Last Updated on December 29, 2010 10:44 pm by Anthony Rome
Cardinals vs. 49ers Preview
San Francisco, CA (AP) – While the NFC West winner will be decided Sunday night, the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers will play a few hours earlier to decide which team will finish in the basement of the NFL’s weakest division.
The 49ers have already got a head start on putting their disastrous season behind them.
According to latest NFL odds, oddsmakers from online sports book SBGGLOBAL.com have made the 49ers 6-point spread favorites for Sunday’s game against the Cardinals. Current NFL Public Betting Information shows that 62% of more than 2,857 bets for this game have been placed on the Cardinals +6.
Mike Singletary was fired hours after San Francisco was officially eliminated from playoff contention last week, leaving interim coach Jim Tomsula to lead the 49ers as two of the NFC’s biggest disappointments wrap up their seasons at Candlestick Park.
San Francisco (5-10) was the preseason favorite to win the West after Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner retired, but the division title will be determined when St. Louis visits Seattle on Sunday night.
A Seahawks win would give the NFL its first division winner with a losing record, an indictment of the struggles Arizona (5-10) and San Francisco have experienced. The 49ers wasted no time cleaning house, though, canning Singletary after last Sunday’s 25-17 loss at St. Louis.
Singletary finished his two-plus seasons in San Francisco with an 18-22 record, but he’ll be remembered more for what occurred off the field.
He dropped his pants in the locker room at halftime of a game two years ago, infamously dressed down tight end Vernon Davis in a press conference and spent much of his tenure waffling between quarterbacks – three times switching from Alex Smith to Troy Smith recently.
“Obviously we had expectations of being a playoff-caliber team this year. Whether we were a 7-9 division winner or not didn’t matter to me,” team president and CEO Jed York said. “… I’m not sure when our players are going to be back next season, so I wanted to make sure we didn’t have a coaching turnover, coaching change going into (a potential lockout).”
Tomsula, the team’s defensive line coach since 2007, will get a one-game shot, but the deck may already be stacked against him. Four-time Pro Bowl linebacker Patrick Willis will miss the first game of his NFL career due to a broken right hand.
Rookie Navorro Bowman will start in place of Willis, who had four solo tackles, an assist and a sack in a 27-6 victory at Arizona on Nov. 29.
“He’s a great player. I saw what he did last time he played us,” Cardinals rookie quarterback John Skelton said of Willis. “He’s a talented guy, so that’s a big advantage for us.”
Alex Smith, meanwhile, will be back under center for San Francisco a week after Singletary trotted out Troy Smith in the team’s must-win game at St. Louis.
Tomsula expects Alex Smith – and the rest of his team – to perform, even in an essentially meaningless game.
“We’re going to win. Let me make that clear,” Tomsula said Monday. “That was something we talked about this morning. Jed’s made that very clear. (Vice president of player personnel) Trent Baalke’s made it very clear – very, very crystal clear.”
The Cardinals, meanwhile, at least seem to be making a few small strides. They’re 2-1 with Skelton starting after a 27-26 win over Dallas on Christmas night that featured the rookie’s first TD pass – a 74-yard strike to fellow rookie Andre Roberts.
“We’re finding out a lot about our young players, not so much by design as it is by necessity,” coach Ken Whisenhunt said, referring to injuries to more experienced players. “But it’s been a positive when you think back to the game and you see how many young guys made big plays in that game.”
Skelton still appears to have work to do if he’s going to be Arizona’s quarterback next season. He’s completed just 45.3 percent of his passes in three starts.
“We’re trying to finish this season strong, learn a lot about our football players, and then we’re going to have a lot of things that we have to consider in the offseason because we don’t want to have this type of season again,” Whisenhunt said.
One thing Whisenhunt has going for him is his team’s knack for making big plays. Arizona has 12 return touchdowns this season, one shy of the NFL record set by Seattle in 1998. Its seven fumble returns are already a record.
It could use a non-offensive touchdown against the 49ers. The Cardinals have committed seven turnovers and averaged 10.3 points and 249.0 yards in losing their last three meetings in the series.
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