Rams at Cardinals
In the NFC West, no team is out of it. Not even the hapless Arizona Cardinals.
The Cardinals will be looking to bounce back from a national television embarrassment when they host the St. Louis Rams on Sunday.
Playing on Monday Night Football against another NFC West foe with a sub-.500 record, Arizona (3-8) figured it had a good chance to pick up a win playing at home. But things did not go so well once the game started and the San Francisco 49ers rolled over the Cardinals 27-6.
Arizona managed only 13 yards on the ground and turned the ball over twice in the drubbing, converting only 2 of 13 third downs and holding onto the ball for only 21 minutes during the contest. The Cardinals did not score in the second half, going three-and-out on four of five possessions.
Toward the end of the game, television cameras picked up Arizona quarterback Derek Anderson laughing on the sidelines with one of his offensive linemen. When asked about it after the game, Anderson became defensive and stormed away from the interview podium.
The Cardinals have alternated between Anderson and rookie Max Hall at quarterback this season, with neither establishing himself as a long-term replacement for the retired Kurt Warner.
The person who has been hurt the most by the quarterback shuffle has been wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who is down to five touchdown catches this season after finishing with a career-high 13 last year.
Losers of six in a row, Arizona is, amazingly, still in the race for the NFC West, where a sub-.500 record could get a team into the playoffs. The Cardinals don’t have any games left on the schedule with winning teams and their lone remaining road contests are at 1-10 Carolina and a rematch with 4-7 San Francisco.
One of the teams trying to hold off Arizona is the Rams (5-6), who are tied with the Seattle Seahawks at the top of the division. Led by a rookie quarterback in Sam Bradford, St. Louis believes it has arrived at the cusp of what will be a long run of success.
The division could very likely come down to a Week 17 game when the Rams visit the Seahawks.
But first St. Louis will have to start stringing some wins together. The Rams held off the Denver Broncos on Sunday 36-33 as Bradford passed for 308 yards and three touchdowns - the first 300-yard game of his career.
The defense could be a concern, however, as the Broncos scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to turn a blow out into a nail-biter.
The Rams and Cardinals squared off in Week 1, with Arizona squeezing out a 17-13 victory when Anderson and Fitzgerald hooked up for a 21-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. Bradford went 32 of 55 for 253 yards in his pro debut.