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Posted at 10:30 AM EST.

4:25 PM EST. If good teams go to the desert to die, what are we to make of these 49ers? They are certainly not the sexy NFC contenders they were when Jimmy Garoppolo was starting at quarterback, as his injury all but sunk San Francisco's season. So what do the 'Niners have to play for here? If you ask tight end George Kittle, he might acknowledge that he's out there competing for his fantasy football owners. When a potential Kittle touchdown was being reviewed last Sunday, teammate Aaron Donald asked him, “Man, you didn’t get in?” To which Kittle responded, “I had to get in because my fantasy coaches need me to get more points." That's a great quote, but also gives you some idea of what the mindset is on the 49ers. What exactly are these guys playing for?

If there's one look ahead spot on the 49ers calendar the rest of the way, this trip to Arizona could be is, as San Francisco or rather Santa Clara is set to host a nationally televised game next Thursday night, as they play their Bay Area rivals from Oakland. Sure the 49ers were just on Monday Night Football at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, but there is something special that comes with hosting those isolated prime time games.

Speaking of Thursday Night Football, that was the last time we saw the Cardinals and they were totally embarrassed in front of the football world to open Week 7. While the result was bad, that game was over before it started after the Cardinals gave up two first-quarter turnovers to the Broncos that Denver cashed in for touchdowns. The Cardinals found their scapegoat after firing offensive coordinator Mike McCoy, who for the second time in as many years didn't make it through the season in that job and they replaced him with former QB Byron Leftwich. Leftwich says he plans to get star runner David Johnson more involved and is going to use him like his mentor and former Cards coach Bruce Arians did. This is good news for DJ, as McCoy's insistence of running him up the middle for no gain just wasn't working.

These two clubs played just a couple of weeks ago in Northern California and the 49ers, who were a popular bet in the market, crushed the Cards on the stat sheet but not the scoreboard. That double-digit loss, which should have been a double-digit win, combined with a good showing against the Packers in prime time on MNF has the 49ers stock trending upward until they hit a dose of reality at the Rams last week, but getting blown out by L.A. isn't going to sway the market off of San Fran here. Nobody outside of Los Angeles or the Bay Area saw that game, while everyone was watching Thursday night. There is often an overreaction to teams coming off those prime times games whether the result was good or bad. For the Cards, their appeal has hit rock bottom, but they cannot be a dog at home to this edition of the 49ers, especially with that big Thursday nighter on deck for SF.

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