TEMPE, Ariz. -- Silent counts are supposed to be reserved for road games, when raucous crowds are unmanageable.

They’re usually tucked away for home games, when quarterbacks can control crowd noise like a maestro conducting their orchestra. That wasn't the case Sunday at University of Phoenix Stadium.

The Arizona Cardinals were forced to go from a verbal snap count to a silent one on the first drive against San Francisco because the 49ers fans in attendance got too loud.

“Wish it wouldn’t happen right now,” Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said. “We would hope that the visiting team wouldn’t get that many tickets and have to use a silent count at home.”

The noise affected the offensive line -- specifically right tackle Bobby Massie, who looked “fairly rusty” in his first game back from a two-game suspension.

“What cost him was crowd noise,” Arians said. “He couldn’t hear early in the game because the crowd noise got us at home.”

The answer to combating crowd noise on offense, Arians implied, was to get tickets out of visiting fans’ hands.

They “have way too many tickets,” Arians said.