The San Francisco 49ers have spent the first two weeks looking like one of the NFL’s best teams, and Sunday provides another opportunity to prove they can consistently dominate opponents they are supposed to beat. San Francisco enters its NFC West matchup against the Arizona Cardinals at 2-0 after convincing victories over the Los Angeles Rams and Miami Dolphins, while Arizona is 1-1 following dramatically different performances through two weeks.

Even with injuries continuing to pile up, the 49ers have a chance to remain perfect and further establish themselves as an early Super Bowl contender. 

The 49ers could hardly have started the season any better. San Francisco opened the year by dominating a Rams team with legitimate championship aspirations before following it up with a 35-13 victory over Miami. Brock Purdy and the offense have looked sharp, the defense has consistently made life difficult on opponents and the Niners have continued winning despite dealing with significant injuries throughout the roster.

Sunday’s matchup is another test of whether San Francisco can simply take care of business. Arizona showed in Week 1 that it cannot be completely overlooked, upsetting the Los Angeles Chargers by 12 points. The Cardinals then came crashing back down in Week 2 with a 31-7 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, reinforcing the expectation that this roster still has plenty of limitations.

That makes this the type of divisional matchup where San Francisco needs to avoid complacency. The Cardinals have enough ability to punish mistakes, but the Niners hold the advantage across most of the roster and are playing at home. If San Francisco approaches the game with the same urgency it showed over the first two weeks, there is little reason this should come down to the final few possessions.

The injuries are the biggest concern. Nick Bosa will miss the game after suffering a calf injury in practice and could be sidelined for multiple weeks, removing the defense’s most dangerous pass rusher. The defensive line is also dealing with additional absences, while Mike Evans enters the weekend questionable with a hip injury after returning to practice Friday. San Francisco has already demonstrated impressive depth this season, but the growing list of unavailable players will continue testing that advantage.

Even without Bosa, this feels like a matchup where the defense should be capable of keeping Arizona’s scoring down. The Cardinals have shown inconsistency offensively, and if San Francisco can force them into obvious passing situations and avoid giving away short fields, it should be difficult for Arizona to generate enough points to keep pace.

The larger challenge for the Niners is continuing to meet their own increasingly high standard. Beating Arizona will not suddenly establish San Francisco as the best team in football, but another comfortable victory would make the first three weeks increasingly difficult to dismiss. A multi-score win would keep the momentum rolling before the schedule becomes more challenging.

Following this contest, the 49ers will remain at Levi’s Stadium for an October 4 matchup against the Denver Broncos. That should be a tougher test than the previous two opponents and could provide an even better indication of just how legitimate San Francisco’s impressive start really is.