GLENDALE, Ariz. – Kyle Shanahan’s proud words got drowned out postgame by the joyous music blaring from the victorious 49ers’ locker room.
It was Eddy Grant’s 1982 hit “Electric Avenue.” It makes for a great go-to song in karaoke, and it works as a metaphor for Sunday’s 41-22 rout of the Cardinals.
The 49ers’ full-staff offense was electric. It was loud on the scoreboard. And it was rocking in the daytime.
If this team is going to rock down to … a Lombardi Trophy dash, they’ll have to constantly take their offense higher to offset their patchwork defense’s liabilities.
The 49ers (7-4) also need to string together back-to-back wins for the first time since their 3-0 start, and they’ll try doing that Monday night when they host the upstart Carolina Panthers (6-5).
A 4-1 record in NFC West action and 7-2 in NFC games should help their playoff fate. Only one NFC team has more wins: the rival Rams (8-2) down in L.A. and atop the West.
“We know November is when teams start to come alive,” safety Malik Mustapha said. “We didn’t kick it off the way we wanted to (in last Sunday’s 42-26 to the Rams). We have all the tools and all the players that we need to make something special out of this season.”
Advice: Just get to the dance, regardless of the seeding’s beauty. Look, the Rams can get hurt in the next two months, the Eagles are nuts, and the NFC North/South is a weekly carnival.
Here are 10 things that caught my eye (and Eddy Grant-loving ears) in this year’s visit to State Farm Stadium, where it’s always a privilege to pay tribute to the Pat Tillman Memorial:
1. BROCK’S BIG TOE
Brock Purdy put on his blue jeans, pulled a white sock over his right foot’s ever-circumspect big toe, slipped into his cowboy boots then got on with his life as the 49ers’ superstar quarterback as if everything is back to normal, after a six-game hiatus to heal that toe.
“It feels great now, and on to the next one,” Purdy said after his 200-yard, three-touchdown return about an hour west of his Queen Creek hometown.
He got sacked once, and his only official carry was a 7-yard loss he took after aborting a backfield pitch to a wrong-way-running Brian Robinson.
“No, I didn’t even think about (the toe) honestly in the game or anything,” said Purdy, noting he got tested his toe out enough at practice the past few weeks. “… I felt great. Throughout the game I was able to do everything: scramble, keepers, rollouts, step up in the pocket. I played quarterback.”
2. QB CONTROVERSY? HAHAHAHA
Christian McCaffrey called it “vintage Brock,” as best reflected by the 3:0 touchdown-to-interception ratio. “To miss games like that is really hard,” McCaffrey said. “To come back in the middle of a year, I think people just watch and are like, ‘Oh, he had a good game, whatever.’ But to be out that long and to come in and do what he did today is extremely impressive.”
“Coming back to Arizona, as soon as we touched down, you could tell it from his demeanor: Brock Purdy is back,” wide receiver Jauan Jennings said.
“I’m sure he was happy but he was the same guy,” left tackle Trent Williams said. “The (season-high) points got put up so he had to be doing something right.”
3. FIRST POINTS, EVENTUALLY
This same stadium is where the 49ers’ last opened a game with a kickoff return for a touchdown, by Alan Rossum on a 104-yard effort in a 2008 loss to the Cardinals. Skyy Moore went 98 yards then 1-yard short of scoring the 49ers’ first touchdown, and he left that task for McCaffrey on the offense’s first snap.
Said Williams: “That’s a first for me out of 15 years (in the NFL). Skyy jumped us off, man. He’s a difference maker.”
Added Purdy: “When (Moore) got caught at the 1, we were like, ‘Dang it.’ We wanted it for him. But that set the tone for the whole game, really.”
Moore had a schemed-up lane compliments of blocks from Jake Tonges and Luke Gifford, though special teams coordinator Brant Boyer said: “They all did a hell of a job blocking that up.”
Moore’s view of the 49ers’ longest kick return since Ted Ginn’s 102-yard score in 2011: “We schemed them up and got it right. It came down to who was faster and I feel I ran out of gas. Next time I’m going to get one less scoop of ice cream on Saturday and we’ll get that to the crib.”
4. INJURY ALERTS
The 49ers head home with two significant injury concerns: linebacker Tatum Bethune (right ankle) and kicker Eddy Pineiro (right hamstring).
Bethune confirmed he’ll have an MRI Monday. He felt someone fall on his foot during a second-quarter tackle, then considered a second-half return. “I was trying to do my best to go back out there,” Bethune. “I was trying to find a way. It was calming down a little but there were certain movements.”
Pineiro had a lot of movements, up until his final point-after kick. The 49ers surely must sign a possible fill-in this week; don’t dare mention Jake Moody 2.0 off the Bears’ practice squad.
Pineiro’s three field goals made him 22-for-22 this season. But he also had a PAT blocked the second straight game, then missed a PAT, then made two. (Anyone notice he spells his first name the same as Eddy Grant?)
Positive health update: Purdy repeatedly said his toe “feels great,” and Ricky Pearsall said the same of his right knee that, like Purdy, kept him out six games. Pearsall’s only catch among three targets went for no gain as Purdy got hurried (and hit) on a third-down throw on the third series.
5. McCATCH TOPS HAT TRICK
Sure, take McCaffrey’s three touchdowns for granted. He does that kind of stuff. The one play that drew a lot of talk postgame wasn’t a score but rather the 15-yard route-and-catch he jumped to snatch against a cornerback, on third-and-15 to set up his and the 49ers’ final touchdown.
McCaffrey said they practiced that route/play twice last week, adding: “The look we had in practice wasn’t man (coverage) vs. their corner. But Brock made a throw that gave me a chance to make a play.”
Said Kyle Shanahan called it a “huge” catch, adding: “We were expecting just a zone coverage, where you’re kind of doing them more on-air, seeing if an underneath guy could get to it. He ended up getting man-to-man on a corner and ran a really good comeback route and made a hell of a catch.”
6. BURFORD’S SPIKE
Spencer Burford was as surprised as anyone that McCaffrey gave him the football to spike after the first 1-yard touchdown run, which McCaffrey scored behind the right-side blocks of Dominick Puni and Colton McKivitz.
Burford said it was his first celebratory spike “in the League” but he had one in college, after a touchdown was scored by Texas-San Antonio teammate and current 49ers’ practice squad Sincere McCormick.
Left tackle Trent Williams’ was unaware postgame of McCaffrey’s generosity, and he joked: “He didn’t give me any ball to spike. No, I never go to the end zone. I go straight off.” That’s what happens when you spend most of your career in Washington and celebrations are short-circuited by defeats.
7. INTERCEPTIONS INC.
Two interceptions, from a defense that had just one in the last 17 games? Yes, but before Deommodore Lenoir’s third-quarter sideline steal, first came Mustapha tracking and capturing Jacoby Brissett’s heave deep in 49ers territory just before halftime.
“It was long overdue,” Mustapha said. “It was deep in the post. I was reading Brissett. I knew that the seams were coming. But when I broke on it, he threw it more to the right than I anticipated. Once I got a jump on it, I was just locating the ball and was able to get a clean catch.”
Kind of clean. Mustapha, unaware at the time, collided with fellow defensive back Renardo Green. Added Mustapha: “That’s why I didn’t get up. I didn’t know it was Renardo. Shoot, he could have got it, too. But it was dope.”
8. UP-AND-DOWN STOUT
Definition of a learn-by-doing rookie season: Upton Stout’s Sunday. On Arizona’s first touchdown drive, he yielded a 34-yard reception while getting flagged for pass interference. A nerve (stinger) injury later made him questionable to return. He returned, and boy did he. Stout created his first career forced fumble on an Elijah Higgines reception at the 1-yard line, and Keion White recovered.
The 49ers were up 35-10 but what a confidence boost for him and a learn-by-doing defense. “Stout had an unbelievable play, ripping that ball out,” Shanahan said.
9. KITTLE’S COMPANY
Purdy and George Kittle connected for two touchdown receptions, raising their all-time total to 23, seven shy of Alex Smith and Vernon Davis for the 49ers’ most among a quarterback and tight end combination.
Those two scores boosted Kittle’s career totals to 50 touchdowns, putting him alongside Jerry Rice and Terrell Owens as the only 49ers with that many as well as 500-plus receptions.
“He’s been here since I’ve been here, so it’s been an awesome nine years with him. He’s a Hall of Fame tight end,” Shanahan said.
10. WILDEST STAT
This is a multiple-choice test so please choose at your pleasure. Which stat is most alarming:
a) Jacoby Brissett, the Cardinals’ current successor to Kyler Murray, set a single-game NFL record with 47 completions (on 57 throws with the two interceptions and two touchdowns for 452 yards).
b) Most penalties since 1936: the Cardinals’ 17, including a holding call that nullified a fourth-and-1, 60-yard touchdown run. In contrast, the 49ers got penalized once, and it was a doozy: Renardo Green’s retaliatory tussle with Trey McBride after a third-down stop that kept alive an Arizona field-goal drive.
c) Arizona outgained the 49ers 488 net yards to 281 and possessed the ball 8 ½ minutes longer.
d) A 3:0 touchdown-to-interception ratio for Brock Purdy, and a plus-three turnover ratio for the Niners.
e) All of the above, as defined by Mustapha: “Everybody bought in, everyone stepped up to the occasion and everyone played sound football.”