When the Cardinals acquired DeAndre Hopkins in a trade with the Texans back in March, it seemed as if half the country didn’t believe it, judging from the reaction around the NFL. Once the news finally sunk in, however, a couple of things became crystal clear:

One, it meant the Cardinals finally had a clear-cut No.1 wide receiver. And two, it meant coach Kliff Kingsbury would be dialing up a ton of deep-threat plays out of four-wide receiver sets for Kyler Murray to exploit.

That first statement still rings true. Hopkins, after all, had a career-high 14 receptions for 151 yards in his Cardinals’ debut during Sunday’s season-opening 24-20 victory over the 49ers in Santa Clara, California. Upon further review as to the frequency of deep passes in the 10 Personnel package, it never materialized.

Murray had 40 pass attempts in the game, but only six of them were throws of 20 yards or longer. Four of them went to Christian Kirk with the other two going to Hopkins and Murray didn’t complete one of them. Last season as a rookie, he ranked sixth among all quarterback in deep-pass completion percentage (41.9), according to ProFootballFocus.

The Cardinals also didn’t use much 10 Personnel at all, electing to go with four wide receivers only nine times on Sunday. That’s a far cry from their trend a year ago when they operated that way on 31 percent of their total plays, doing it an average of more than 19 times per game.

In Week 1, Kingsbury and Co. felt more comfortable taking what the 49ers’ defense was giving them, which was a lot of shorter, underneath options.

“They played a lot of high-safety looks and we tried to be efficient as the game went on,” Kingsbury said. “We started slowly, and we’re always looking for chances to push it down the field, but we want to get first downs and do what is working and (Sunday) wasn’t one of those (air-it-out) games.

“Hopefully, those opportunities arise, but we’ll continue to just try and be an efficient offense and take what the defense gives us.”

Arizona ran the ball 36 times for 180 yards, which was an effective balance to counter the passing attack and another reason why the deep threats didn’t really develop. Hopkins didn’t sound terribly concerned on Tuesday while discussing the situation during a video conference call.

“We tried to take advantage of some things and obviously we won the game, which is all that matters,” he said. “It was the first game, but I’m sure we’ll take more shots and get the thing going downfield more. The name of the game is winning and however we have to do that, I’m pretty sure Kliff is going to call the right plays.”

The more defenses try to bracket Hopkins with a cornerback and a safety, the more targets should be available for the rest of the Cardinals’ pass catchers such as Larry Fitzgerald, Christian Kirk, Andy Isabella, Dan Arnold and others.

When they get going and defenses are forced to adapt, that in turn could create more freedom downfield for Hopkins.

“Once you tilt the safety over to my side, it’s one-on-one football and I feel like we have an advantage on this side of the ball,” Hopkins said.

Hopkins’ 14 catches are tied for the most in the NFL and his 151 receiving yards rank third. If he continues with that sort of production, he could have a record-setting season in his first year in Arizona. Leading the league in stats isn’t on his list of goals, however.

“It’d be better if I can have a championship on the end of that,” he said. “I’ve done that before. I’ve led the league in touchdowns one year (13 in 2017), but without a championship I don’t really think I care for that statistic. For me personally, it doesn’t really matter. Maybe at the end of my career when I’m stacking stats up and comparing them to Hall of Fame players, I might look and be like, ‘Oh yeah, I had a good season that year.’ But right now, I’m not.”

Baker’s big hit

Cardinals safety Budda Baker had a career-high 15 tackles on Sunday, but one of his biggest plays came near the end of the first half when he delivered a booming hit on 49ers tight end George Kittle to break up a catch.

Kittle would later return to the game, but he wasn’t targeted again and he’s now dealing with a sprained left knee that could keep him out of this Sunday’s game at the Jets.

Baker’s hit was clean and no penalty was called, but that didn’t stop some 49ers’ fans from directing a series of angry and even racist comments toward Baker on social media, including one particularly ugly message filled with racial epithets that Baker shared on his Twitter account.

The 49ers denounced the racist message sent to Baker and said, per club policy, they are working to identify the person and will ban them from all 49ers games and events.

“Budda Baker is one of the best human beings,” Cardinals guard Justin Pugh said Tuesday. “There is no way Budda will go out there and try to take a shot on someone. He comes down and tries to hit everyone legally clean every step of the way. Unfortunately, it’s part of the game. There’s a 100 percent chance of injury. You look across the board and guys get hurt on every team.

“It’s unfortunate (Kittle) couldn’t come back out there and play the way he wanted to – you never want to see that – but it’s part of it, it’s what happens in the NFL.”

Difference maker

Fitzgerald didn’t have a big day statistically against the 49ers, catching just four passes for 34 yards, but he made a huge contribution with his heads-up play just before the end of the first half. It happened after Hopkins caught a 5-yard pass from Murray down the left sideline as the final seconds of the half were ticking away.

Fitzgerald ripped the ball out of Hopkins’ hands, ran it back across the field, and handed it to the official so the Cardinals could quickly get lined up and Murray could spike the ball to stop the clock. Zane Gonzalez then kicked a career-long 56-yard field goal as time expired to pull the Cardinals within three, 13-10.

“As a coach, it’s incredible to watch that,” Kingsbury said. “He has one of the highest football IQs you’ll ever be around. We show situational football to our players here on a weekly basis and some of the long-term clips that come from years back are of Fitz doing things like that.

“He is a heads-up player and to have him be on your team, you always feel pretty confident in those situations when he’s in the game. It just shows you what he’s about – he’s about winning first and foremost, and he’ll do whatever it takes.”

Roster move

The Cardinals have released punter Richie Leone from the practice squad and presently have two spots available on the 16-man reserve squad.

Have an opinion on the Arizona Cardinals? Reach McManaman at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @azbobbymac. Listen to him live on Fox Sports 910-AM every Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 on Calling All Sports with Roc and Manuch and every Wednesday night from 7-9 on The Freaks with Kenny and Crash.

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