Arizona Cardinals defensive back Tyrann Mathieu had one of his best games as a pro on Sunday, as he intercepted two Colin Kaepernick passes and returned one for a touchdown in his team’s blowout win over the San Francisco 49ers.
And it apparently wasn’t all that hard.
After the game, Mathieu told reporters the Niners have become more predictable on offense since switching from offensive coordinator Greg Roman to Geep Chyrst.
“We knew going into this game that the focus for them was to run the football,” Mathieu explained, per Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com. “Their passing game has just simplified so much, it was easy for us to anticipate routes, get some good breaks on the ball.
“We started up front, forcing Kaepernick to throw some wild balls. Us on the back end anticipated some balls and jumped in front of them.”
Kaepernick has a terrible habit of staring down his receivers before throwing their way, and that was the main reason he threw interceptions on San Francisco’s first two possessions. And given what Chyrst said about Kaepernick and the team’s play book last week, Mathieu’s assessment makes sense.
The lone bright spot for the 49ers this season has been second-year running back Carlos Hyde, who led the team to victory in Week 1. Other than that, San Francisco is as bad as — and maybe even worse than — most anticipated. Kaepernick isn’t helping at all.
