Arians not pleased with how team deals with in-game adversity

We shall overcome.

Or maybe we won’t.

The Arizona Cardinals haven’t overcome much in 2017. That was apparent in their most recent loss — a 33-0 shutout at the hands of the Los Angeles Rams Sunday in London.

Things started out well for Arizona, which went 65 yards in nine plays down to the Rams’ 14-yard line on its first possession only to see Phil Dawson miss a 32-yard field goal. The Rams answered, going 73 yards on their first possession to kick a field goal and put them in the lead, where they would stay all day.

Later in the game, trailing 6-0 in the second quarter, Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer was hit by L.A.’s Alec Ogletree. Palmer, who threw an interception on the play, left the game and was later diagnosed with a broken left arm. The Rams took advantage, with Todd Gurley scoring on an 18-yard touchdown run on the next play to put Los Angeles up 13-0.

It may as well have been 130-0.

Faced with adversity on the scoreboard and the sideline, the Cardinals didn’t respond. Their coaching staff has noticed that lack of response when things go wrong.

“I think our team, right now, doesn’t overcome bad things very well,” head coach Bruce Arians told the media Monday in Tempe. “If there’s one thing I can I say about our team — and I hate to say it — but 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 on this football team.”

Arians’ point is a valid one, but there hasn’t been many stretches, to use his words, of “things going really good.” In a Week 6 win over Tampa Bay, Arizona started the game strong, scoring on its first two possessions and building a 31-0 lead. But also true to the head coach’s belief, when things started going badly, they didn’t really turn around. The Buccaneers outscored the Cardinals 33-7 over the last 23 minutes and may have simply run out of time.

With Palmer out for possibly the remainder of the season (even though Arians left the door open for a return), the adversity the Cardinals now face isn’t that of the in-game variety. At 3-4, they’re still technically in the mix in the NFC West standings, but how they respond with backup quarterback Drew Stanton at the helm remains to be seen.

Stanton has won six of the nine starts he’s made since joining the Cardinals in 2013, but five of them came in 2014 when Arizona was a playoff team with a strong mantra. “Next man up” became a necessary battle cry after a rash of injuries left them thin at many positions.

Hit with a similar run of injuries this season, those three words haven’t been offered up quite as much.

Follow @Vincemarotta