by Zack Cimini

The San Francisco 49ers are a red hot undefeated team?? against the Arizona Cardinals. For the second time this season the 49ers and Cardinals played completely different halves, that led to two overtime wins for the 49ers. Earlier in the year, the Cardinals were up big and let the 49ers come away with their first win. Sunday, Arizona almost pulled off an incredible comeback of 25 points, but fell just short in overtime and lost 31-28.

Josh McCown didn?t throw any touchdowns, but displayed a solid arm for the first time this season. He was able to hit all of his receivers, which led to Anquan Boldin, Bryant Johnson, and Larry Fitzgerald getting involved. It?s about time, because these three receivers form one of the best trio?s in the league. You have to figure next year?s offense will be similar to what the Raiders had a few years ago, when Tim Brown, Jerry Rice, and Jerry Porter all had effective years.

Dennis Green knows that the Cardinals current four game losing streak, and fall out of the wild card playoff race is all on his shoulders. The Cardinals are a 4-9 team, that could of easily won two games against the 49ers and pulled out another one or two games if McCown would have been playing. Even though Green is a veteran coach, you always learn, mature, and evolve as a coach.

McCown should be the starter for the final three games, and maybe he can persuade Green to give him enough trust for the next season. The heart and showmanship the Cardinals displayed Sunday truly shows that this team isn?t going to give up on any game no matter the circumstances. This would have been the perfect game to see if the Cardinals are a team that rides together, or just folds. The 49ers were a 1-11 team, and in the past a former Cardinals team would have kept letting the score pile up.

Still in all this developmental year for the Cardinals was disappointing. Seattle and St. Louis opened the door for wide open for the Cardinals, but the cracks caved in abruptly with the Cardinals 4-9 record. The only way they can get in is if Seattle loses their remaining three games, and if St. Louis only wins one of their final three games. That would put the division at a three way tie at 7-9, which would give the Cardinals the division title.

That scenario is definitely wishful thinking, and won?t happen unless Santa is really looking at bearing a special gift for the Cardinals.