49ers vs Arizona Cardinals Match Player Stats: Purdy and McCaffrey Lead 49ers to Blowout Victory

Struggling to find a reliable breakdown of every key number from the 49ers vs Arizona Cardinals showdown? Box scores scattered across five different sites rarely tell the full story. This 49ers vs Arizona Cardinals match player stats report pulls every passing, rushing, and receiving figure into one place, so you get the complete picture of how San Francisco pulled away in Week 11.

The Lead

The San Francisco 49ers traveled to State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on Sunday, November 16, 2025, and left with a 41-22 win over the Arizona Cardinals in front of 65,032 fans. Brock Purdy made his long-awaited return from injury look effortless, tossing three touchdown passes on just 26 attempts, while Christian McCaffrey turned in a three-touchdown performance of his own, scoring twice on the ground and once through the air. San Francisco improved to 7-4 on the season and swept the Cardinals in their two 2025 meetings.

Arizona’s night told a different story. Jacoby Brissett, filling in for the injured Kyler Murray, set an NFL record with 47 completions on 57 attempts for 452 yards and two touchdowns, and Michael Wilson caught 15 passes for a career-high 185 yards. None of it mattered much once a franchise-record 17 penalties buried the Cardinals under 130 yards in flags. San Francisco needed only 16 seconds to score the game’s opening touchdown, and Arizona never found the traction to climb out of that early hole, falling for the sixth time in seven games.

Match Overview Table

Core Match Statistics Overview

The 49ers vs Arizona Cardinals match player stats sheet shows a strange split: Arizona actually out-gained San Francisco through the air and on the ground combined, yet still lost by nineteen points. This game’s plot revolves around that gap.

Turnover Margin and Discipline

• San Francisco protected the football completely, finishing with zero giveaways against a Cardinals defense that had forced 27 takeaways over the previous seven games.
• Arizona’s three turnovers, layered on top of its penalty total, wiped out any advantage the offense built through raw yardage.

Penalty Trouble

• The Cardinals’ 17 flags set a franchise record and matched the most penalties committed by any team in the league this season.
• Eleven of those penalties came before halftime alone, a number tied for the most in a first half by any NFL team over the last two decades.

Time of Possession vs Scoring Efficiency

• Arizona held the ball for over 34 minutes yet still lost by three scores, a clear sign that clock control means little without red zone conversion.
• San Francisco needed only 25:45 of possession to hang 41 points, converting four of five red zone trips into scores.

Red Zone Execution

• The 49ers’ 4-for-5 red zone rate directly reflects Purdy’s efficiency and McCaffrey’s versatility as a dual-threat weapon near the goal line.
• Arizona’s 3-for-5 mark inside the twenty wasn’t bad on its own, but it wasn’t enough given how many extra possessions the Cardinals needed thanks to their own mistakes.

Period-by-Period Analysis

First Quarter

• McCaffrey opened the scoring just 16 seconds into the game with a 1-yard touchdown run, setting the tone immediately.
• Purdy connected with George Kittle for a 30-yard score less than five minutes later, pushing the lead to 13-0.
• Arizona answered before the quarter ended when Zonovan Knight punched in a 6-yard rushing touchdown, cutting the deficit to six.

Second Quarter

• Purdy found McCaffrey again, this time on a 9-yard passing touchdown, extending the 49ers’ cushion to 19-7.
• Chad Ryland’s 26-yard field goal trimmed the gap slightly, but Eddy Piñeiro answered with back-to-back field goals of 48 and 47 yards in the closing minute.
• San Francisco carried a 25-10 lead into halftime, having outscored Arizona 25-10 across the first two quarters combined.

Third Quarter

• Piñeiro opened the second half with another 47-yard field goal, his third of the game.
• Purdy capped a methodical drive with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Kittle, his second scoring connection with the tight end on the night.
• Arizona managed zero points in the quarter, unable to slow a 49ers offense that was converting nearly every trip inside the red zone.

Fourth Quarter

• Brissett found Trey McBride for a 10-yard touchdown to open the fourth-quarter scoring, though the two-point try failed.
• McCaffrey scored his third touchdown of the game on a 4-yard run, completing his three-touchdown outing and pushing the score to 41-16.
• Arizona added a late touchdown from Greg Dortch on a 17-yard catch, but the comeback bid arrived far too late to matter.

San Francisco 49ers Player Statistics

Brock Purdy (QB)

Purdy’s return from a six-game absence could not have gone smoother, as he spread the ball to five different receivers and never turned it over. His 133.5 rating reflects a clean, efficient outing built on quick decisions rather than forcing anything downfield.

Christian McCaffrey (RB)

McCaffrey accounted for three total touchdowns and 121 yards from scrimmage, confirming his status as the engine of this offense whenever he is healthy. His ability to score from both the backfield and the slot forced Arizona’s defense into impossible matchups all afternoon.

George Kittle (TE)

Kittle caught every ball thrown his way and turned two of those catches into touchdowns, becoming Purdy’s most trusted red zone target. A perfect 6-for-6 target-to-catch ratio underlines how well he and Purdy were syncing up after the quarterback’s return.

Jauan Jennings (WR)

Jennings served as the intermediate chain-mover, picking up 54 yards on four catches without needing the ball in the end zone to make his impact felt.

Arizona Cardinals Player Statistics

Jacoby Brissett (QB)

Brissett’s 47 completions set an NFL regular-season record, and his 452 passing yards were the best of his career filling in for the injured Kyler Murray. The two interceptions and inability to protect the football in bunches, however, kept the yardage from translating into points at the rate Arizona needed.

Michael Wilson (WR)

Wilson posted a career-high 185 receiving yards on 15 catches, becoming Brissett’s clear top option all afternoon. Eighteen targets is an enormous workload, and Wilson answered nearly every one of them, but the volume came without a single touchdown.

Trey McBride (TE)

McBride cleared 100 receiving yards for the second straight week and scored Arizona’s first touchdown of the fourth quarter, continuing to establish himself as one of the more reliable tight ends in the conference regardless of who is throwing him the ball.

Zonovan Knight (RB)

Knight scored Arizona’s first touchdown of the game and chipped in as a receiver out of the backfield, but his modest 24 rushing yards on the ground reflect how one-dimensional the Cardinals’ attack became once they fell behind early.

Statistical Leaders Summary Table

Note: George Kittle led San Francisco in receiving touchdowns (2) and tied McCaffrey for team receptions among tight ends, while Wilson’s 185-yard outing was the single largest receiving total by either team.

Why the 49ers Won

Efficient, Turnover-Free Quarterback Play

Purdy’s 133.5 passer rating and zero turnovers stand in stark contrast to Brissett’s two interceptions on nearly double the pass attempts. Efficiency, not volume, decided this game.

A Three-Touchdown Workhorse in McCaffrey

McCaffrey’s ability to score in three different ways — two rushing touchdowns and a receiving score — gave Arizona no single defensive answer. Spreading production across formations is exactly how modern offenses break down opposing game plans.

Red Zone Precision

Converting four of five red zone chances into points, compared to Arizona’s three of five, meant San Francisco left almost nothing on the field despite gaining over 200 fewer total yards than their opponent.

Winning the Discipline Battle

A single penalty for 15 yards compared to Arizona’s franchise-record 17 penalties for 130 yards gave the 49ers extra downs, extra field position, and extra opportunities that the Cardinals simply handed away.

Why the Cardinals Lost

Self-Inflicted Penalties Erased Offensive Gains

Under normal circumstances, no one can outgun a squad by 207 total yards and still expect to lose by 19 points. Seventeen penalties, eleven of them before halftime, repeatedly stalled promising Arizona drives and gifted San Francisco short fields.

Costly Turnovers at the Wrong Moments

Two interceptions from Brissett and a lost fumble from Elijah Higgins meant three of Arizona’s possessions ended without any points at all, despite a offense that was otherwise moving the ball at will.

One-Man Receiving Corps Behind an Overworked Passer

Michael Wilson’s 18 targets accounted for nearly a third of Brissett’s total attempts. When a single receiver absorbs that much volume, defenses eventually key in, and it becomes harder to sustain scoring drives deep into a game.

Historical Context & Advanced Insights

Season Series Breakdown

San Francisco swept the 2025 season series 2-0, a sharp turnaround from recent history in this rivalry, and extended their current head-to-head win streak against Arizona to two games. The all-time series still favors the 49ers 38-31 across 69 total meetings dating back to 1951.

Advanced Statistical Insights

Brissett’s completion percentage sat at an eye-catching 82.5%, yet his yards-per-attempt figure of 7.9 was actually lower than Purdy’s 7.7 once sack yardage is stripped out of the equation — a reminder that raw completion totals can inflate a stat line without moving the needle on scoring efficiency.

Purdy, by comparison, averaged 10.5 air yards per completion and converted nearly 12% of his completions directly into touchdowns, a rate that speaks to how often San Francisco’s passing attack found the end zone rather than settling for intermediate gains. McCaffrey’s yards-per-touch figure, blending his 13 carries and 5 receptions into a combined 19 touches for 121 yards, worked out to 6.4 yards every time he touched the ball — the single most efficient number posted by any player in this contest.

Game Implications & Key Lessons

What This Means for the 49ers

• San Francisco improved to 7-4 and kept pace in a competitive NFC West race behind a healthy Purdy-McCaffrey combination.
• The win doubles as a statement that the offense can score in bunches even when the defense allows heavy yardage totals.
• A completed season sweep of a division rival adds a meaningful tiebreaker cushion heading into the stretch run.

What This Means for the Cardinals

• Arizona fell to 3-7 and has now lost six of its last seven games, a stretch that points to deeper issues than any single performance.
• Penalty discipline needs immediate attention; a franchise record for infractions in one game is not a one-off problem to ignore.
• The offense must find a second reliable target beyond Wilson and McBride to stop opposing defenses from loading up on Arizona’s top two options.

Key Lessons

• Total yardage means little without red zone conversion and ball security to back it up.
• A quarterback with a 133.5 rating on 26 attempts can outproduce one who throws for over 450 yards, because efficiency scores points and empty volume does not.
• Penalties are a controllable variable, and letting them pile up against a disciplined opponent almost always proves fatal.
• Multi-threat skill players like McCaffrey, who can beat a defense as a rusher and a receiver, create matchup problems no single defender can solve alone.
• Time of possession is a supporting stat, not a deciding one, when the team with less possession time is scoring far more efficiently.
• Depth at wide receiver matters; spreading targets across three or four options is more sustainable than funneling nearly a third of all throws to one player.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who won the 49ers vs Arizona Cardinals game?

The San Francisco 49ers won 41-22 over the Arizona Cardinals on November 16, 2025, at State Farm Stadium.

Who had the best statline in the 49ers vs Arizona Cardinals match player stats?

Christian McCaffrey posted the most complete performance with three total touchdowns and 121 yards from scrimmage, while Jacoby Brissett set an NFL record with 47 completions for 452 yards on the losing side.

What were Brock Purdy’s stats in this game?

Purdy completed 19 of 26 passes for 200 yards, three touchdowns, zero interceptions, and a 133.5 passer rating in his return from injury.

How many penalties did the Cardinals commit?

Arizona was flagged a franchise-record 17 times for 130 yards, including 11 penalties before halftime alone.

Did the 49ers sweep the season series against the Cardinals in 2025?

Yes. San Francisco won both meetings in 2025, a 16-15 result in Week 3 and this 41-22 win in Week 11.

What was the attendance for this game?

A crowd of 65,032 attended the game at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

Conclusion

Total yardage told one story in this matchup, but the scoreboard told the real one. San Francisco’s ability to protect the football, finish drives in the red zone, and spread touchdown production across McCaffrey and Kittle proved far more valuable than Arizona’s gaudy passing numbers and lengthy time of possession. When one team plays clean, efficient football and the other buries itself in penalties and turnovers, the final score rarely stays close — and this 49ers vs Arizona Cardinals match player stats breakdown shows exactly why the gap ended up at nineteen points.