Arizona Cardinals QB Skelton adds no extra importance to Friday’s game

The belief that Friday’s preseason game against the Raiders will be the turning point — if not the tipping point — in the Cardinals QB competition is starting to gain some steam.

From the Adam Schefter report that John Skelton is the current favorite to CBS Sports’ Jason LaCanfora saying Kevin Kolb will be given every opportunity to win the job, it could be that plenty will be on the line at University of Phoenix Stadium.

John Skelton doesn’t really see it that way.

“I don’t think you can say that this is a ‘bigger’ game; I don’t think anyone’s pressing or anything to that effect,” he said after practice in Flagstaff Tuesday. “It is an important game in the fact that we haven’t done well in the last two and we need to kind of show something here.”

So there you go, it is a big game, just not how you may have thought.

Skelton is absolutely correct when he says the offense as a whole must show something more than it did the previous games. Moving the ball has been a struggle with both Skelton and Kolb under center, and everyone would feel better if the team scored some points early against the Raiders.

“It goes without saying,” Skelton said. “Everyone knows we need to start fast. No one’s content with the way we’ve been playing.”

Skelton, though, said no one is panicking and that the offense is not far from being where it needs to be. Adding that he feels the issues are being “amplified” by people outside of the organization, the QB is confident “we will be fine.”

Time will tell, and the Cardinals still have three preseason games left to right the ship — including Friday’s which, remember, Skelton said isn’t that big of a deal as it pertains to the QB battle.

“One game is not going to make or break someone,” he said. “I think this game, I don’t think Kevin and I are approaching it any differently from the competition standpoint.”

Arizona Sports’ Kyndra de St. Aubin contributed to this report

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