When the 49ers and Cardinals tried to explain the roiling hostility between them Sunday, their division rivalry became an easy excuse. Arizona head coach Ken Whisenhunt and several players from both locker rooms defaulted to that cliched answer.

But the late shoves, the post-whistle scuffles and even the fourth-quarter enemy incursion on the 49ers' sideline looked like replays from non-division games against Washington and Tampa Bay. In Detroit, Jim Schwartz didn't need an NFC West affiliation to push him even further over the edge and into handshake hysteria.

The Lions' head coach just had to be playing against a San Francisco team that brings out the worst in its opponents. The 49ers provoke faulty football and atrocious protocol.

The Cardinals reacted a little earlier than most opponents, days before the first snap of their 23-7 loss. Defensive coordinator Ray Horton referred to the 49ers' tight-end shift, an unorthodox motion that has tricked two defenses into jumping early and providing first downs, as "cute."

"The league has said it's a cute play, also a legal, cute play," Horton said. "So kudos to them for having cute plays in."

The derision provided trash-talk material for at least one 49er. On a 4th-and-short play Sunday, left tackle Joe Staley said he heard the Cardinals warning each other: "Watch out for those shifts."

Staley said he taunted them by cooing sarcastically: "Yea, watch for those cute things."

When the teams got into their stance, he said, "I was still going: 'Here comes something cute.' Then we passed for the first down, and I was saying: 'Aw, that's so cute.' "

For some reason, 49ers safety Dashon Goldson and Arizona receiver Early Doucet couldn't muster the same witty repartee. At the end of a play, Doucet stood over a fallen Goldson and walloped his helmet. The officials missed that exchange. They saw only Goldson jumping up and taking two swings at Doucet, earning an ejection.

As an official escorted Goldson to the sideline, chastising him the whole way, Doucet fumed on the field and had to be restrained by teammate Larry Fitzgerald. Doucet insisted later that Goldson had hit him first, whacking him from behind as the play ended.

"He kind of hit me when I wasn't looking," said Doucet, "and I just kind of lost it after that. ... I'm usually a fair player, and I felt like that wasn't a fair shot that he took on me. So I felt that it was right for me to take a shot back at him."

If any video shows the alleged first swipe, the TV coverage didn't reveal it. But as he talked about the incident, Doucet made another point.

"There was frustration throughout the whole game for us. ... We kept shooting ourselves in the foot," he said. "... Everybody was pretty much on a short fuse, so it was only matter of time before things escalated. So I guess I was the one that kicked it off."

Five plays later, Arizona's Michael Adams ended up on the 49ers' sideline, administering a late hit on return man Ted Ginn Jr., a rough re-enactment of Washington linebacker London Fletcher's foolishness two weeks earlier.

Adams and Goldson both vanished quickly from their locker rooms. If they'd stuck around for intensive questioning, they probably would have cited the division rivalry. Even Doucet eventually fell into line and used the standard excuse.

Staley admits that the two teams love to jabber at each other, and tight end Vernon Davis expressed even a certain admiration for the energetic chatter of Cardinals defensive lineman Darnell Dockett.

Doucet's original take seemed the most honest, and relevant to all of the other skirmishes. Teams under-perform against the 49ers and don't entirely understand why. The offense seems so limited, incapable of the Brady/Rodgers/Brees success that opponents fear and respect.

On Sunday, quarterback Alex Smith looked about as weak as he has all season. David Akers missed three field-goal tries (two of them blocked). The Cardinals should have been in the game.

But as they absorbed the typically demoralizing pummeling from the 49ers' defense and bruising from their running backs, Smith performed his usual brand of triage, salvaging enough plays to keep a winning streak, now at eight games, alive.

Both elements hurt, the pounding and the exasperation of submitting abjectly to a team that is not manifestly superior.

Asked whether he thought his team got under opponents' skin, head coach Jim Harbaugh replied: "Can't comment on what's under other people's skin other than my own."

He did say that he thought his team did not appear to lose its composure. "I didn't think that once the whistle stopped, that we were the ones that were shoving and getting the extra shove in," Harbaugh said. "It comes to a point where you can't always concede the last shove. (But) you can't get emotionally hijacked, either."

If the Cardinals read that quote today, they undoubtedly will find it cute.

49ers Beat: Peelle subs at fullback for Miller. B7

The view from Arizona: The Cardinals waved the white flag, writes Arizona Republic columnist Dan Bickley. B5