Budda Baker is making his 100th NFL start on Sunday, a noteworthy accomplishment for the Pro Bowl safety.
(This is where we are careful not to say anything about "vintage" Baker work this season; Budda wasn't sure he loved the term when I brought it up earlier this season, saying it made him sound old. I shall choose my words carefully.)
Baker has seen a lot over those nearly-100 starts. Many of them have come against the 49ers.
"Did not know that -- 100th? That's awesome," Baker said. "Good to know. It doesn't feel like it. You see 100-plus tackles a season, some people might say it does feel like it.
"I'm just trying to play that hard-nosed football … shoutout Brock Purdy, hopefully you throw it to me a couple of times."
Given the level at which Purdy is playing, I'm not sure Baker will get his wish Sunday against the 49ers. But the Cardinals need Baker and the whole defense to have a much better game than they did last week.
Baker has shown up every week during this, his contract year. He said he hasn't heard any of the suggestions he could be traded -- "I don't think that's going to happen" – and if it wasn't brought up, you'd never know by Baker's interactions his future is uncertain.
In the meantime, Baker will take another shot at beating the 49ers and seeing if he can get one of those Purdy passes. That would be quite a way to spend No. 100.
-- The temperature at Levi's Stadium for the game is expected to be in the upper 90s on Sunday, which would be by far the hottest kickoff temp ever for a game at the place. The stadium opened in 2014, and the highest it has been is 88 degrees, for a 2021 game against the Seahawks. So that's a significant difference. What's worse is that the visitor sideline is blanketed with direct sunlight. I have no doubt it'll feel over 100 down on the field. It's been a minute since the Cardinals have played a game like that – Sun Devil Stadium, we salute you – but the Cardinals have practiced in the heat more often than the 49ers.
The 49ers tried to change their uniform choice for Sunday to wear their all-white, coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters, but the NFL denied it since those picks have to come before the season. The Cardinals will be wearing their usual all-white unis. (The Niners have decided to wear white pants instead of their gold ones.)
"I learned this a long time ago: the advantage is to the team that thinks it's an advantage," coach Jonathan Gannon said.
-- The MHJ conundrum: Marvin Harrison Jr. has nine catches for 177 yards and all four of his touchdowns in first quarters this year. He has a combined six catches for 66 yards the other three quarters.
"In every game, there are different flows," Harrison said. "Whether you are down, up, there are different shifts and scenarios throughout the game. That's not something I try to pay attention to. I try to control what I can control and whenever the ball does come my way, make a play. That's all I can say to that.
"It's not just me out there. The goal is to put points on the board, and we haven't done a good enough job with that, really."
-- Trey McBride will play Sunday. That's good. He was missed last week – although predictably, McBride waved such an idea off.
"I just feel like we didn't execute the way we could as a team," he said. "We didn't play as well as we could have as an offense. … I think we had the right guys out there."
-- Garrett Williams will not play. Not good. Not good at all.
-- After the Cardinals found themselves in that ugly third-and-34 situation last week, I wondered aloud on the Cardinals Underground podcast how many times a team actually won after having such a dire situation in a game. It didn't seem like a harbinger of success. So, with the help of the great Mike Helm, we reached out to Elias. Since the 2000 season, teams that have run at least one play with a (fill-in-the-blank down) and 30+ yards to go situation have a .437 winning percentage. To be honest, that's higher than I expected.
-- The right tackle situation remains in flux, with ESPN reporting this week that Jonah Williams hopes to come back next month but that he may miss the rest of the season. But on the left side, Paris Johnson Jr. is developing exactly how the Cardinals had hoped. He'll be (likely) tested by Nick Bosa, but under the surface of the wins and losses, this is the progress the Cardinals' young players need to be making.
-- This will be the first time Kyler Murray has had a start in San Francisco (or Santa Clara, if you are being picky) in four years, 24 days, which is amazing to think about. The last time he played at the 49ers was the 24-20 win to open the 2020 season, when there weren't any fans in the building because of the pandemic.
-- We have our first in-person Tom Brady sighting at a Cardinals game since he quarterbacked the Bucs at State Farm Stadium against Trace McSorley and the Cardinals in 2022. Brady is the analyst for the Fox crew (along with play-by-play man Kevin Burkhardt and two sideline reporters in Tom Rinaldi and Erin Andrews.)
-- Third down is the key down. The Cardinals remain a top 10 offense on third downs, having converted 19 of 44 so far. They are one of only three teams (Raiders, Saints) who have not converted a third down of at least 10 yards needed (0-for-11). The Cardinals' defense, on the other hand, has allowed opposing teams to convert 6-of-11 third downs when they need at least 10 yards.
-- The last word goes to linebacker Zaven Collins, and the Cardinals taking what they can from the Commanders loss.
"You've got to learn from what you messed up on, and most of the time, when you go back and look at film like that, it's not huge issues. It's small things, small areas. But you're in the one percent, so you get to mess up less than one percent. You can't go out and mess up 15 percent of the time, 20 percent of the time. It doesn't work like that. You have to be right all the time."
See you Sunday.
