Arizona Cardinals: The good, bad, and ugly

The ugly

Injuries.  It didn’t sound good on guards Mike Iupati and Evan Mathis as indicated prior.  The short week doesn’t necessarily play into it but the Cardinals, who avoided big injuries for the most part last season minus a couple of players like Chris Johnson and Tyrann Mahieu, are now once again hoping to avoid disaster with some important players.

Past injuries also affect how things went Thursday night.  While David Johnson was able to have himself a night, you would like to not have to hand him the ball 27 times and have him catch another 3.  That’s 30 touches.

While Stanton managed to keep the game turnover-free he still only completed 39 percent of his passes.  Carson Palmer isn’t lighting the world on fire either, however you still have to feel more comfortable with him behind center.

Stanton himself wasn’t ugly by any stretch Thursday night, although early on it was trending that way.  Only four players caught passes on Thursday night.

Which leads into the last ugly, the receivers.  Michael Floyd was held without a catch.  John Brown dropped a couple as well.  Jaron Brown couldn’t come up with one catch either.  Some of that is on Stanton, but there were some very catchable passes as well.