Cards Practice Report: Prepping For Niners

The Arizona Cardinals have no time to dwell on Sunday’s 17-13 loss against the Los Angeles Rams as they prep for a Thursday night game against the San Francisco 49ers.

Bruce Arians led his post-practice media availability with a list of players who didn’t participate in Monday’s festivities due to injury:

• DB Tyvon Branch
• P Drew Butler
• TE Darren Fells
• RB Chris Johnson
• DL Josh Mauro,
• QB Carson Palmer
• DL Ed Stinson

Arians said Carson Palmer, who is going through the concussion protocol after taking a hit yesterday, could theoretically be cleared by Thursday. Though, a lot is still up in the air, but Arians wouldn’t be surprised if his starting quarterback was cleared to play in the next few days.

“Nothing surprises me with these guys getting healthy anymore,” Arians said.

Arians went on to say that he would probably know who the starting quarterback would be, either Palmer or Drew Stanton, by the time they got on the plane Wednesday to head to Santa Clara.

As the rest of the team preps for the Niners, Arians said the Bird Gang has responded well despite their 1-3 start.

“They came to work with a great attitude this morning,” Arians said. “We went through corrections, went straight into San Francisco, had great walkthroughs. We will watch the rest of this film today and put this day to bed because you only have three days to get four days work in.”

Arians said coming off a physical game, like the one the Cardinals had against the Rams on Sunday, is always difficult. Adding to that is the short turnaround time and not knowing who may be able to suit up for the Bird Gang on Thursday night.

“You’re not sure who’s going to make it to the dance and you’ve got to get somebody ready,” Arians said. “You do your best and you put them all in there and hope guys are studying that are injured because you can’t run anyway.”

Arians and the Cardinals now look ahead to Thursday where they face another 1-3 NFC West team in the San Francisco 49ers. Arian previewed their defense:

“Another very sophisticated blitz scheme, very solid, a good front seven, solid back end. Antoine Bethea is one of the best safeties in the business, and those two young kids from Oregon (Arik Armstead and DeForest Buckner) can rush the passer. They have a really nice blitz scheme.”

The Cardinals will travel to Santa Clara on Wednesday before kicking off against the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday at 5:25 p.m.