Carson Palmer not resting during Arizona Cardinals’ bye week
Nov 3, 2015, 8:57 AM
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer (3) passes against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Don Wright)
(AP Photo/Don Wright)
Carson Palmer hasn’t made many mistakes so far in 2015.
The veteran quarterback has completed 64.6 percent of his passes for 2,386 yards and a league-leading 20 touchdown passes for the Arizona Cardinals, who head into their bye week atop the NFC West with a 6-2 record.
But Palmer isn’t using the off time to travel or unwind. He’s using it to get better.
“I can’t help but look at all of the things that went wrong in the first half (of the season),” Palmer told Doug and Wolf Tuesday on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. “I’m typically a ‘glass half-full’ kind of guy, but I learn from the things that went wrong, from the mistakes I made and the bad plays I had are really the ones that stick out from the first half.
“Being 6-2 is good and all, but this is a chance now that we’re in the bye week to really reflect on that first half and figure out how to get better and why things didn’t go perfect — because we’re always striving for that perfection — and try to fix that and move on and play better, more complete games in these next eight games.”
Judging from statistics, there isn’t much that did go wrong for the 35-year-old. Palmer’s passer rating of 110.2 is third in the league, behind only New England’s Tom Brady (115.8) and Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers (110.9). Yet, he’s reviewing film from the season’s first half in an attempt to eliminate those infrequent mistakes.
Palmer has started rewatching the film from the first half. He’s already knocked out the New Orleans, Chicago and San Francisco contests.
“Just going back and watching the first eight games and trying to get a beat on anything other teams or other players are looking at that might be tells or tendencies,” he said. “Really just kind of a self-reflection on the first half of the season. And maybe things in the red zone in the games we struggle in the red zone, or trends on third down that might be something that’s holding us back. Or maybe something I’m doing in the gun that you can tell when I’m in shotgun, maybe I’m giving away run or pass.
“Just kind of looking for little things. I’ll finish that up by Friday of this week and hopefully have some good thoughts on where to head and maybe some things I can do to make us better.”
