If you told Arizona Cardinals fans they would be 2-3 after the first five games, they would accept it.

If you had told them that included wins over the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams, most Cardinals fans would have rejoiced.

In what has been a rollercoaster of a week, many Cardinals fans feel back on top of the world after Arizona defeated the team that tormented them for years in San Francisco.

Not to bring those fans back down to earth (or anyone for that matter), but there are some overreactions to the game – and some correct reactions:

Verdict: Overreaction

Yes, the Cardinals played like the best team in the division for at least one day. With the Rams losing to the Packers (and sitting at 1-4) and Seattle losing at home to the Giants (quite shocking), Arizona is indeed back in the division race.

But the best team in the division? There is still a long way to go.

But today’s win was a huge warning sign for the division, that despite all the injuries, issues plaguing both sides of the ball and their recent history, the Cardinals are not messing around.

Verdict: slight overreaction

Some teams get hot early in the season. Washington is one of those teams right now, having dismantled Cleveland the same way they dismantled Arizona last week.

Were Arizona’s flaws and weaknesses exposed last week? Yes, those should still worry even the most optimistic fans.

But every team has bad games. And Arizona returned in what many would describe as an astonishing fashion.

Verdict: slight overreaction

Petzing has drawn the ire of Cardinals fans and analysts over the past week, and rightly so. His first two play calls couldn’t have gone better as rebounds against the 49ers – highlighted by a Kyler Murray 50-yard run.

The rest of the match left much to be desired, especially in third place. To be fair, Petzing can’t control the blocked field goal, Trey McBride’s missed touchdown pass or any other Kyler Murray miss.

But there were the usual head-scratching choices (some that even commentator Tom Brady couldn’t help but question) that Petzing brought up during the game. Perhaps one of the most notable was the call of play action in the red zone on a long third down.

To give Petzing his flowers, he settled in the 4th quarter and kept it simple by feeding James Conner a lot on the game-winning drive.

But there’s still some nervousness among Cardinals fans — and the main question comes down to whether he can figure out how to keep the offense consistent beyond the first drive.

Verdict: Overreaction

395 and 406. 35 and 45.

If you guessed that these were the yardage and point totals from last year’s two games, or rather losses, against San Francisco, you’re right.

Today, they allowed a similar number of yards – 384. However, the Cardinals took advantage of several strange decisions for the 49ers, along with 3 opportunistic turnovers to hold them to 23 points – in reality only 17 gave up the defense with the blocked kick return accounting for 6.

This is certainly an improvement, but if you watched the game, most of the time Arizona could do very little to stop the 49ers offense. So while it’s a step in the right direction, I do believe we need a somewhat more consistent sample size before we can say the defense has improved.

The next two games should tell us a lot about this team, and especially this defense, against two teams with great offensive lines in Green Bay and the LA Chargers.

Verdict: Overreaction

Kyler has rightly been the center of much discussion among Cardinals fans this past week after a poor performance against the Commanders. Today’s showing won’t necessarily silence the doubters – but it should make it clear that Kyler will be, or at least should be, part of the solution – and that this isn’t the problem in Arizona.

His throw to Marvin Harrison Jr. on fourth down in the fourth quarter to save the game was not luck but incredible skill. And very few quarterbacks, maybe just a few, can run to the end zone in his first quarter.

No quarterback is perfect, but it’s really up to the Cardinals staff to continue to figure out how to continue to utilize his unique skill set.

Verdict: Overreaction

In some other comforting thoughts, Marvin Harrison Jr. will be fine. He was covered pretty well in today’s game, but came up with a clutch catch when it mattered most.

Just because he isn’t putting up Malik Nabers-like numbers doesn’t mean he hasn’t proven his importance to this team and this offense. Like Murray, it’s now up to the staff to figure out how best to unlock him.

It’s hard to maintain perspective after a rollercoaster of a week, but it’s important for Cardinals fans, even at a high point, to know that it may continue to take time for everything to fall into place.

The good news? It looks like Arizona is on the right track.