Steelers’ Landry Jones stands up to Cardinals opposite Carson Palmer

The Cardinals’ quarterback position led the list of predicted advantages they would have in their matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Arizona’s Carson Palmer started this season as well as anyone else, while the Steelers were without starter Ben Roethlisberger and teaching backup Michael Vick their offense on the fly.

So when Vick went down with a hamstring injury in the third quarter and third-year, third-stringer Landry Jones replaced him, things didn’t look swell for Pittsburgh.

Jones had never thrown an NFL pass, after all.

Jump to the end of the game, and it was Palmer who spent the aftermath of his Cardinals’ 25-13 loss by taking the blame. With Arizona trailing 18-13, his interception thrown into double-coverage late in the fourth quarter doomed Arizona’s comeback attempt.

“We just did a play action and I didn’t see the safety,” Palmer told the media after the game. “I never saw him. That can’t happen. You have to see that guy and I didn’t see him standing there in the middle of the field. I thought I had Smokey [John Brown] running down the post. I’m very frustrated with myself for not seeing that because I should have.”

The feeling around the Cardinals certainly worsened considering how they lost.

For the most part, the Cardinals held Vick in check and he left the game with the Steelers trailing 10-6. He completed 3-of-7 passes for just six yards through the air in the first half, while running back Le’Veon Bell mustered 2.9 yards per carry on 10 rushes.

But the Cardinals weren’t satisfied with their first half, and specifically in dealing with Vick. Arians especially wished Arizona hadn’t dropped two early interceptions, one of which he thought was a pick-six.

“We knew Michael Vick was going to throw it to us, we just had to catch it,” Arians told Arizona Sports 98.7’s Paul Calvisi. “They come in bunches and you have to catch them. Bettch (defensive coordinator James Bettcher) had them in position to make plays, they didn’t make them.”

And when Jones entered the game in the third quarter, Pittsburgh’s playbook opened.

While Steelers coach Mike Tomlin didn’t want to make a big deal out of how his offense operated differently with Jones rather than the more athletic Vick, Arians saw it a little differently.

“He’s [Jones] totally different,” Arians told the media. “They went back to some things. They threw the ball down the field obviously to some guys. He played very well. My hat is off to him. He played very well for a young guy to come in in that situation. He won the football game.”

Jones’ second attempt went for an 8-yard touchdown to Martavis Bryant for Pittsburgh’s first lead of the day. His second touchdown pass went 88-yards, again to Bryant. That big play sealed the win for Pittsburgh.

On the day, the third-string quarterback would hit 8-of-12 passes for 168 yards, two touchdowns and no turnovers.

Meanwhile, the veteran Palmer threw two picks and found himself looking for fixes despite completing 29-of-45 passes for 421 yards.

“That wasn’t a good play,” Arians said of Palmer’s second interception. “For many of the good plays he had, that was not a good one.”

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