49ers face a daunting task: Containing Kyler Murray in home opener

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — When Kyler Murray is at his best, he can be a nightmare for the opposition with his ability to break off long runs, avoid sacks and extend plays doing damage to even the best NFL defenses.

The San Francisco 49ers saw that first-hand last season when Murray's dual-threat ability helped the Arizona Cardinals sweep the season series. Now as the Niners (2-0) get their first chance against Murray and the Cardinals (2-0) this season in the home opener on Sunday, controlling Murray will be job one.

“Our ‘what it takes meeting’ was very much about him and what he brings to the table and how we need to rush him, how we need to take care of the QB run game,” star defensive end Nick Bosa said. “I’m excited about the plan this week."

Murray shined last season against the 49ers starting on his second snap when he raced 50 yards for a touchdown and not slowing down. Murray capped that game at Levi's Stadium by throwing a TD pass in the fourth quarter and leading a game-winning field-goal drive as the Cardinals erased a 10-point deficit.

He then matched his career high with four TD passes in the second meeting against a depleted San Francisco defense in Week 18.

“Kyler is always a really tough player to go against. One of the best in this league," linebacker Fred Warner said. “The thing with Kyler obviously is his legs, the ability to make off-schedule plays. That’s always kind of given us fits.”

Murray has the Cardinals off to their best start since winning their first seven games in 2021 when they most recently made the postseason. The offense hasn't yet totally clicked.

Arizona was held to 20 points in the opener against New Orleans before holding off Carolina last week in a 27-22 win with a late-game interception by Murray helping the Panthers get back into the game.

“I felt we played better,” Murray said about Week 2. "I felt we played better Week 2 even though it may not have felt that way just based on how the game ended and then not putting the game away two weeks in a row, but I do believe that we played better as a unit in Week 2.”

The 49ers go into the game with a question at quarterback with Brock Purdy's toe injury leaving his status in doubt. Purdy missed last week's game with the injury but has been limited at practice this week and coach Kyle Shanahan said it was “highly unlikely” he would be able to start on Sunday.

Mac Jones stepped in for Purdy at New Orleans and threw for 279 yards and three TDs in a win against New Orleans.

The Cardinals are making adjustments at cornerback after their top three players at the position went down with injuries in the Week 2 win over the Panthers. Garrett Williams (knee) was placed on injured reserve while coach Jonathan Gannon said rookie Will Johnson (groin) and Max Melton (knee) are also dealing with injuries with Johnson listed as doubtful and Melton as questionable this week.

Melton practiced on Wednesday but Johnson wasn’t on the field. Arizona was down to its final two corners — rookie Denzel Burke and Kei’Trel Clark — by the end of the game. Gannon said he’s confident both will do well in larger roles if needed.

After some opening week struggles, San Francisco got solid contributions from some of its rookies last week in New Orleans. First-rounder Mykel Williams had two tackles for loss and pushed the pocket to create pressure. Second-round defensive tackle Alfred Collins was stout against the run and several others contributed from defensive backs Upton Stout and Marques Sigle to seventh-round guard Connor Colby, who replaced the injured Ben Bartch in the first half.

“They did some good things in game one, but we saw even better in game two," coach Kyle Shanahan said. "Alfred got out there more, flashed a bunch. I see both of those guys just working the right way, made of the right stuff. Alfred’s been stringing together a lot of stuff, he’s been able to avoid injury. Mykel’s getting back and getting used to it and I thought it was a big improvement in Week 2.”

Arizona has had a stellar run game over the past two seasons, finishing fourth in the NFL in total yards rushing in 2023 and seventh in 2024. By comparison, the Cardinals haven’t been as productive through two games this season. Arizona ranks 13th in rushing after gaining just 82 yards on the ground against the Panthers.

“I think that’s something we definitely hang our hat on — winning the line of scrimmage and being able to get the run game going," Murray said. "But hat’s off to the other team, they’ve done a good job stopping the run game, making us have to move the ball in other ways. Which I think we can do.”

AP Sports Writer David Brandt in Tempe, Arizona, contributed to this report

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Arizona Cardinals running back James Conner (6) scores a touchdown as Carolina Panthers linebacker Trevin Wallace (32) defends during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

San Francisco 49ers defensive end Bryce Huff (47) celebrates with cornerback Upton Stout, rear, and defensive end Mykel Williams (98) after sacking New Orleans Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler (2) to force a turnover on downs during the second half of an NFL football game in New Orleans, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)

New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara (41) is brought down by San Francisco 49ers safety Ji'Ayir Brown, right, before fumbling the ball, which was recovered by linebacker Fred Warner (54), during the second half of an NFL football game in New Orleans, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray (1) throws against the Carolina Panthers during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

BERLIN (AP) — Standing on an open truck making its way through Berlin, Anahita Safarnejad turned to the crowd of Iranian protesters marching behind her and took the microphone.

“No more dictatorship in Iran, the mullahs must go!” she shouted. Hundreds of voices echoed her slogan with the same sense of urgency and desperation.

Across Europe, thousands of exiled Iranians have taken to the streets to shout out their rage at the government of the Islamic Republic which has cracked down on protests in their homeland, reportedly killing thousands of people.

Women have taken a prominent role in organizing the protests abroad, raising their voices against the theocratic government that discriminates against them.

But beyond the anger, there’s also a sense of fear and paralysis. Iran's government has been shutting down the internet and limiting phone calls for days, making it nearly impossible for Iranians in the diaspora to find out if their families back home are safe.

Safarnejad, 34, fled Iran seven years ago. She came to Berlin to study theater but now works in a bar when she's not attending one of the almost-daily protests in the German capital.

Since the demonstrations broke out in Iran in late December, Safarnejad said she's been living in two different realities that are almost impossible to combine. The easygoing hipster life of her new hometown is a jarring contrast to the bloody protests in Iran that she's been following every minute she doesn't have to work, glued to her phone for the latest updates.

While she was initially almost euphoric that the current uprising would finally bring freedom to Iran and she'd be able to go back home, her sense of hope has turned into horror.

Safarnejad hasn't spoken to her brother, also a protester, since communications with Iran were cut off. She's been scouring video on social media showing piles of dead bodies to see if he's among the corpses.

“I'm desperate and don't know how to keep going anymore,” she cried, tears rolling down her cheeks, as she spoke to The Associated Press during Wednesday's Berlin protest.

“I can’t really switch off. I can’t really stop reading the news either," she added, her voice breaking. “Because I’m waiting all the time for the internet to be available so I can get some answers from my family.”

The young woman's horror is felt by many of the more than 300,000 Iranians living in Germany — one of the biggest exile communities in Europe and similar in numbers to France and Britain. Many of them still have family ties to their homeland, even if they left decades ago.

Mehregan Maroufi's Persian cafe and bookstore in Berlin has become a place of solace for Iranians to share their grief without many words — because they know they are all living through the same nightmare.

Maroufi, the daughter of the late Iranian author Abbas Maroufi, welcomes Iranians and everyone else at the Hedayat Cafe, where she serves Persian tea with sweets such as chocolate cake topped with barberries. She lends an ear to anyone who has to get worries off their chest.

“For some, the emotions are still too high and too strong, so to speak, and it’s impossible to talk," the 44-year-old says, adding that she, too, had to force herself to open the cafe on some mornings because the violent images coming out of Iran sucked away all her energy.

“But at least you can find compatriots here. You can talk to a little, and that helps,” she said.

She says she's been listening to and learning from the convictions her fellow Iranians express when they talk about their dreams of an Iran after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that — due to the uprising — now seems closer that ever before.

While most in the diaspora agree that the theocracy has to be toppled, ideas of what a new Iran should look like differ widely.

Adeleh Tavakoli, 62, joined a demonstration outside Britain’s Parliament in London earlier this week. She hasn't been back to Iran in 17 years but has spent decades protesting from afar against the Islamic Republic.

But with the latest wave of protests, she hopes that the Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the shah ousted by the Islamic Revolution in 1979, will return to power. If he does, she said, she has her bag packed and is ready to get on the first flight.

“For 47 years, our country has been captured by a terrorist regime,” she said. “We’ve been the voice of Iran. All we want is our freedom and to get rid of this horrible dictatorship.”

For Maral Salmassi, who came to Germany as a child in the 1980s, history explains the calls by exiled Iranians for Pahlavi to lead the country.

“As an Iranian, as someone who comes from this culture and knows its culture and history, I can only say that we have had kings and queens for thousands of years. It is our culture," said Salmassi. She is the chairwoman and founder of the Zera Institute think tank in Berlin, which researches democracy, radicalization and extremism.

She added that Iranians make up a multi-ethnic country and "to bring them all together again, we need a constitutional monarchy that symbolically and traditionally represents our identity and reunites everyone ... and then a democratic, federal parliament where everyone is represented equally.”

However, not everyone is convinced by Pahlavi. Maryam Nejatipur, 32, who also joined the protest in Berlin, thinks her country should avoid a cult of personality.

“We don’t need something like Khamenei again. We don’t need one person,” to lead us, she said, as she burnt a portrait of the Ayatollah and used the flames to light a cigarette — an act that's become a symbol of Iranian resistance.

Safarnejad, who led the recent Berlin protest, agrees.

“I don’t belong to the left, I’m not a liberal, I’m not a monarchist,” she stressed. “I’ve been there for women’s rights, I’m for human rights, I’m for freedom.”

Fanny Brodersen and Ebrahim Noroozi, in Berlin, and Brian Melley in London contributed reporting.

Protester Adeleh Tavakoli, left, demonstrates outside the House of Parliament, in London, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

People take part in a rally in support of anti-government protests in Iran, Berlin Germany, Wednesday, June 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Iranian Mehregan Maroufi poses for a photo before an interview with the Associated Press in her cafe in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Iranian Maryam Nejatipur 32, poses for a photo after a demonstration in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Iranian Anahita Safarnejad, 34, poses for a photo after a demonstration in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)