On Monday night, the San Francisco 49ers crushed the Arizona Cardinals, 38-10. The Cardinals were playing without their star quarterback, Kyler Murray, but did have their best player in DeAndre Hopkins. The 49ers did their best to take him out of the game. 49ers cornerback Charvarius Ward was up to the task, even changing assignments to play him one-on-one.
Hopkins almost exclusively plays on the left side of the offensive formation. Generally, Ward plays the other side of the field but switched to cover Hopkins for much of the game. Despite a strong start for Hopkins, he had a very quiet second half and could been seen visibly frustrated. He finished with nine catches for 91 yards.
After the game, Ward joined KNPR to talk about the matchup. He did not hold back from blasting the former All-Pro receiver.
“D Hop, he think he a tough guy. He think he still one of the best receivers in the league and he really not,” Ward said. “He was trying to talk noise and talk hard all game. We not scared of him. He thought we was scared of him… He was just yip-yapping all game, but we don’t care about that.”
Ward wasn't done though as he brought Hopkins' suspension for PED use into play.
He was doing some dirty things… He tried to clip me, he grabbed me by the throat, grabbed my face mask on one play, so I don’t respect his game. That’s steroid boy.”
DeAndre Hopkins was suspended for the first six games this season for performance-enhancing drugs. Since his return though, he ranks among the league leaders in catches and receiving yards. He has 45 catches for 487 yards and two touchdowns in five games.