by Zack Cimini
Notjustagame.com

It was a crazy game but it ended with a Cardinals 16-13 victory. The key to winning going into the game was limiting the 49ers offense, and that was exactly what the Cardinals did.

The defense contained Terrell Owens to just over 50 yards receiving, and the 49ers leading rusher was Jeff Garcia. When you do that to the 49ers offense there is a good chance that you are going to win.

One of the main reasons the 49ers struggled on offense is because Jeff Garcia was out of the lineup for three series, and even when he got back the 49ers offense wasn?t in sync. There lone touchdown when he came back was a fluke fumble, that was scooped up by one of their offensive lineman for a touchdown.

On the offensive side of the football the Cardinals did just enough to win. Jeff Blake played solid and for the first time in awhile threw no interceptions. His stats have a tendency to be either over 300 yards passing or minimal. This week it was less than 100, but the Cardinals made it a strong point that they were going to run the football this week.

Marcel Shipp had a career high in yards (165) and carries (35) and will challenge Emmitt Smith for his job back. For that many carries he did a very solid job protecting the football.

One thing the Cardinals don?t want to have to do is kick six field goals a game. Their offense needs to do a better job inside the 30 yard line, and try to put up touchdowns. If they would have lost this week, that would have been the reason.

At 2-5 now the Cardinals and head coach Dave McGinnis are going to just take it one week at a time. This week they?ll be facing a young talented Bengals team that is on a roll. The Cardinals will need to keep the Bengals offense off the field, so the game plan will have to be executed the same. The defense will also need to concentrate on containing Chad Johnson, who has tore up every defense so far this season.