Bruce Arians' Cardinals Silence Doubters with Impressive Win over Lions

Most NFL teams in the process of rebuilding rise and fall with the quarterback they choose to place at the helm. When Bruce Arians was hired by the Arizona Cardinals in January 2013, however, he proceeded to build a team that has demonstrated it can win regardless of its starting quarterback.

With another win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday, the 9-1 Cardinals have officially put the league on notice. 

So good is the passing offense that Arians has built to capitalize on the talents of Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd and John Brown that injured starter Carson Palmer and journeyman backup Drew Stanton have been able to weave in and out of the starting role with wins to show for it in every game but one.

That was, of course, the Week 5 loss against the Denver Broncos in which Stanton, filling in for Palmer as he recovered from a shoulder injury, couldn't find the end zone, and the Cardinals were outscored 41-20. Logan Thomas did receive limited playing time after Stanton left the game with a concussion in the third quarter and threw one touchdown in the loss. 

Otherwise, however, Stanton and Palmer have both been able to fill the win column. Yes, Palmer may look better doing it—compare their season stats below—but the final score is all that matters. 

	Record (in Starts)	Yards	Completion %	TDs	INTs
Carson Palmer	6-0	1,626	62.9	11	3
Drew Stanton	3-1	920	53.6	5	2

The Lions may have written the Cardinals off this week after the news came out that Palmer suffered a season-ending torn ACL in his left knee against the St. Louis Rams in Week 10—as many in and around the league did. 

"As far as our football team, everybody in the locker room including in myself has all the confidence in Drew," Arians said after the team announced Palmer's status, per ESPN.com's Josh Weinfuss. "You all should too by now."

But prior to Week 11, many didn't. Ben Volin of The Boston Globe wrote Sunday morning that Palmer's injury "might be more of a road block than a speed bump" to the Cardinals. Gary Myers of the New York Daily News said on November 10: "Arizona has been playing terrific defense, but I don't think they will be able to generate enough offense without Palmer."

The question is, how much is "enough?" It's true that the Cardinals only scored 14 points against the Lions—on two Stanton-Floyd touchdown connections. But Detroit, which has the top-ranked defense in the league this season, has only been allowing opponents an average of 15.8 points per game and 283.4 yards. 

Arizona's defense also held Detroit to two field goals. That's right: A defense that either started the season without or lost Darryl Washington, Darnell Dockett, John Abraham and Karlos Dansby is No. 10 in the league in yards allowed. 

And it held a Lions team averaging 20.2 yards per game to a third of that. 

But the Cardinals under Stanton certainly generated enough offense to beat Detroit's stout defense, and their attack wasn't much changed from when Palmer was lined up under center. Arizona has averaged 330.9 yards per game this season; it had 352 against Detroit.

Of those yards, 306 were from Stanton; the Lions have allowed just 212.1 pass yards per game on average in 2014. 

The truth is Arians hasn't changed much in the offense when he has had to toggle between Palmer and Stanton and back again because he has built an offense that doesn't need an elite quarterback to run effectively. 

Part of what makes Arians' offense so effective is his aggression and his willingness to let his quarterbacks take shots—ones that often pay off since he has placed valuable weapons around them on the field. 

“We never, ever want to pass on the home run to complete a short fade,” Arians told The MMQB's Peter King in early November. "My quarterback has to know: If you have the right matchup, take it."

Arians set about building his offense around passers who weren't afraid to take chances, a trait he saw in both Stanton and Palmer. 

In fact, that element of the Cardinals' success this season—the deep ball—may improve with Stanton at the helm. Per Weinfuss, Stanton's 12.1 air yards per attempt was the highest mark in the league heading into Week 11. He had also thrown three touchdowns of 20-plus yards (all to Brown) and had another on Sunday: a 42-yard pass to Floyd early in the first quarter. 

Arians' confidence in Stanton has only grown as he has had more opportunities to start this season, and it is no doubt at an all-time high after Sunday's win against the league's No. 1 defense. 

"No matter what was going to happen here, whether he was the starter or in that same (backup) role, I knew he was more than capable," Arians said about Stanton, via Kent Somers of azcentral.com. 

In fact, as Volin points out, Arians brought Stanton to Arizona to be his starter in 2013...until general manager Steve Keim traded for Palmer. 

Just how high is Arians on Stanton? “We can win the Super Bowl with Drew Stanton,” Arians told Peter King last week. “There is no doubt in my mind.”

With a comfortable lead in the NFC West and opportunities to pull even further ahead with four division matchups in the next six weeks, they may very well get a chance to.