Cardinals (8-4) at 49ers (5-7)
Monday, 8:30 p.m.
Line: Cardinals by 3
For Ken Whisenhunt, the second time is a charm. He measures his players’ mettle by how well they handle their second meeting with an opponent. His Cardinals lost to the Vikings, 35-14, last season. Sunday night, against a much better Vikings team, they played so well that they drew praise from the highest echelons. “They played like the team that was in the Super Bowl last year,” Brett Favre said after the Cardinals won, 30-17.
The Cardinals now face a second meeting with the 49ers team that beat them in Week 1. It was the Cardinals’ only divisional loss in the past two seasons, and it had major repercussions: had they won, the Cardinals would already have clinched the N.F.C. West. It was an oddly awful game — there were 16 punts, the 49ers averaged 0.8 yards per rush, and the Cardinals committed 12 penalties in the 20-16 loss. The Cardinals could easily have won if they played half as well as they did on Sunday night.
The Niners still play tough-but-sloppy football, combining for 19 punts with the Seahawks last week, but the Cardinals have moved on. The Cardinals face the Lions and Rams in the next three weeks; the soft schedule and head-to-head win over the Vikings gives them a good chance of earning a first-round bye. It all starts with a win over the Niners, one that will prove that the Cardinals cannot be fooled twice.
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