With the Cardinals having an opportunity to close out the NFC West crown with a win at Candlestick, the hometown 49ers came out with guns blazing. Led by the outstanding efforts of Ahmad Brooks (3 sacks, 2 forced fumbles), Dashon Goldson (5 tackles, 2 ffs, 1 interception) and Patrick Willis (9 tackles, 1 sack, 1 ff), San Francisco forced 7 turnovers (5 out of 7 forced fumbles recovered, 2 interceptions), including 5 in the first half alone, and hit Kurt Warner hard and often. Justin Smith finished without a sack, but knocked around and hurried Warner as well as recovered a Brooks ff. Mark Roman was Johnny on the spot as well, with 2 recoveries of his own. Dre' Bly had a fumble recovery touchdown called down near the Arizona goalline, which led to the first touchdown of the day, Alex Smith to Vernon Davis.

Smith was up and down throughout the night with erratic throwing and poor accuracy including two interceptions (one off an amazing play by Darnell Dockett, the other was simply a terrible forced pass while Smith stared down his receiver that if not for tripping over himself, would have been a touchdown for Adrian Wilson). However, at least Smith did not look completely lost out there like his usual history. Michael Crabtree also made an amazing adjustment to a slightly inaccurate downfield throw by Smith, snatching the ball out of the air and taking it to the house for a TD. The offense was run through Frank Gore, who finally got the carries he needed to produce, as he and the 49ers offensive line took it to the Cardinals' defense, 167 yards on 25 carries and a game finishing touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter. David Baas was particularly dominant, as he came around on several pull runs and completely opened up several nice runs for Gore.

The Niners, at 6-7, have a very low chance to make the playoffs as the 6th seed but the way they beat up on Arizona after the Cards did the same to the Vikings and the 49ers' defense became a sieve versus Seattle gives the fans some hope.