49ers-Cardinals final score: Larry Fitzgerald strikes again to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

Three straight weeks, three straight heartbreakers — and this was the worst of the three. The San Francisco 49ers lost 18-15 in overtime to the Arizona Cardinals on a touchdown catch by Larry Fitzgerald

Neither team could find the end zone through regulation, but the 49ers defense collapsed in a hurry at the end of overtime. Robbie Gould seemed to have the game won for the 49ers with a field goal with just over two minutes left. Instead, Carson Palmer found the 49ers nemesis at the highest point, and there was nothing San Francisco could do about it.

Robbie Gould was set to get player of the game honors after converting five field goals. Instead, the 49ers secondary gets the goat award for their consistent struggles throughout the game. The offense was a mess, but the Cardinals rolled against the 49ers secondary to win this one.

The 49ers pass rush deserves some credit for a solid day in the loss. After three weeks of struggling to sack quarterbacks, they had six sacks of Carson Palmer. The Cardinals offensive line has been abysmal, but the 49ers deserve credit for taking advantage of it. Their sack total included the first of Solomon Thomas’ career, the first of DeForest Buckner’s second season, and the 100th and 101st of Elvis Dumervil’s career. The 49ers got a lot of pressure, and once they started closing the deal, the sacks came a little more readily. The big key was several third down sacks that resulted in punts or field goals.

Neither team could get much of anything going on offense until the Cardinals game-winning touchdown. You could blame it on a host of things. Both offensive lines had their struggles, and both pass rushes took advantage of it. On the 49ers side of things, Brian Hoyer’s accuracy and pocket presence was fairly atrocious too often. He did make some quality plays at times, but they were far and few between. Of course, he also did not get much help from his receivers, who had some bad drops in key situations. But overall, it was atrocious offense.

Injury report

Wide receiver Marquise Goodwin left the game in the first quarter with a head and eye injury. He was initially ruled questionable to return, but that was changed to out when the team came out to start the third quarter.

The team also ruled out defensive back Adrian Colbert with a hamstring injury to open the third quarter.

Linebacker Dekoda Watson was ruled out in the fourth quarter with a groin injury.

Up next

The 49ers are off to the middle game of their three-game road trip, facing the Indianapolis Colts in Week 5. The Colts are 1-2 as they get ready to face the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday Night Football. This marks the 49ers first matchup against Frank Gore since he departed in free agency. This will be a fun little reunion game, even if most of Gore’s former teammates are gone.