This was a great day for the Niners in the sense that LA lost to Denver, Seattle lost to the Commandos, and the 49ers made it past the always-troublesome AZ Cardinals.

But as usual, it came with a heavy price.

• Mike Evans went out with what looked like at least a broken rib as he was really struggling to breathe coming off the field.
• Dre Greenlaw suffered a quad injury, but did return to the game.
• Gracen Halton suffered an ankle injury. The extent is not known.
• Trent Williams suffered a stinger and didn’t return to action.
• Deo Lenoir and Renardo Green suffered concussions but both returned.

All in all another day in the EMF zone. Move back to Candlestick point already.

Not sure how long they can sustain this win by losing players approach, but maybe 3 games in a row under the influence of the power station is too much for them.

As far as the game went, I thought Shanny called a great game until the end of the half, and the end of the game. The hook-and-lateral from Evans to Deebo was flat amazing. Deebo still has a pretty good set of wheels to go 80 yards on the pitch, and he ended up with 80 yards receiving and a TD on 0 catches. Evans was great till injured, Kittle had a big big day, and Jordan Watkins showed up on the stat sheet with 2 catches for 60 yards.

The run game was doing fine. But, with the ball and an 11 point lead, and 3 minutes left in the half, Shanny ran the ball effectively to get to the 2 minute warning at our 38. So, instead of mixing runs and short passes to milk the clock and close out the half with points, the Niners throw 3 incomplete passes, burn 15 seconds and give the ball back to AZ.

AZ drives and kicks an FG, cutting it to a one-score game. With 23 seconds left, AZ manages to leave Watkins all alone and Purdy hits him for a 34 yard gain, and just enough for Piniero to kick a 57 yard FG.

And late in the game with the 49ers trying to burn clock up by 2 with 2:08 left, Shanny calls a pass that falls incomplete. 2:03 left. THEN Shanny runs. Amazingly, CMC gets 12 yards on a run that looked to me like Dom Puni carried him and pushed the pile 10 of those 12 yards.

Point being, Shanny gave AZ extra plays and life when he shouldn’t have. I loved the aggressiveness with 23 seconds left before the half, and even the TD to Kittle to seal it. Though I really wanted the 50 yard scramble to count.

And Eddie Piniero has to get his shit together. Those extra point misses turned out to be big.

The defense played well until they simply wore down. TOP was awful yet again with AZ holding the ball 39 to 21 minutes.

And apropos of nothing, that was one of the worst officiated games I’ve ever seen. On both sides. Way too many ticky tacky calls that were huge. Much like the Denver/Rams game, the refs really decided the end of that game with 2 crucial penalties against the Rams late. But hey, Talano Hufanga had himself a Rams reunion with 2 picks, including a pick 6. Stafford now leads the NFL in pick 6s. Hah!