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		Expect the 49ers to go all out against NFC Champs By David Zizmor September 11, 2009

	SANTA CLARA--The opener with the 49ers and Cardinals in Glendale is a big one and the 49ers will face the Cards a couple times this season including this Sunday. Last year was no different and it was not the result that they were hoping for they lost to the Cardinals 23-13 in San Francisco. This time around they start the season off in Arizona and the Cardinals are the defending NFC Champs and they also beat the 49ers in quite a memorable game in Arizona 29-24 but it was a much closer game than what the score indicates. This is one the 49ers could have won last year and the Niners wanted to get one back and this is a big game for the 49ers. Opening day is always a big deal it's a division match up against the defending NFC champs and it makes it even bigger. Especially this is head coach Mike Singletary's first opening day at head coach and he wants to make a statement, the team wants to make a statement they want to prove if they are worthy of contending if they're capable of contending and they want to show the rest of the league that they're not a push over. The Niners will try and establish that their a team to be reckon with and you can bet the 49ers have had all off season to plan for this one. So the 49ers are coming out with all guns blazing and they held back a lot of their offense during the pre season. You can bet everything is on the table in this one. More importantly your going to see the defense really fired up over this one. Obviously coach Singletary wants to see the offense do well since he's a defensive guy as he was a Hall of Fame linebacker and he really brings that really intense personality to the table. Were really going to see the fireworks in this one. You have the Cardinals fired up because this is their first chance to play in front of the home crowd since they made it to the Super Bowl but at the same time Arizona has had a rocky pre season they've only gone 1-3. There are Arizona fans who are concerned that the team looked a little bit lackluster in the pre season. Let's face it Arizona does not have that long history of winning and they have a history of losing and last season was the exception. So the fans are a little concerned that last year was a fluke and that their going to come out a little dead in the water with a little bit of a Super Bowl hang over as it were. The Arizona fans as great as last season was if your a Cardinals fan or at least a Cardinals football fan anyway you kind of expect the worse your not an optimist. Your can't be a Cardinals fan to be optimistic because there's never been anything that's been the opposite . Now that said let's not forget that the Arizona Cardinals have Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, and Anquan Boldin, they drafted Beanie Wells out of Ohio State and Tim Hightower out of Richmond. The Cards weren't bad last year and they were the NFC champs. So that's nothing to sneeze at but they lost they're offensive coordinator he's now the head coach at Kansas City Todd Haley and their defensive coordinator left. So this is a team thats in a bit of transition despite all the things that happened to them last year. So there are other teams that want to prove they are for real and they don't want to be one and done. They don't want to be like so many other Super Bowl losers and not make the playoffs the following year. For the last five years the team that has lost the Super Bowl ended up having the worst record the following year a lot of those teams don't even make the playoffs. So Arizona wants to bust that trend. There has been a lot of off field intrigues going on here. There is a lot going here beside the normal football business and there is a lot to prove here. That will make it a whole lot more fun to watch. It's going to be a hard hitting rock em sock em game. The opener should be a lot of fun so make sure to tune in it should be a hard hitting match. David Zimor does 49ers commentary each week for Sportstalk Radio