The 49ers clobbered the Arizona Cardinals 38-10 on Monday night. One of the most intriguing matchups in Mexico City was Charvarius Ward against DeAndre Hopkins.
In the first half, Hopkins was everywhere as he had seven catches for 77 yards. Things changed up a lot after halftime as he hauled in just two catches in the second half, for 14 yards.
Ward was extremely active himself as he recorded 10 tackles on the game including one for a loss. The cornerback joined some broadcasters after the game and made his feelings on the Arizona wideout abundantly clear.
He said Hopkins was trying to get under the 49ers’ skin and intimidate them. He doesn’t see Hopkins as an elite receiver.
“D Hop, he think he a tough guy. He think he still one of the best receivers in the league and he really not,” Ward said. “He was trying to talk noise and talk hard all game. We not scared of him. He thought we was scared of him. He tried to intimidate us, but forget him, we did our thing. We went out there and got a dub and we did our job. He was just yip-yapping all game, but we don’t care about that. We just wanted to win.”
“He was getting locked up. He was doing some dirty things,” Ward said. “He tried to clip me, he grabbed me by the throat. He grabbed my facemask on one play, so I don’t respect his game. That’s steroid boy.”
Speaking to the media this week, Hopkins said that while the attacking statement was “very personal.”
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“Obviously that was very personal,” Hopkins said, via Darren Urban of the team’s official website. “When a young guy like that says something like that . . . it’s a lot of talk. To me it’s laughable. It’s funny.”
The 49ers and Cardinals will meet again in Week 18 at Levi’s Stadium. Both teams are headed opposite ways in the standings, so it’s a high probability that neither may even play in that game.
Despite missing six games due to suspension, Hopkins is still on pace for over 1,000 yards this season. In just five games he has 45 receptions for 487 yards and two touchdowns.
He would certainly trade those stats for a playoff run, but it doesn’t look like that will be happening in 2022.
