Dealing Cards: Arizona still recovering from Sunday’s battle

TEMPE, Ariz. — At some point, the Arizona Cardinals need to move on from their last game.

The sooner, the better.

The last time the Cardinals were on the field was Sunday night, when they battled the Seattle Seahawks to a 6-6 tie. It was a brutal game, both physically and emotionally, and one that cannot be dwelled on for too long with a road date in Carolina against the Panthers looming.

At the same time, in some ways, there isn’t much the Cardinals can do.

“Alright, really didn’t do much today,” Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said after practice Wednesday. “As far as offensively, it was just a walk-through. Defensively, we had a tempo practice for about half and then we walked through the last part.

“We basically played two games in one night the other night and not physically ready to do that much.”

“Definitely tired,” QB Carson Palmer said. “I think we were all physically tired. We were also mentally tired. It was nice to not have a full-padded practice today for the first time in a long time. Normally, Wednesdays are full-go, full pads, and it was nice to give your body a rest, especially the guys up front.”

On Monday, guard Mike Iupati said it felt like he got hit by a train, and while a day off Tuesday surely did everyone some good, it wasn’t nearly enough time off to fully recharge.

Running back David Johnson admitted he was still “a little sore,” while safety Tyrann Mathieu said he felt pretty good.

“I can’t complain,” he said.

While the Cardinals are battling the effects of a recently-played game, their opponent comes into this week with the luxury of some additional rest. The Panthers were off in Week 7, and therefore enter Week 8 well rested.

“Yeah,” Panthers LB Luke Kuechly said when asked if the bye came at the right time for them. “We had some guys that had been banged up earlier on in the year, and hopefully we can get some of those guys back. The season, obviously the 1-5 start, with the bye week where it was, it gives you a chance to kind of sit back and regroup a little bit and look at some areas that we need to fix. I think it happened at the best possible time for us, so now we’ve just got to go out there and regroup and try to make something happen.”

On Nov. 13, when the Cardinals face the San Francisco 49ers at University of Phoenix Stadium, they will have the benefit of coming off of a bye.

This week, especially coming off the 75-minute game against Seattle, the schedule proved to be a disadvantage.

“Well, definitely,” Palmer said when asked if the light practice Wednesday will impact them on Sunday. “You’re playing a team coming off a bye. They’ve had an extra week and you’ve played an extra quarter of football against a division opponent. So I just think with their rest that they have and with us playing Sunday night and playing late, we had a good outcome of guys just really walking through most of practice and not having pads on.”

What kind of impact, if any, Sunday’s game against the Seahawks will have one week later against the Panthers is anyone’s guess, though it’s fair to assume it would not be a positive one. At any rate, the Cardinals have no choice but to move on, assuming their bodies are willing.

It’s a big game, after all, with each team still eyeing the playoffs yet not exactly in great positions at the moment.

“This is a huge game for both of us,” Arians said. “They’re coming off of their bye week and reset their goals. We’re hobbling into it, but it’s a big, big game for us on the road. We know we’re going to have to win on the road the rest of the way.”

Injury update

The official injury report can be found here, and it’s safe to say the Cardinals are a bit more beat up than their counterparts. Given the Cardinals held only a walk-through, it’s possible certain players who did not participate could have if it was a regular practice.

Receiver John Brown, however, was back on the field.

“John Brown was good, yeah,” Arians said. “We’ll monitor his reps each day and add more and more exercise and he should be fine.”

Of Patrick Peterson, who was injured Sunday and is listed as having not practiced due to a rib injury, Arians said “he’s fine,” and of Jared Veldheer, who fractured a finger, the expectation is he will play, albeit with a cast on his hand that is a bit shorter than the one he is currently wearing.

“Oh God yeah,” Arians said of the need to shrink it. “He got an eight-foot cast for his finger.”

CJ2K is on the mend

The Cardinals put running back Chris Johnson on injured reserve Oct. 4 after he suffered a groin injury in the team’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams. He underwent surgery for a sports hernia shortly thereafter, and on Wednesday, just more than three weeks since he was hurt, Johnson said he was feeling great.

“I’m ahead of schedule, stuff like that,” he said. “So I feel great, just getting better and better every day. Like, every day is getting better and better — every week is getting better.

“So just going to continue to stay here working out, rehabbing, getting the treatment and stuff like that and just be ready when I can practice. Just be ready.”

As per the NFL’s policy, Johnson would be eligible to return to practice six weeks from the time he was placed on injured reserve, and then could be active for a game two weeks from there. That means, if everything went on schedule, he would be able to play on Dec. 4 when the Cardinals host the Washington Redskins in Week 13.

It’s a similar situation to what Johnson dealt with last season, when he was rehabbing from a leg injury and would have been able to play in the Super Bowl, had the Cardinals made it that far. Johnson said it’s different this year because unlike then, when he was hanging on every game knowing if the team lost his season was over, this time around he knows a return could simply come down to his being ready to go when the time comes.

In 2015, Johnson led the Cardinals with 814 rushing yards on 196 carries. In four games this season, he had run for 95 yards and one touchdown on 25 attempts.

A pillar of health who missed just one game in his first seven NFL seasons, it’s been unfortunate for the 31-year-old that in Arizona he has struggled to stay on the field.

“It’s definitely not easy,” he said. “Last year was just kind of like, you know, I got hit with the helmet in the place where I broke it, and then this year just to be running and making a cut, a no-contact injury, and it just happened. It was kind of devastating, but it’s not — I don’t feel like it’s as hard because I’ve been through tougher things — again, making it back from tougher things.

“So this is kind of like, I won’t say a cakewalk, but it’s alright.”

Oh, snap!

After Sunday’s tie, in which Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner blocked one field goal and likely impacted another by leaping over Cardinals long snapper Aaron Brewer, Wagner said he felt he could make that play in part because Brewer gets “really low” on his snaps.

“It’s something we’ve seen on film — he’s really low and I felt like I could jump over him, so I tried it and it was a success.”

Asked about Wagner’s comments Wednesday, Arians said, “that’s them talking.”

Maybe. Or, there might be something to the idea that Brewer might have been a little too close to the ground, or at least could afford to get a little taller.

“I need to get my head up, obviously, try to get a piece of that guy,” Brewer said. “So it’s something I’ve got to work on to counteract that.”

Brewer admitted to there being some confusion over the rule, and cannot comment on whether or not he believes a penalty should have been called on either play. Either way, he wants to move forward and improve.

“I’ve got to work on getting a little higher, counteracting that,” he said. “It’s something we’re going to talk about and work with.”

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