NFL Week 4 Byes: Looking back, looking forward
By Andrew Garda
Arizona Cardinals, 3-0
Despite losing quarterback Carson Palmer, the Arizona Cardinals sit atop the NFC West. After eking out a win against the San Diego Chargers, they’ve had two solid wins over the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers.
That it’s been backup quarterback Drew Stanton who has led them the last two weeks is surprising. He has proven more than serviceable in both starts and looked very good against the tough San Francisco 49ers.
The team will hope that Palmer feels better coming out of the bye, but they need not rush him if Stanton can keep up the level of play we saw this past Sunday.
The Cardinals have a tough game after the bye in Denver against the Broncos but after that they have two games they should win in Washington and Oakland. Washington is a bit tough to figure out with Kirk Cousins under center—how good is he really?—but Oakland is a game they are expected to win.
The Cardinals are solid overall defensively (ranked No. 7 by NFL.com), though far less effective against the pass (ranked No. 19) then the run (ranked No. 4 by NFL.com).
Both the Niners and the Broncos can throw the ball and while rookie quarterback Derek Carr has absolutely looked like a rookie, he can also throw a nice ball and could challenge this streaky pass defense. The plus side on the defense is it hasn’t given up a ton of touchdowns (just four, tied for 16th fewest in the league per NFL.com).
The Cardinals also need to improve their offensive line play, especially in run blocking, where Pro Football Focus had the entire line graded negatively over the first three weeks (subscription link). Pass blocking has been much better, though Paul Fanaika and Ted Larsen have both struggled in pass protection as well and the team has allowed six sacks thus far.
If they can tighten up the pass defense a bit and improve the offensive line, the Cardinals appear to have a good shot at taking the NFC West.