Cohn: Cardinals got 'Singletaried'

<p>SAN FRANCISCO </p><p>The 49ers can beat the Arizona Cardinals. The 49ers beat the Cardinals in Arizona and then they beat the Cardinals in San Francisco. And they can beat them anywhere, any day of the week. This is a peculiar and funny fact because the Cardinals are better than the 49ers.</p><p>Bring these teams through an NFL season — it’s what’s happening right now — and the Cardinals will have a superior record. The Cardinals will win the division and the Niners won’t. But the Niners can beat the Cardinals when they play each other. If they played all 16 games head-to-head, the 49ers would be the playoff team.</p><p>You know this is true even though the Cardinals have the better quarterback. Kurt Warner will go into the Hall of Fame but it’s not clear Alex Smith will be the long-term 49ers quarterback. He’s shown signs of improving, but he was erratic Monday night and at one time Gary Plummer was complaining about him on the radio. Warner has proved he can win a game for his team. Smith hasn’t proved that yet.</p><p>The Cardinals have the better receivers. It’s not even a discussion — just think Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin. And all in all, the Cardinals have a dynamic offense and the 49ers don’t.</p><p>Defensively the teams are pretty even, middle of the pack, but the Niners lost to the Vikings and the Cardinals beat the Vikings, and there is no reason in the world for the 49ers to dominate the Cardinals. But they do.</p><p>There are reasons. The first reason will sound like voodoo but it isn’t. Some teams simply can defeat other teams, regardless of relative quality. The Niners clearly have the Cardinals’ number — or however you want to phrase it.</p><p>Now I come to a more rational explanation. Before I do, I want to discount the Cardinals-lack-of-interest theory, which you may hear on talk radio. This theory goes like this. The Cardinals had a letdown because last week they beat Minnesota and they took the 49ers lightly or disrespected them or overate at the pregame meal. To which we say: Baloney.</p><p>The Cardinals had every incentive to beat the 49ers. If they won they would have clinched the division with three games to go — a pretty cushy way to end the season. They could have rested a bunch of players. And they would have experienced the pleasure of clinching against a division rival in that rival’s house.</p><p>But the 49ers won because they are tougher than Arizona. Not better. Tougher. In football, tough is good — it cancels out a million shortcomings. There’s another way to say the Niners are tougher than the Cardinals. Mike Singletary coaches them. Singletary is an advocate of hitting the other guys in the chops, of getting in a hit every possible time. In real life, he seems like a man of peace. In football, he is a terrorist. </p><p>“Going into this game, we talked about playing true to our identity,” Singletary said, “and the physicality and mentally tough and (being) disciplined and those things. I think our guys were hungry and wanted to go out and, in front of a national audience, really show what they’re capable of doing.”</p><p>His defense certainly showed what it’s capable of. It dominated the Arizona offense. Actually it destroyed and terrorized it and sacked Warner so often, he seemed disoriented. The 49ers’ defense imposed its will on the Cardinals. There’s a verb to describe what it did. The 49ers “Singletaried” the Cardinals. They played in the image of their coach, played how the coach played and practiced what he preached. </p><p>And it worked. It worked even though the 49ers were sloppy on offense and Smith threw a pick late in the fourth quarter that led to an Arizona touchdown and Smith had a bunch of passes knocked down at the line of scrimmage — what’s up with that? — and the 49ers seemed on the verge of fading and giving in.</p><p>But Dashon Goldson forced a fumble early in the fourth quarter — his second forced fumble, the Cardinals’ sixth of seven turnovers — and the 49ers converted that into a touchdown, the killer touchdown.</p><p>“When it comes down to it, I think we’re tougher than them,” Vernon Davis said afterward.</p><p>He was right. The 49ers are tougher than the Cardinals. Against certain teams, toughness is the deciding factor. If it worked against every team, the Niners would be going to the playoffs.</p><p>For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at blog.pressdemocrat.com/cohn. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.</p>