49ers Guilty of Five Turnovers In O'Sullivan's Debut, Lose 23-13

When the NFL schedule came out several months ago, the San Francisco-Arizona game in week one should have been a matchup between two former first-round picks at quarterback, with Alex Smith lining up under center for the 49ers, while Matt Leinart barked out the signals for the Cardinals. Instead, what we ended up with was an eight-team-in-six-years journeyman, J.T. O'Sullivan, taking on a 37-year old Kurt Warner. Crazy game, this NFL.

In the end, it was the ageless wonder and the Cardinals pulling out a 23-13 win in San Francisco.

O'Sullivan, making his first NFL start, had a mixed bag of good and bad, as he managed to complete 14-of-20 for 195 yards (that's good), but was also intercepted once and fumbled twice (that's bad). As a team, the 49ers were guilty of five turnovers and only managed to run 40 plays on offense while the Cardinals controlled the ball for over 37 minutes of clock-time, none of which was all that pleasing to 49ers head coach Mike Nolan.

The game looked even worse than it was to embattled 49ers coach Mike Nolan, who kept insisting his team had made six turnovers after losing four fumbles and an interception.

"I feel, had we played more of our type of game, we had every right to win the game," Nolan said. "Obviously, Arizona came out better prepared from the turnover standpoint. Last year, we beat them twice (because) we won the turnover battle twice."

Frank Gore was the bright spot on the 49ers offense today as he churned out 96 yards rushing on 14 carries, while also hauling in four passes for 55 yards, leading the team in both categories.

Warner ended up completing 19-of-30 passes for 197 yards and a one-yard scoring strike to Larry Fitzgerald in the second quarter.

The key drive for Arizona offensively may have been that 18-play monster which consumed over ten minutes of the fourth quarter clock, ending in a Neil Rackers field goal to give the Cardinals a ten-point lead with just under two minutes to play.

Edgerrin James led the Cardinals with 100 yards on 26 carries, while Anquan Boldin caught eight passes for 82 yards.