The Sports Xchange

GLENDALE, Ariz. — It’s early, but it’s looking as though the Arizona Cardinals are on the verge of dominating the NFC West. They certainly dominated the San Francisco 49ers and quarterback Colin Kaepernick on Sunday at University of Phoenix Stadium.

The Cardinals intercepted Kaepernick four times, returning two of the picks for first-quarter touchdowns as they improved to 3-0 with a 47-7 rout of the 49ers.

Coming off a 48-23 victory at Chicago, the Cardinals are averaging an NFL-high 42 points per game.

With the victory, Arizona has a two-game lead over the rest of the NFC West. San Francisco, St. Louis and Seattle all stand at 1-2 after three games.

“I thought we came out with a purpose,” Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said. “We played for 60 minutes with that purpose and that was to get into first place in our division.”

The 49ers (1-2) couldn’t get anything mounted offensively against Arizona’s aggressive defense. With less than five minutes remaining, Kaepernick had completed only one more pass (five) than he had intercepted. And he had only thrown for 33 yards.

He finished 9 of 19 for 67 yards along with his four picks. Kaepernick ran for 46 yards and scored the 49ers’ only touchdown, tucking the ball and running for a 12-yard score.

“No. Never crossed my mind,” Kaepernick said when asked if he could have foreseen his type of performance. “Very hard to deal with. Very hard to see myself go out and play like that and hurt this team the way I did.”

The Cardinals might have shut out the 49ers had punter Drew Butler not made a poor kick that was returned 37 yards by former rugby star Jarryd Hayne. That return helped set up Kaepernick’s touchdown run.

Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer was 20 of 32 for 311 yards with two touchdowns — both to Larry Fitzgerald, who caught nine passes for 134 yards and scores from of 4 and 8 yards.

What we learned about the 49ers:

1. The offense looks a bit lost. The 49ers managed to cross midfield only once on Sunday during their 47-7 loss to the Cardinals and that was the result of a 37-yard punt return. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick only passed for 67 yards and he was picked off four times. The 49ers finished with just 156 yards of offense overall. “We don’t need to change anything,” running back Carlos Hyde said. “We should be able to throw and you just can’t commit turnovers.”

2. Head coach Jim Tomsula isn’t giving up on Colin Kaepernick anytime soon. After his fourth interception of the day, Kaepernick looked like he might never recover emotionally. But Tomsula said he never considered taking Kaepernick out for Blaine Gabbert. He said he wanted his starter to work through his struggles on Sunday, even though the 49ers called 13 straight running plays after his first two picks were returned for touchdowns.

3. The 49ers have now allowed 90 points combined in consecutive losses to the Steelers and the Cardinals. That’s not going to cut it in any division, especially the NFC West. “We’ve got to play better defense,” coach Jim Tomsula said.

Etc.:

–RB Jarryd Hayne’s 37-yard punt return in the second quarter put the 49ers in the red zone for the only time in the game, and that’s when they scored their only touchdown — on a 12-yard keeper by Colin Kaepernick. “I lost my feet at the end of the run and I tried to stay up,” said Hayne, a former rugby star. “Every week I’m just living and learning. That is my mentality and that will continue to be my mentality — get better every week and help the team anyway I can.”

–CB Shareece Wright was inactive for Sunday’s game against the Cardinals and then took to social media, saying in a tweet (that later was deleted) that the decision to bench him was political. Coach Jim Tomsula denied that. “No. That is an incorrect statement,” he said. “It had nothing to do with anything.”

–WR Torrey Smith was blanketed by Pro Bowl CB Patrick Peterson for most of Sunday’s game and only two passes were thrown his way. He finished the game without a reception. “Games like this do happen,” Smith said of Sunday’s loss. “It’s a good thing it’s early. We have some time to recover from it.”