The San Francisco 49ers lost another tough one Thursday night, dropping a 33-21 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. We saw a ridiculous amount of special teams work, thanks to a combined 16 punts between the two teams. It is worth noting, they combined for nine punts in the first quarter-and-a-half, so things settled down a little bit after that. But it was an ugly one in that regard.
Glenn Dorsey was an unexpected inactive. He was downgraded from full to limited on Wednesday, so I suppose it is not entirely shocking, but it was still felt on defense. Taylor Hart was active for the first time since joining the 49ers, and Tony Jerod-Eddie was active after a couple healthy scratches. I don’t think a healthy Dorsey would have completely flipped the run defense, but it would have been a better option.
The big surprise was that Joshua Garnett got his first guard snaps of the season. He replaced Andrew Tiller at right guard in the fourth quarter. He came on in the 49ers first offensive series after the Cardinals kicked a field goal to take a 24-14 lead. Garnett was in on the 49ers final three drives, which included a a punt (3 plays, 3 yards), a touchdown (12 plays, 76 yards), and a safety (2 plays, -1 yard). I’ll take a look at his tape in the next few days and we’ll see how he did. The offensive line struggled much of the night, but to be perfectly honest, after the Cardinals took a 31-17, I started to zone out.
Chris Davis once again saw little defensive playing time. He had two defensive snaps, and ten special teams snaps. Rashard Robinson and Tramaine Brock started at cornerback. Safety Jaquiski Tartt was the first defensive back off the bench (42 of 68 snaps), while cornerback Keith Reaser was the second defensive back off the bench (15 of 68 snaps).
It is interesting to note that Jeremy Kerley led the wide receivers in snaps, playing all 78 offensive snaps. He has been the third receiver thus far, finishing below Torrey Smith and Quinton Patton each week in terms of snaps. That changed this week
Here’s the full snap count. You can also view the gamebook PDF here.
| Player | Offense | Defense | ST |
| Jeremy Kerley | 78 | 9 | |
| Joe Staley | 78 | 4 | |
| Zane Beadles | 78 | 4 | |
| Trenton Brown | 78 | 3 | |
| Blaine Gabbert | 78 | ||
| Daniel Kilgore | 78 | ||
| Torrey Smith | 73 | ||
| Quinton Patton | 71 | 13 | |
| Carlos Hyde | 64 | ||
| Garrett Celek | 61 | 16 | |
| Andrew Tiller | 60 | 4 | |
| Joshua Garnett | 18 | 4 | |
| Blake Bell | 14 | 19 | |
| Shaun Draughn | 9 | 13 | |
| Rod Streater | 9 | 5 | |
| Mike Davis | 6 | 6 | |
| Aaron Burbridge | 5 | 26 | |
| Nick Bellore | 68 | 15 | |
| Rashard Robinson | 68 | 9 | |
| Eric Reid | 68 | 6 | |
| Antoine Bethea | 68 | ||
| Tramaine Brock | 65 | ||
| Arik Armstead | 62 | 1 | |
| Michael Wilhoite | 54 | 8 | |
| Jaquiski Tartt | 42 | 19 | |
| Quinton Dial | 40 | 11 | |
| Aaron Lynch | 35 | 7 | |
| Eli Harold | 32 | ||
| Mike Purcell | 29 | 17 | |
| Ahmad Brooks | 28 | 6 | |
| Ronald Blair | 25 | ||
| Taylor Hart | 20 | 5 | |
| Keith Reaser | 15 | 20 | |
| Gerald Hodges | 10 | 14 | |
| Tank Carradine | 9 | 1 | |
| Tony Jerod-Eddie | 6 | 6 | |
| Chris Davis | 2 | 10 | |
| Dontae Johnson | 1 | 32 | |
| Shayne Skov | 32 | ||
| Marcus Cromartie | 21 | ||
| Kyle Nelson | 11 | ||
| Bradley Pinion | 11 | ||
| Phil Dawson | 9 | ||
| Je'Ron Hamm | 6 |