Cardinals provide the 49ers with a welcome reminder nothing is given in the NFL

After their Thursday Night Football cruise against the Giants, basically everyone will have the 49ers penciled in for a routine win over the Cardinals next week. On Sunday, Arizona delivered a performance that reminded the 49ers they cannot afford to take that as a given. Arizona claimed its first win of the 2023 season in […]

Nicholas McGee

Sep 24, 2023 7:46 PM EDT

Sep 24, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, United States; Arizona Cardinals running back James Conner (6) gesture to the crowd full of Dallas Cowboys fans at State Farm Stadium. Credit: Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

Arizona claimed its first win of the 2023 season in Week 3, stunning a Cowboys team that had won its first two games by a combined 60 points.

The Cardinals surged to a 15-3 lead and never allowed the Cowboys to cut it to fewer than five points as they prevailed 28-16.

San Francisco brushed aside Arizona in both meetings last season and, given the Cardinals organization's apparent commitment to tanking in 2023, was always going to be anticipated to do so again.

That will not change on account of the Cardinals' defeat of Dallas, with San Francisco opening as 14-point favorites, However, Arizona's success in capitalizing on a sloppy Dallas performance will likely make it even easier for 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan to sell his message to his undefeated team.

Having had the weekend off to watch the rest of the league go at it, the 49ers will know they cannot afford to look past their game with the Cardinals at Levi's Stadium, which precedes a primetime meeting with the Cowboys in Week 5.

Though most of the Cardinals' offseason moves have been emblematic of a teardown, their win over Dallas demonstrated that they do still have talent and that their offense, which boasts the likes of Marquise Brown, Rondale Moore and Zach Ertz, can be a dangerous one with Joshua Dobbs providing competent play at quarterback.

San Francisco's meeting with Dallas could be a crucial one in a potential fight for the number one seed in the NFC, but the 49ers can't afford to suffer a damaging blow ahead of that blockbuster meeting by taking the Cardinals lightly. Dallas' shocking loss should help the Niners guard against some costly complacency.