Keys to victory for 49ers in season opener

By Jeff Dickinson  |   Friday, September 05, 2008  |  Comments( 13 )

San Francisco 49ers
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The J.T. O’Sullivan era officially kicks off in San Francisco on Sunday afternoon when the 49ers host NFC West rival Arizona. It'll obviously be interesting to see how how O’Sullivan will respond to being a starting quarterback in the NFL for the first time and how Mike Martz’s new offense will fare.

Getting off to a good start is important for every team the first week of the season, but it is even more key in a divisional game. Those can go a long way in determining tiebreak scenarios if teams finish with identical records at the end of the season.

While nobody knows how O’Sullivan and the Martz-led offense will perform for the 49ers in the season opener, there are some things which are not a mystery. Here are some of the keys to victory for the 49ers against Arizona:

1. Establish a running game early – Frank Gore is one of the best backs in the NFL, but if he doesn’t have some holes in which to run through, it will be a long day for the 49ers and O’Sullivan. The Cardinals are probably going to load the box with defenders and dare the 49ers to try to beat them with O’Sullivan’s arm, so the offensive line is going to have to do its job and give Gore some running room. If the 49ers can allow O’Sullivan to ease into the game and not have to do too much early, it will take a lot of pressure off the inexperienced quarterback.

2. The defensive backs are going to have to be aggressive – It’s pretty safe to say that San Francisco won’t face a more talented receiving duo than Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin this season. Fitzgerald had 100 receptions for 1,409 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, while Boldin caught 71 balls for 853 yards and nine scores (despite missing significant time thanks to injury). In order for the 49ers to not have to play catchup all day, their defensive backs will have to disrupt the timing of the Arizona routes. Safeties Michael Lewis and Mark Roman will need to help out in covering Fitzgerald and Boldin.

3. Pressure Kurt Warner – He may be at the tail end of his career, but Warner -- who threw for 3,400-plus yards and 27 TDs in 2007 -- can still sling the ball if given time. Warner doesn’t move well at all, and if defensive ends Justin Smith and Isaac Sopoaga can get some pressure on him, it will help the 49ers minimize the chances of long pass plays. Moreover, Warner led the league last season with 12 fumbles. And though Arizona running back Edgerrin James had over 1,000 yards on the ground in '07, the Cardinals were 29th in the league in rushing yards per game with 90. Daring the Cardinals to run is the best bet for San Francisco’s defense.

4. O’Sullivan is going to have to be wary of Arizona’s defensive backs – They are arguably two of the best DBs in the NFL, yet most people have probably never heard of them. But make no mistake, Arizona’s Antrel Rolle and Roderick Hood can cause major headaches for quarterbacks, especially untested ones like O’Sullivan. Rolle, a safety, had five interceptions in 2007 and returned three of those for touchdowns. Likewise, cornerback Hood also had five picks last year; he ran back two for scores. The moral of the story is that if O’Sullivan throws an errant pass in the direction of Rolle or Hood, he just might see six points go up on the scoreboard.
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About Jeff Dickinson

I have been writing and editing professionally for 18 years. I spent the first three years of my career as a sportswriter for a daily newspaper in Alabama and got to cover sports and get paid for it! It was great until I got married and then it wasn't too much fun being away from my wife every...
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