Arizona Cardinals' Top Offensive Performers vs 49ers
The Arizona Cardinals fell to the San Francisco 49ers in 35-16 fashion, and despite scoring under 20 points, the team's offense managed to impress.
Here's the team's top offensive performers from Week 4:
1: WR Michael Wilson
Rookie WR Michael Wilson had, by most metrics, the breakout game Cardinals fans had been hoping for. After picking up 56 and 86 yards, including a massive 69-yard gain to help defeat Dallas, he notched another solid stat line against San Francisco.
He cut through the 49ers secondary for 76 yards on 7 receptions. Wilson averaged 10.9 yards per reception, and picked up both his first and second career touchdown.
Wilson was a major part of the Cardinals' momentum shift, hauling in a 33 yard dime from Josh Dobbs, as well as the 16-yard score to cap off the drive for Arizona's first touchdown of the game going into the half.
Wilson later ran a tight route in the red zone, making a catch in between two 49ers to bring Arizona within 5 points of the NFC powerhouse Niners. Wilson, a 3rd-round rookie out of Stanford, brings excellent size, physicality and agility to a Cardinals roster in that is in dire need of a dominant WR1. Wilson's performance today was an encouraging peek into a potential future star receiver in Arizona, especially against a lockdown SF defense.
2: QB Josh Dobbs
For the third week in a row, QB Josh Dobbs executed well and did his part to keep the Cardinals in the game despite being overmatched. Dobbs completed 28 of his 41 passes for 265 yards and 2 TDs. He also made some plays with his legs, scrambling for 48 yards on 12 carries. In fact, Dobbs likely would have collected more yards and another touchdown if two back-to-back well-thrown balls were not dropped by TE Zach Ertz and WR Zach Pascal to end the game, albeit in garbage time.
After week one, most fans were ready to write off Joshua Dobbs, but in general, the journeyman QB has looked solid since then, completing multiple deep balls to his receivers and keeping the ball out of harm's way. He has yet to throw an interception on the season, and has not committed a turnover since week one.
Dobbs dropped a nice 33-yard pass to Michael Wilson to get the Cardinals rolling for their first TD drive, as well as a 41-yard toss to Hollywood Brown on the following drive. But that pass wasn't even the best part of said drive, as Dobbs was able to engineer (get it?) a touchdown after the Cards were backed up on their own 1 yard line. Dobbs led a 13-play, 87-yard drive, and an 11-play, 99-yard drive back to back.
Overall, Dobbs did everything you'd want from a backup QB--he made nice throws all day and ultimately gave Arizona a chance to stay in the game while avoiding negative plays.
Head Coach Jonathan Gannon noted the importance of Dobbs' ability to not create turnovers in a press conference postgame:
3: WR Hollywood Brown
Marquise "Hollywood" Brown has quietly been an x-factor in Arizona's offense this season. Although not putting up ridiculous numbers, he's been a crucial part of the Cardinals offense in every single game, repeatedly bringing in catches when they're needed the most, and being a reliable target for Josh Dobbs.
Brown, a week after catching a TD to help the Cardinals take down the Cowboys, hauled in seven receptions, falling just shy of the 100-yard mark, including breaking wide open for a 41-yard reception midway through the 3rd quarter.
The pass game will likely run through Hollywood going forward, especially once Kyler Murray makes his return. Brown's ability to come up big when he's needed and use his speed and agility to find big holes in the secondary cannot be understated.
Despite the loss, the Arizona Cardinals offense continues to show up and put pressure on opposing teams, and although the score wasn't pretty, these players showed up in a big way today and continue to help put the tanking speculation to rest.
