Despite beating the Rams 12-6 on Thursday Night Football, the Arizona Cardinals lost another quarterback and will have to find a way to win out with their third (or fourth) quarterback.
The St. Louis Rams knocked out the Cardinals quarterback in the Cardinals win.
Sound familiar? It should. St. Louis knocked out Carson Palmer for the year and knocked out Drew Stanton with a knee injury in the Cardinals 12-6 win on Thursday Night Football in what may have been one of the lower-scoring ugly Thursday night games this season.
“I’m glad we don’t have to play the Rams anymore,” Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald said.
The game saw no touchdowns, a total of six field goals, four by the Cards’ Chandler Catanzaro to push the Cardinals to 11-3, the best record in the NFL and Arizona’s first time at the 11-win mark since 1975.
Arizona was also the first team this season to win without scoring a touchdown.
And they did it with a 4-for-10 for 30 yards performance under quarterback Ryan Lindley.
The only way Arizona makes a legitimate run into the playoffs is if their defense can dig deep and realize that a trip to the Super Bowl (which is now as likely as the Cardinals signing me to play quarterback) will rely purely on them. Take note: Ryan Lindley, who was signed off San Diego’s practice squad, will not help push this team into January. He may push them home, but not into the playoffs.
He hasn’t played in two years and in that 2012 season, with Arizona at that, he went 1-3 as the starter, throwing seven interceptions with no touchdowns for 752 yards and completed 52 percent of his passes (89-for-171).
Do we need more proof that he isn’t the answer?
While some would say that rookie quarterback Logan Thomas should get the ball over Lindley considering the fact that Thomas, at least, has a touchdown pass to his credit, Thomas may not be the best answer either. He went 1-for-8 with a 81 yard touchdown pass against the Broncos in Week 5, however he may still need some time learning under head coach Bruce Arians before Thomas is ready.
“It was not a time to put Logan out there,” Arians said. “He’s going to be a good player someday, but he’s not ready for this yet. And Ryan was more than ready.”
(If 4-for-10 for 30 yards is “more than ready,” then it’s safe to say that a lot of us are “more than ready.”)
But if Lindley’s going to be the starter going forward, the Cardinals defense will have to step up.
Despite keeping the Rams out of the end zone, Arizona allowed the Rams to gain 280 yards of offense on the night under quarterback Shaun Hill, who threw for 229 yards with an interception.
The Cardinal defense is still ranked 14th in yards allowed per game (350 ypg/allowed), but is second in points allowed per game (17.4 ppg/allowed), which has pushed them to the best record in the NFL.
The only way this team will make a January run is if the Cardinals’ defense continues to keep their opponents out of the end zone, but they can do a better job holding teams from moving downfield. If they’re going to make a January run, they will have to play their best defense in franchise history.
With the defense needing to step up, all Lindley or Thomas have to do under center is avoid turnovers, make smart decisions and be accurate passing. Arians is going to let his quarterback throw the football, so forcing the running game to carry the offense is out of the question.
With two key divisional games to close out the season, especially a huge Sunday night game against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday Night Football next week, Arizona is in control of their own destiny. They’ll clinch a playoff spot as long as Sunday night’s Cowboys-Eagles game doesn’t end in a tie, or Detroit loses combined with a Green bay win.
The Cardinals shocked the world once. But can they do it again, this time under different circumstances?
Next: Who are the NFL's 30 greatest QB's of all-time?
Add us as a preferred source on Google