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Bruce Arians: Arizona Cardinals 'only play to win'

The Arizona Cardinals showed some fight on Sunday, but not enough in a 32-20 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. At least not enough for Bruce Arians.

The Cardinals coach bristled at the notion that losing a tight game to a division heavy might be seen -- to borrow the words of Jerry Jones -- as a moral victory.

"No. We only play to win. I don't give a damn about playing close," Arians told reporters after the game. "We're here to win, we had the game in our hand. That's what we take from it. If we quit beating ourselves, we can beat anybody."

The Cardinals committed four turnovers and allowed 49ers tight end Vernon Davis to dance all over the field to the tune of 180 yards on eight catches.

Arians is building a team that won't be an easy out for anyone in the division, but his Cardinals looked tired down the stretch against a 49ers squad well-versed in grinding it out.

San Francisco turned a third-quarter fumble by Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald into a bloodletting, 18-play touchdown drive that ate more than nine minutes off the clock and put the game out of reach. In the aftermath, Arians summed it up better than we can:

"You can't run out of gas," he said. "There's no such thing as running out of gas. You just kick somebody's ass, and you'll be all right, and you'll get off the field."

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