SANTA CLARA, Calif. — For the San Francisco 49ers to bounce back from their first and only loss of the season, they had to do something they hadn’t done since 2011.
After falling 16 points behind the Arizona Cardinals, the Niners authored their biggest comeback in eight years to win 36-26 and improve to 9-1 on the season.
Before the comeback win, the Niners had lost 35 consecutive regular-season games when trailing by 16 or more points, with their last such victory coming against the Philadelphia Eagles in 2011. It was San Francisco’s largest comeback win since trailing the Atlanta Falcons by 17 in the 2012 NFC Championship Game.
Less than a week after losing an overtime heartbreaker to the Seattle Seahawks, the Niners sleepwalked through the first quarter as the Cardinals jumped on them for a 16-0 lead but, as has happened often this season, San Francisco simply wouldn’t go away.
The Niners fought back to take a 17-16 lead and then exchanged blows with Arizona throughout the second half as a pair of interceptions from quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo allowed the Cardinals to jump back in front.
To get over the hump, Garoppolo had to deliver one of the biggest drives of his career. The Niners started at their 35-yard line with 2:02 to go in the fourth quarter and Garoppolo drove them to the game-winning touchdown, a 25-yard pass to Jeff Wilson Jr. with 31 seconds remaining. The 49ers scored a defensive touchdown on a 4-yard fumble return by D.J. Reed Jr. with no time remaining to seal the victory.
The victory was imperative for a Niners team that now enters a three-game gantlet with a home contest against the Green Bay Packers followed by road games at Baltimore and New Orleans.