NFL Week 11

Cardinals win behind Drew Stanton's modest but important contribution. They are a defense-based team, and frankly they're better with him than Palmer. He goes deep, which is what they need.

It would be almost impossible for them not to win the division. They lead SF by three and Seattle by four, and those guys still play each other twice.

 

Sanchez now playing like the QB that Jet fans know and love. Just threw once of his classic picks where he should have held on to the football. When things start turning bad Sanchez is not the guy you want behind center. He always makes things worse.

 

Had a thought while watching that last fumble return for a touchdown by the Packers, on which the guy almost literally walked the last 25 yards to the end zone with three blockers surrounding him.
It looked like the nearest Eagles player was about 40 yards away. If he'd have just stopped inside the 5-yard line, turned around with his guys around him, and waited until the Eagles got wise to what he was doing and made a token effort to make a play, how much time could he have burned off the clock before casually stepping into the end zone? A minute? Two? Would it have been viewed as a smart play or rubbing it in the face?

 

Didn't that score make it 53-13? I don't think clock management was a huge concern there.

 

Yeah, and there was about 10 minutes left, which is part of the reason why I was thinking it'd be interesting to see someone do that. Sort of a "let's see if we can speed this thing up" move.
It'd either be viewed as a heads-up play or one that would break the internet with fury about taunting and bad sportsmanship.

 

At that point of the game with the score as it was, throw the ball and hope for something. Interception? Big deal.

 

Some guys make things happen in those situations. Nothing good ever happens when Sanchez is in that situation. Today Sanchez stat line includes a pick six and fumble that lead to TD.

 

Given the wide margin, I think you just finish the play there. I think it would have looked more like taunting than clock management if he had stopped.

 

Yep, I was the one who said it. I still think it holds true. Flaws or not, the three best teams in the NFL are still the Colts, Pats and Broncos.

Cardinals and Packers are probably closer to the conversation than I gave them credit for at the time (Packers, in particular), but the AFC still looks stronger to me.

The Cardinals' offense just stinks, though. I don't see how you can say they're better with Stanton. The numbers pretty clearly show they're better with Palmer.

 

Is that right? What numbers are those? They score about the same number of points with each player. Complete more passes with Palmer, get more big plays and fewer turnovers from Stanton.

But they aren't a QB-driven team anyway. They'll go where the D takes them.