The San Francisco 49ers produced their biggest offensive output of the season in Week 9.
The Colin Kaepernick-led offense put up 486 yards in a 41-23 defeat to the New Orleans Saints. Kaepernick produced 398 passing yards and two touchdowns in the loss.
Additionally, four players totaled more than 75 receiving yards in a single game for the first time in franchise history.
"It is encouraging," Kaepernick said on Tuesday inside of the 49ers locker room. "We put up some yards. We need to put up more points along with those yards. We still left a lot of opportunities out there on the field for bigger plays, more yards, more points. So those are things we have to be able to capitalize on."
San Francisco turned the ball over four times, including two fumbles and a turnover on downs inside of the red zone.
Ball security is an even bigger point of emphasis in Week 10 when the 49ers face the Arizona Cardinals on the road. The NFC West foe ranks eighth in the NFL with a plus-three turnover differential.
The last time Kaepernick started in Arizona, he threw four interceptions, two of which were returned for touchdowns, in a 47-7 loss.
Kaepernick was asked about his Week 3 performance in the 2015 regular season. The memories, as you'd expect, were not fond.
"It probably was the worst game of my career," Kaepernick said. "So it's a good opportunity to go back, redeem myself and try to help get this team back on track."
Kaepernick was 9-of-19 passing for 67 yards that day with a career-high four interceptions.
"You always remember those games, but you move on from it," Kaepernick said. "You can't linger on it. You can't dwell on it. You take what you can learn from it and move on."
Kaepernick recognized Arizona for being consistent in its approach. The Cardinals recorded seven sacks against Blaine Gabbert in a Week 5 road victory over San Francisco. Arizona ranks tied for eighth with 21 sacks. Edge-rushers Markus Golden (six) and Chandler Jones (five) have supplied 11 of the team's sacks.
"Looking at film, they're a team that they know what they want to do, and they do it well," Kaepernick said. "So that's something that we have to be able to go out, be on top of everything we're doing and win one-on-one matchups."
Kaepernick enters the matchup following the second-best passing performance of his career. His 286 yards in the first half against the Saints were the most in a single half by a 49ers quarterback since 1999. He'll look for more of the same on Sunday.
"Our gameplan is going to be able to attack their defense in different ways that we feel like we can take advantage of," the QB said.
