TEMPE, Ariz. -- It's not too late for the Arizona Cardinals to salvage their season. However, it will be over before they know it if they don't shore up all the problems that have plagued them during a 3-4 start.
Their deficiencies showed up all at once during their latest debacle, a 33-0 rout at the hands of the Rams in London in Week 7.
After a week off to digest what went wrong again, the hope inside the locker room was that the bye helped to say goodbye to all the inconsistent and wretched performances they've showed to date.
That was wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald's message immediately after the Rams' game.
"I think it's going to be good for guys to kind of get away for a little bit and maybe watch some games on TV and see what happens with the Rams and Seattle and teams that we're chasing at this point," he said. "For me, it's kind of definitely a reset button. Come about Thursday or Friday, I start having that itch to kind of get back into it, and you come back with a renewed sense of urgency because you see where you are.
"At 3-4, we're three games out of first place now (actually two games out), when you had the opportunity to be tied for first. And we understand we have a ways to go, but it's been done. It can be. It's a hill that we have to climb."
For now, the Cardinal' main objective is just getting back to .500 and see where they can go from there. It becomes a simple week-to-week goal with no looking forward and no looking back. And all that is on their mind is this week's game at the 49ers (0-8).
"We are focused on reloading and coming back to handle San Francisco," Fitzgerald said.
The Cardinals are 3-1 after their bye week under head coach Bruce Arians, including a victory last season at San Francisco with backup Drew Stanton being forced into action because of a concussion suffered by Carson Palmer. A year later, Stanton is in the same boat again, forced into a starting role with Palmer now out at least eight weeks because of a broken left arm.
Stanton is 6-3 as a starter when replacing Palmer as Arizona's starter.
"I've learned so much from Carson, sitting back and watching him operate," Stanton said, adding of the team's game plan moving forward, "It won't deviate too much because that's what's been successful."
Except it hasn't been successful. It hasn't been since 2015, when the Cardinals finished 13-3 and advanced to the NFC Championship Game. There looked to be signs of a positive change, however, just a week before the loss to Los Angeles. The Cardinals traded a conditional sixth-round pick to New Orleans for running back Adrian Peterson and the veteran responded with 134 rushing yards and two touchdowns in his Arizona debut during a victory over Tampa Bay.
Peterson suggested that now that Palmer is out, the Cardinals might be wise to focus more of their attention on the running game.
"I'm sure running the ball would help us out a lot," he said. "But there's a lot we have to clean up."
The Cardinals rank last in the league in rushing, averaging just 63.4 yards per game. Peterson and the Cardinals were held to just 25 total rushing yards in the loss to the Rams.
But there are other problems wrecking this season as well, like poor performances across the board form a revamped and reconfigured offensive line, incredibly inept defense on third down, an inability to regularly put pressure on opposing quarterbacks and, worst of all, a tendency for the entire team to let down and fold when things don't go right during a game.
"I think our team right now doesn't overcome bad things very well," Arians said a day after the Rams' game. "If there's one thing I can say about our team is - and I hate to say we're kind of front runners - when things are going good, they're going really good. Right now, we have to be able to adjust on that sideline emotionally when something doesn't go our way. A lot of that is the youth in the football team."
--Linebacker Bryson Albright on Monday was elevated to the active roster from the 10-man practice squad. He joined the team on Sept. 4. Albright appeared in one game for the Bills in 2016 and split his rookie season between the Bills' active roster and practice squad upon signing with Buffalo as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Miami (Ohio).
Filling Albright's place on the practice squad is tackle Javarius Leamon, who entered the league with the Jets in May as an undrafted rookie free agent from South Carolina State.
--"You go back and look at yourself, starting with me and the preparation. And then we have another road game, so it's a West Coast game and it'll be a little different than going East. We'll look at what injuries we have and what we have available to play with and make a game plan." -- Head coach Bruce Arians on how the Cardinals hope to respond coming out of their bye week.
--Left tackle D.J. Humphries said keeping hope alive won't be an issue inside the Cardinals' locker room, no matter how bleak things may look at the moment.
"That won't be a problem at all," he said. "We've got a group of guys that want to come to work every day, that want to be the best, so I don't think keeping hope alive and keeping guys interested is going to be a problem."
NOTES: QB Carson Palmer was officially placed on injured reserve on Oct. 26, meaning he will be sidelined for at least eight weeks. Palmer, who suffered a broken left arm in London against the Rams, won't be eligible to return until Dec. 24 against the Giants at the earliest. ... QB Drew Stanton said he doesn't feel he has to save the world as the Cardinals' new starting quarterback. He just has to be himself and not pretend he's Carson Palmer. "There are certain nuances that I'm just going to be myself," he said. "I'm not going to try and fake it and do something out of character for myself. I think that's the biggest thing that I've learned in being in this business, is that you have to be authentic, you have to be yourself." ... RB Adrian Peterson needs 92 yards to surpass Thurman Thomas (12,074) and move into 15th place on the NFL's all-time rushing yards list. He needs 138 to also move past Franco Harris (12,120) and into 14th place and 261 to surpass Marcus Allen (12,243) for 13th place.
REPORT CARD AFTER 7 GAMES
--PASSING OFFENSE: C-minus - It was typically hit or miss under Carson Palmer, who is now out for at least the next eight weeks with a broken left arm. Palmer wasn't as effective as he has been in the past when looking for the deep ball and it didn't help that he was constantly harried under a relentless pass rush by opposing teams because of a reshuffled and patchwork offensive line that failed to protect him. There have been some bright spots - like the ageless play of Larry Fitzgerald (when they throw it to him) and the emergence at times of Jaron Brown (who returned from ACL surgery) - but it's clear the Cardinals sorely missed what injured running back David Johnson (fractured wrist) gave to them out of the backfield as a primary offensive pass-catching threat.
--RUSHING OFFENSE: D-minus - With no David Johnson, there was no rushing attack whatsoever. Well, not until future Hall of Famer Adrian Peterson arrived via a very economic trade with the Saints and ran for 134 yards and two touchdowns in his Arizona debut during a win over the Buccaneers. The problem is, head coach Bruce Arians went away from the running game the very next week in a 33-0 rout at the hands of the Rams as soon as things started to unravel and the Cardinals remain the worst rushing team in the league. Peterson thinks the Cardinals can turn this part of their offense around if they just stick with the run a little - or a lot - longer, but Arizona rarely did that during its first seven games. The run blocking was below average in all but one game - Peterson's debut.
--PASS DEFENSE: D - Outside of Chandler Jones, a pass rush has been virtually non-existent for the Cardinals and even Jones hasn't actually been all that disruptive. Yes, the outside linebacker registered eight sacks through seven games, but he hasn't been a game-changer or really helped at all in forcing turnovers. The rest of the team has five sacks combined, and Arizona's 13 overall sacks is tied for 24th in the league. It doesn't help that the team lost its sack leader from a year ago, outside linebacker Markus Golden, to a season-ending ACL injury. Arizona is getting no push whatsoever up the middle. The Cardinals are ranked 20th against the pass, allowing an average of 247 yards per game and 14 touchdown passes - tied for the third-most allowed. They've tried two different corners opposite Patrick Peterson and still aren't settled at that position. Safeties Tyvon Branch and Antoine Bethea have played well, but Tyrann Mathieu has disappeared at times and only been a real factor in one game thus far.
--RUSH DEFENSE: C - This unit ranks middle of the pack, allowing an average of 105.9 yards, which is uncharacteristic. On the positive side, it's only allowing 3.7 yards per rush, which ranks seventh-best overall. They've only allowed one, 100-yard rusher this season to date, the Rams' Todd Gurley in Week 7, but there's nothing to make one think that the Cardinals' run defense is impenetrable. It is, unless inside linebackers Karlos Dansby, Haason Reddick and Deone Bucannon pick up their play and the Cardinals get more disruption up front and start making more of a mess in opposing backfields.
--SPECIAL TEAMS: D - Veteran Phil Dawson was brought in to finally bring some stability at kicker and he's missed five field-goal attempts, three of them inside 40 yards. New punter Andy Lee has been consistent, but not as good as he once was with the 49ers. The Cardinals are on their second long snapper after losing Aaron Brewer to a dislocated wrist and newcomer Justin Drescher's snap two weeks ago in London was low, which may have accounted for Dawson's missed 32-yard field-goal attempt. The return game has been null and void, but the coverage teams have been even worse and helped result in lopsided field position.
--COACHING: D-plus - Head coach Bruce Arians has dealt with his share of injuries thus far, but so have several other men in his position this season and he won't use it as an excuse. The problem was, the Cardinals weren't very competitive and not nearly consistent enough at all even when they were healthier. Losing star playmaker David Johnson in the season opener seemed to set the tone for the rest of the team, but even after getting a jolt from the Adrian Peterson trade, the Cardinals seemed to fold far too easily at the slightest sign of trouble and that is a reflection of their head coach, who has been too quick to abandon the running game at times and perhaps too stubborn to alter the game plan when a very ineffective offensive line clearly wasn't playing up to par. Defensive coordinator James Bettcher needs a reboot of positivity, but it would appear too late for special teams coordinator Amos Jones, who probably should have been let go a year ago.
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