Arizona Cardinals Lose Stanton, Win Game Vs Rams 12-6

The Arizona Cardinals are dealing with yet another possible major injury in their victory over the St. Louis Rams Thursday night

Time for next man up.  Again.  The Arizona Cardinals lost yet one more major piece on Thursday night in quarterback Drew Stanton but they won the battle on the field Thursday night.

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The Cardinals lost quarterback Drew Stanton in the third quarter and he was carted off with an apparent knee injury.  He missed the rest of the game but no indication what the specific knee injury was.  Ryan Lindley finished off the game, going 4-10 for 30 yards.

It was the defense and kicker Chandler Catanzaro that did the St. Louis Rams in on Thursday night.  The only offense was four field goals for the Cardinals and three for the Rams.  For the Cardinals it was all they needed.

The running game took center stage on offense for the Cardinals.  Running back Kerwynn Williams was back at it on Thursday night.  He rushed 15 times for 75 yards.  Running back Stepfan Taylor rushed the ball 14 times for 61 yards.  The team rushed for 143 yards.  This was a much better effort on the ground than the first time around in Glendale in November.

The defense though was the story.  They held Rams quarterback Shaun Hill to 20-39 for 229 yards and an interception.  Rams running back Tre Mason ran the ball 13 times for just 33 yards.  They only ran for 69 yards as a team.  That is below the Cardinals yearly average on defense.

Defensive tackle Frostee Rucker was the man on Thursday night.  He had a sack and three of his four tackles for losses.  Linebacker Larry Foote also had sack.  The defensive line put pressure on Hill all night.  Defensive end Calais Campbell had two quarterback hits.

After Stanton went out it was only a matter of managing the game.  Lindley did that.  He threw a couple of nice balls.  He wasn’t perfect.  Far from it.  What he was though was a guy that was able to do what the Cardinals asked him to do.

For now, we wait and see the next couple of days what the future holds for Stanton.  If there is no major damage, he has 10 days until the next game.  That was the advantage of playing Thursday night.

There will be a lot to talk about the next 10 days.  For now, the Cardinals are in the playoffs as long as the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles don’t tie on Sunday night.  11-3 sure sounds good, I don’t care who the quarterback is.