NFL.com’s Bucky Brooks ranks Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians among NFL’s best in-game coaches

The talent level among teams in the National Football League does not vary much.

A play here or there typically decides the outcome of a game, which is a reason why there is so much turnover year-to-year among teams that make the playoffs.

In fact, until last year there had been 11 straight seasons where a team went from worst-to-first within their division.

The difference between a good and great team usually comes down to coaching, and that is what NFL.com’s Bucky Brooks points out among his rankings of best in-game NFL coaches.

Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians comes in at number five on that list.

There are a lot of coaches worthy of recognition on this list, but few head coaches can match Arians’ resiliency and adaptability. The two-time NFL Coach of the Year managed to lead the Cardinals to the postseason despite playing with a number of backups and castoffs — most notably at the quarterback positon, where Arizona only got six games from starter Carson Palmer, thanks to injuries. Without an accomplished quarterback to anchor the Cardinals’ attack, Arians tweaked his offensive philosophy to help the team win by utilizing a “complementary football” approach. The veteran play caller not only scaled back on the risky offensive plays, but he made a conscious effort to win the field-position battle. These subtle adjustments routinely go unnoticed, but astute football minds appreciate Arians’ ability to adjust on the fly.

Arians took the helm after the Cardinals won five games in 2012 and has gone 21-11 since, posting the franchise’s first back-to-back double-digit winning season since moving to Arizona.

The Cardinals have been nearly unbeatable at home, going 13-3 under Arians. Their seven home wins last year was the most since the franchise tallied 11 wins in 1925.

Arians was able to completely revamp the Cardinals’ offense, which was ranked 32nd the year before he took over and improved to 12th under his stewardship.

The Cardinals’ head coach sports a 34-10 record over his last 44 games (12 with Indianapolis), which ranks him 4th among all NFL head coaches during that span.