After starting the 2025 season with three consecutive victories, the San Francisco 49ers had neither won nor lost consecutive games heading into their Week 11 divisional matchup with the Arizona Cardinals.
And that trend continued on Sunday afternoon in Glendale, as the Niners, coming off an embarrassing 42-26 defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Rams, took an easy 41-22 win over a Cardinals team that has now dropped seven of its last eight games.
While the San Francisco defense forced a season-high three turnovers, with Malik Mustapha and Deommodore Lenoir each recording an interception on Cardinals quarterback Jacoby Brissett and Upton Stout forcing an Elijah Higgins fumble at the goal line, Robert Saleh's unit did surrender a season-high 488 total yards.
The vast majority of those came through the air, as Brissett, who didn't take a single sack, by the way, threw a ridiculous 57 passes, ultimately completing an NFL-record 47 of them for 452 yards with two touchdowns. Arizona only gained 36 yards on the ground, but it's certainly worth noting that Bam Knight had a 60-yard touchdown run called back due to a holding penalty. So, things could've been even worse. It wasn't a bad performance by any stretch of the imagination, but let's not pretend the Cardinals didn't expose some holes, just as the Rams did a week earlier.
Thankfully for Kyle Shanahan, his offense was firing on all cylinders and was efficient as it's been all season, posting a season-high 41 points despite running just 52 total plays and committing no turnovers for the first time since Week 5.
49ers offense was in complete control in San Francisco's Week 11 win over Cardinals
The big story surrounding San Francisco, of course, was the return of Brock Purdy, who was back in action for the first time since Week 4 and earned a season-high 133.5 passer rating after completing 19 of 26 passes (73.1%) for an even 200 yards with three touchdowns—two to George Kittle and one to Christian McCaffrey—and zero interceptions. Kittle led the Niners with six catches for 67 yards, while Jauan Jennings went for 54 yards on four grabs, with McCaffrey amassing 40 yards on five receptions.
Ricky Pearsall finally made his return as well, but was used as more of a decoy, getting just one target that resulted in an incompletion. Fantasy football managers may not like his stat line, but just seeing him back on the field is great news, and he'll undoubtedly get his catches in the upcoming weeks.
McCaffrey had nowhere near his biggest rushing day of the season in terms of yardage, but did have his most efficient day of the year on the ground, gaining 81 yards on just 13 carries, thus earning a season-high 6.2 yards per carry. With two rushing touchdowns, CMC extended his NFL record of games with at least one rushing score and one receiving score to 17.
If the 49ers continue to get offensive performances like they one they had on Sunday, it should be good enough to carry the defense for at least the next few weeks, as San Francisco's next three opponents are the Carolina Panthers, the Cleveland Browns, and the Tennessee Titans, none of whom have overly imposing offensive attacks.
However, over the final three weeks of the season, the Niners will square off with the Indianapolis Colts, the Chicago Bears, and the Seattle Seahawks, who bring much more firepower. So, Saleh will certainly need to get his unit in order before then if San Francisco wants to stay competitive in these matchups, all of which could be critical to the the 49ers' postseason hopes.