Dealing Cards: Lamenting the little mistakes on offense; IR list grows to 14

TEMPE, Ariz. – After watching the film from Sunday’s 20-15 loss at Washington, Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians came to one conclusion: They should’ve won, and perhaps easily.

Instead, Arizona dropped its eighth game of the season and officially dropped out of playoff contention, though the latter may have been determined long ago minus the asterisk next to their name.

Defensively, “other than two plays, I don’t know if we could’ve played better,” Arians said, pointing to the Redskins’ lack of a run game (31 yards, a season-best allowed) and how they performed on third down (1-of-9, including missing on all six second-half chances).

Arians called the Redskins’ 36-yard screen pass for a touchdown to running back Kapri Bibbs, which put the Redskins ahead 14-6 midway through the second quarter, a product of youth.

“We just have to … realize as a young player, you just don’t get unblocked, it’s a screen,” he said Monday.

Special teams also performed well, from kicker Phil Dawson (five field goals) to punter Andy Lee (46.6 yard net) to safety Budda Baker (kickoff recovery to start second half). Before getting hurt, Brittan Golden’s punt return “at the end of the game should’ve set us up for a win and we just didn’t get the balls caught at the end of the game,” Arians said.

And that was a problem all game.

Offensively, the Cardinals didn’t execute well enough, especially inside the red zone. The Cardinals failed to score a touchdown on any of their six trips inside the Redskins’ 20-yard line.

“You just got to make plays, whether catches, throws, protections. A little bit all of the above,” Arians said. “One block, when a guy catches a ball, instead of standing there watching, you turn and make a block and it’s a touchdown. Little things like that, which hampered the offensive performance.

“Other than the first turnover, it was a pretty solid day offensively. And when you get down there (in the red zone), it’s a 28-point game easily with the plays just throw it and catch it or protect.”

QB the only change on offense

Because of the recent offensive struggles, Arians announced Drew Stanton would start over Blaine Gabbert at quarterback this week against the New York Giants.

Any other changes on that side of the ball will likely have to wait until after the season.

“We’re playing with so many different guys. Had it been the group that started the year, you’d be looking to make changes (considering the results), but those changes have all been made so you can’t make any more changes,” Arians said. “So it’s just a matter of learning. Learning and making a play. Seeing it happen in practice and then seeing it happen fullspeed in a game are two different things. That’s experience.”

The Cardinals have not scored a touchdown in 10 consecutive quarters, dating back to Dec. 3 against the Los Angeles Rams.

“If it was Carson (Palmer) and David (Johnson) and John Brown and all those guys, yeah,” Arians said, “I’d look at (the offense) totally different. Then it would be coaching. It would be like, ‘What the hell are we doing?’

“But when you got guys wide open or a guy turns somebody loose on a blitz and it’s a really good play, you know it’s execution. And you have to accept some of it as a coach when it’s youth and guys out there are doing it for the first time.”

Another player to IR

On Golden’s late-game punt return he suffered a broken right arm which is going to end his season, according to Arians.

Golden will be placed on injured reserve, becoming the 14th player currently on the Cardinals’ list.

Aside from Golden, Arians had no further injury updates.

“We’ve got some guys that are still in MRI tubes right now as we speak, so we don’t know the severity of a couple of ankles,” he said, specifically mentioning linebacker Karlos Dansby and tight end Troy Niklas, the latter of whom was spotted with his left foot in a walking boot in the locker room.

Arians added tight end Jermaine Gresham was feeling better — Gresham did not make the trip to Washington D.C. because of illness — but now defensive lineman Olsen Pierre has the flu and could miss the upcoming week of practice.

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