The Cardinals didn’t light up the scoreboard against the 49ers on Sunday, but they didn’t need to in order to win for the fifth straight week.
While offensive fireworks were in short supply, the Cardinals defense came up big on several occasions. They stopped the 49ers on four of their five attempts to convert fourth downs, which loomed large in a 17-10 win. Defensive lineman Zach Allen made one of those stops by stuffing Kyle Juszczyk and he also recorded a sack of Trey Lance that helped keep the team undefeated.
After it was over, Allen said that he thought it was good for the Cardinals to show they can win a game like that.
“I think it was good for us to kinda prove that we could win a gritty game like that,” Allen said, via ArizonaSports.com. “The only real true test that we really had was probably that Minnesota game and I think we kinda lucked out with the missed kick. We’ll take it, but to prove that we can win a close game like that the way we did is definitely good.”
The 49ers outgained the Cardinals over the course of Sunday’s game, but yardage doesn’t equal points and it didn’t equal a win on a day when the Cardinals showed they can succeed when things don’t fall into place on the offensive side of the ball.