The San Francisco 49ers have not played an international game since their dominant 2013 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley. That will change on Monday, but the makeup of the team and the location will be markedly different.
Nine years ago, it was Colin Kaepernick, Frank Gore and Patrick Willis helping inspire the Niners to a 42-10 win in a season that would end in San Francisco progressing to a third successive NFC Championship Game.
No players from that team remain on the roster and, rather than being tasked with excelling in London in late October as that 49ers team did, San Francisco will have to contend with the balmier climate and altitude of Mexico City as they face NFC West rivals the Arizona Cardinals at Estadio Azteca in the final international game of 2022.
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The matchup is a repeat of the first NFL regular-season game to be played in Mexico, which took place at the same venue back in 2005 and saw the Cardinals defeat the 49ers 31-14. Unlike the London games, it is obviously not an easy one for fans from Leeds to attend, but the crowd is expected to be dominated by 49ers fans, despite the Cardinals being the designated home team as they were in 2005.
Indeed, ticket site Vivid Seats is projecting that 82 percent of the crowd will be 49ers fans, which would mean around 71,000 people in attendance will be supporting San Francisco.
And that huge crowd should have reason to be confident they will see a 49er victory, the Niners heading into the game off back-to-back wins. San Francisco returned to action last Sunday following a Week 9 bye and came through a hard-fought game with the Los Angeles Chargers, prevailing 22-16 to improve their record to 5-4.
That win means the 49ers are just one game behind the NFC West-leading Seattle Seahawks in the win column. The 6-4 Seahawks are on a bye in Week 11, meaning the Niners will have the chance to erase the gap to Seattle.
The 49ers are 3-0 inside the NFC West, including a win over the Seahawks in Week 2. A victory over the Cardinals would therefore send the 49ers back to the top of the division because of the head-to-head tiebreaker they hold over Seattle.
Recent history is against the Niners, though, as the Cardinals have won three of the last four meetings between the two teams. Arizona swept the season series in 2021, beating San Francisco in Trey Lance’s first start in relief of an injured Jimmy Garoppolo in Week 5 of last season and then winning at Levi’s Stadium in Week 9 with backup Colt McCoy at quarterback for the Cardinals.
That latter defeat marked the low-point of the 2021 regular season for the 49ers as an error-strewn showing dropped them to 3-5 with a 31-17 loss. It also served as the catalyst for San Francisco’s second-half surge to the NFC Championship Game as the Niners won seven of their last nine games thereafter to reach the postseason.
All the signs this year point to the 49ers ending the Cardinals’ recent hoodoo over them. Though they beat the defending Super Bowl champions the Los Angeles Rams last week, the Cardinals have produced little to suggest they are ready to mount a challenge in the NFC, going 4-5 across their first nine games with an offense with the talent to be much more explosive continuing to misfire.
A marriage between quarterback Kyler Murray and head coach Kilff Kingsbury that many assumed would be a perfect fit when it was made back in 2019 looks anything but harmonious and the Cardinals head into Week 11 ranked 29th in the NFL by yards per play with an average of 4.85. The 49ers are sixth by the same measure with an average of 5.89 yards.
Whether Murray will even play in Mexico City remains in doubt. Murray missed the win in Los Angeles with a hamstring injury and was listed as ‘day-to-day’ by Kingsbury. McCoy may also miss out because of a minor knee problem he sustained against the Rams. Should neither quarterback be able to play, third-stringer Trace McSorley would be in line to start for the first time. A sixth-round pick of the Baltimore Ravens in 2019, McSorley has attempted just 14 passes in his NFL career.
The potential absence of both Murray and McCoy would clearly stack the deck in favour of the 49ers, whose edge in this matchup comes primarily because of their superiority in the trenches.
Arizona’s offensive line has allowed 27 sacks this season, the eighth-most in the NFL and will go against a fearsome 49er defensive line that utterly dominated against the Chargers. The Niners hit Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert nine times and registered three sacks, and the latter tally would surely have been higher if not for Herbert’s proficiency in getting the ball out quickly on short passes.
Murray’s ability to scramble and make plays with his legs has often been an antidote to San Francisco’s defense for the Cardinals but, if he is again ruled out as some expect, it will be difficult to see how Arizona can neutralise the threat posed by a 49er pass rush led by defensive end Nick Bosa, who is second in both sacks (9.5) and quarterback pressures (31) according to Pro Football Reference.
The offensive side of the ball is still of greater concern for the 49ers, who racked up 387 total yards and held possession for just shy of 37 minutes against the Chargers but turned only two of their five red-zone trips into touchdowns.
That number is somewhat deceiving, as the 49ers would have come away with a touchdown on their opening drive of the third quarter if not for a dropped pass by Brandon Aiyuk in the endzone and missed out on a six-pointer late in the fourth when running back Elijah Mitchell slipped with a seemingly clear path to the goal-line in front of him.
Those failures of execution cannot be glossed over and have been irritatingly persistent for Kyle Shanahan’s offense in 2022. The difference is that, unlike in their meetings with the Cardinals last year, the 49ers are finding ways to overcome them. If the Niners limit the mistakes or once again mitigate the impact of their errors in Mexico City, they will likely head back to the Bay Area sitting at the top of the NFC West.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Kyle Shanahan, speaking on Bay Area radio station KNBR, about quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo being greeted by the Golden State Warriors’ dance team when he Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle and Kyle Jusczyk were sat courtside on Monday.
“It's a normal thing. I've been at fundraisers with him, and it's a tough life he's got to live," Shanahan joked.”
“It's unbelievable. I've seen it before, though, so it doesn't surprise me."
MVP OF THE WEEK: Nick Bosa
Bosa was a wrecking ball for the San Francisco defensive line against a Chargers offensive line that was completely outmatched in their primetime clash. Bosa was responsible for four hits on Herbert and registered three tackles for loss and a sack. When he’s in that kind of form, Bosa is close to unblockable.
STAT OF THE WEEK: 10-2
While Garoppolo was impressive last Sunday and scored a rushing touchdown, he did not throw for a touchdown against the Chargers.
Curiously, Garoppolo is 10-2 as a starter when throwing zero touchdowns, the best such record in the NFL among quarterbacks with a minimum of 10 starts.
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Exit Interview
Each week Leeds Live poses five questions to a 49er. This week, we put our exit interview to Samuel Womack. Want your question added to the exit survey? Let us know in the comments section below.
Favourite musical artist? Future
Favourite movie (movie seen the most)? The Fridays, or the whole series
Favourite non-football athlete? Kobe Bryant (not the Seahawks CB!)
Funniest guy in the locker room? I might roll with Q-Knight (cornerback Qwuantrezz Knight)
Most famous person in your cellphone? In my cellphone? Probably [George] Kittle to be honest — or Jimmy Ward.
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