The Arizona Cardinals were five-point underdogs for Thursday’s nights game against the St. Louis Rams despite being just one of four teams with 10 victories through 13 weeks of the season.
Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians made a point after Arizona’s 12-6 win over the Rams of noting the error in prediction and managed to take a shot at the Rams in the process.
“I love it when nobody says you have a chance to win,” Arians said. “There is an 11-3 team and a team that is always 8-8. You figure it out.”
Ouch.
The Rams have finished 7-9 and 7-8-1 over the past two seasons and can finish no better than 8-8 this season after the loss Thursday night. In addition, head coach Jeff Fisher hasn’t posted a winning record in his last five seasons as head coach, including this season.
The Rams were coming off 52-0 victory over the Oakland Raiders and a 24-0 victory over the Washington Redskins. Arians felt the Rams may have been paying too much attention to what was being said about them lately.
“Everybody wanted to talk all that stuff about how great their defense is. I think they saw a good defense tonight, it was in red and white,” Arians said. “We blocked them. I think they had been reading their press clippings way too much.”
Arians remains bullish on his team’s chances as they still sit on top of the NFC and all but clinched a playoff berth Thursday night. However, with the potential for another quarterback to be lost for the season after Drew Stanton suffered a knee injury against the Rams, the Cardinals chances to make a deep playoff run may have been significantly altered.
Nevertheless, Arians’ candid nature is refreshing and the Cardinals have had a stellar season up to this point.