light, he often talks in sort of a code, and said the 49ers will feel comfortable with their speed on defense, but will need discipline with their angles to avoid allowing him to extend plays.

“We feel good about our team speed,” Saleh said. “With the ball always being in the middle, the field will always feel smaller for those guys. His speed is definitely a problem and we’ve got to do a good job defensively making sure that we’ve got great angles throughout the day to make sure that we keep him in the shoot.”

That attempt to extend plays could actually result in sacks, according to Bosa, who acknowledged that facing Murray would likely help in preparing for Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks in Week 10.

“It’s definitely a new challenge,” Bosa said. “Probably as mobile as a quarterback could be. But if we contain him, we should be able to get some sacks, so it’s nice he’s still sackable because he likes to try and extend plays. But it’s definitely going to be a different challenge because we have a short week, we don’t get really too many live reps, and they do a lot of things that we won’t see other than against them.”

The Cardinals use plenty of 10 personnel (one running back, no tight ends) and operate mainly out of the shotgun, with some pistol and singleback looks mixed in. As far as matchups go, Saleh said he looks at Tarvarius Moore as someone the 49ers feel comfortable using in dime packages (six defensive backs, rather than the five the 49ers mainly use in nickel packages), which the team has only used in Week 3, when Jason Verrett was active against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“We’re going to play our game,” Saleh said. “We feel comfortable with how we match up. Whether they’re in 10 or 11, it doesn’t really matter, we can still get calls that create the matchups that we need to be able to go play our defense. It does pose a problem, but not something that needs to be panicked over.”

There’s dynamism on every level of the defense, and it’s the reason the 49ers are in the top-five of just about every important defensive category.

As far as the offense goes, Shanahan said on KNBR on Wednesday he expects to have every running back available despite Raheem Mostert and Matt Breida’s questionable statuses, barring swelling or a setback from the short flight to Arizona.

The 49ers have the second-most rushing yards per game and will be going against a woeful Cardinals rush and pass defense, which as mentioned, has a -18 touchdown-to-interception ratio.

There’s one more thing. The 49ers haven’t beaten the Cardinals in their last eight attempts. Look at that from a glass half-empty perspective if you want, but there’s a guarantee that there won’t be any complacency on Thursday night, or a belief that this lines up as an “easy game.”

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