49ers vs Cardinals Could Come Down to the Art of Deception

The art of deception could very well be the difference in Week 3's battle between the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers.

In an ideal world, the use of play-action is something offenses use often to keep their opponents honest. The execution of a good play-action marries the run and pass game, making every play look similar regardless of its intention.

This helps keep an aggressive defense at bay while also drawing defenders into the box. If every beginning of a pass play mirrors the setup of a run, there's more for a defense to evaluate and less time to react.

For the offense running it, they're more efficient in the passing game while also trying to stretch heavy zone concepts defenses typically run.

Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur knows it all too well. His mentor in 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan does too — though the two offensive minds are on separate ends of the spectrum to begin 2026.

49ers vs Cardinals Could Come Down to Play-Action Play

The 49ers are second in play-action usage through the first two weeks of the season at 34.4%. They're first in under center rate too, which makes things easier to disguise.

"Just like anyone from a defense perspective, you try to get your tells, run/pass. Some teams have them. Some teams don't. Not going to say if the Niners have them, because when you hang your hat on that too much, sometimes you can get burned too," LaFleur told reporters on San Francisco's play-action usage.

"But play your keys. Play fundamentally sound when the ball's thrown over the middle. Go contest it when it's checked down. Rally to the ball. They're going to get their completions. How can you eliminate kind of those leaky yards and the YAC that they've always been really good at?"

San Francisco also runs the highest multi-RB play rate in the league at 48.6%. More running backs on the field makes it more likely for a defense to commit to the run, and it certainly helps when you've got a Christian McCaffrey in the backfield to draw linebackers in.

Defensively, the Cardinals run hefty base personnel (No. 2 in the NFL) — which places less defensive backs on the field and more front seven prowess. The 49ers are in a similar boat in terms of keeping the box loaded, which will place a higher emphasis for both teams to execute the play-action well.

In a perfect world, offenses remain balanced through a game. Yet that can only work if they're running the ball effectively, which is something the Cardinals haven't done.

In Arizona, the Cardinals rank second to last in play-action usage at 17.1%. It's hard to get defenses to bite when they're confident in stopping the run.

All summer, we heard players talk about wanting to create confusion for defenses running several different plays out of the same exact look. The Cardinals called it being multiple, but they haven't been able to do it so far.

"It's a good question. We're two weeks in. You think about the Chargers, not as much [play-action]. Seattle, we actually had quite a bit, but we just didn't have a lot of plays. Percentage-wise in the Seattle game, I think we called six out of the 40 whatever plays we had, which is a decent amount," LaFleur added.

"And then if I go even further, in terms of what it looks like in Week 3, now I'm telling Rod and Kyle [Shanahan] and all those guys over there. So we might have zero. We might have 40. I don't know."

Divisional battles always tend to be tough thanks to familiarity. LaFleur, though a first-year coach in Arizona, has spent several years under Shanahan and recently game-planned against the 49ers as the Los Angeles Rams' coordinator the last two seasons. And for what it's worth, the two most recent trips to San Francisco have been one-point games between the 49ers and Cardinals.

Schematics matter. Players matter. And most importantly, execution matters. Whoever's able to get a grasp early in the action should set themselves up for success, especially in terms of play-action.

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