Jimmy Garoppolo is not playing against the Cardinals this week. Right?

"I'm expecting to see him, honestly," cornerback Patrick Peterson said. "I think he'll start. That's just my opinion. What do they have to lose?"

(Other than maybe Garoppolo's head, behind a struggling offensive line that now won't have left tackle Joe Staley.)

Peterson isn't the only one. Karlos Dansby said on the "Big Red Rage" Thursday night Garoppolo will play and many of the Cardinals defensive players have said similar things. It makes little sense to me, given how beat up the Niners are and how little time Garoppolo has had to get ready. Jacoby Brissett did start against the Cards for the Colts earlier this year, but that was Brissett's second week with the Colts, not the first. Dropping in a quarterback that soon is just too complicated on the NFL level, not when you want good results. To be fair, Garoppolo will be active Sunday — as the backup, coach Kyle Shanahan insists — so the door is cracked. No, the Cardinals defense has not played consistently well. But I don't see Jimmy G happening against the Cards this year. Beginning in 2018, yes.

-- Speaking of that defense, which is around the bottom of the league in third downs and scoring, this is a chance to get better. The Cardinals played very well defensively against the 49ers the first time around. The last two road games, however, the Cardinals have surrendered a total of 67 points.

"You have a week off to have a chance to look at yourself in the mirror and be truthful with yourself," Peterson said. "That's where we were last week."

-- It's stunning to believe that these teams met just about a month ago, and neither starting quarterback is on their team's active roster.

-- For all the struggles on the road of late — and there have been some ugly ones — if the Cardinals win Sunday it will be the 20th road win for coach Bruce Arians, which would be a franchise record.

-- The Cardinals, especially with Drew Stanton, won't make the mistake of underusing Adrian Peterson. He'll get his carries. It'll be up to the blocking up front, but Peterson will be getting more than 11 carries this week. If you go back to Stanton's lone start/win in 2016, when he won in San Francisco, he threw a couple of TD passes to Larry Fitzgerald although he only had 11 completions. The Cards still scored 33, in large part because David Johnson had a season-high 157 yards rushing. That's the formula.

-- Peterson has 11,983 yards rushing in his career, so he'll surpass 12,000 in this game. He needs 92 yards to pass Thurman Thomas for 15th all-time, and 138 to pass Franco Harris for 14th place.

-- Arians was asked if he's had any talks with veteran kicker Phil Dawson, who has surprisingly missed five field goals in seven games.

"Phil's had talks with me," Arians said. "I haven't said a word to him. He got a chance to go watch his son and come back fresh and reloaded. I really anticipate him to have a great finish to the season."

-- Adrian Peterson and his wife will be featured on the Animal Planet show “Tanked” tonight at 9 p.m. pacific. The show is about people getting custom-made fish tanks. Peterson's is a doozy.

-- Without Staley, the 49ers could have a hard time handling Chandler Jones on the pass rush. Jones is already on fire with his eight sacks in seven games.

-- The Cardinals could be thin at wide receiver. Brittan Golden (groin) and Chad Williams (back) weren't practicing at the end of the week, although both are game-day decisions. Williams is usually inactive anyway, but if both can't go, the other wideouts need to stay upright. Arians also said tight end Ifeanyi Momah, formerly a receiver, can play there.

-- It's a short week. The Cards have to turn around and host the Seahawks on a Thursday night, and regardless of what happens in the Bay Area, they will be much more short-handed than last year when they forged the heartbreaking 6-6 tie at home against Seattle. More heartbreaking would be an inability to get to .500 going into that game. As was being said the last time the Cards were playing the 49ers, this is kinda important.

"We cannot fall any further behind in our division," Arians said. "I don't think there is ever a must-game, but this is pretty close."

See you Sunday.