Can the Cardinals win a Super Bowl with Drew Stanton?

The Arizona Cardinals are like the Honda Civic of football teams. Always dependable, always functioning at peak level, but never drawing the eyeballs that the Corvette and Challenger garner. It’s undeniable that the Cardinals are the most underrated team in football, getting little national attention despite a league-best 9-1 record. With a killer defense, top skill players and an excellent coach, the ingredients for greatness are present.

Arizona had everything working perfectly, and then Carson Palmer went down. Palmer, who had two days earlier signed a three-year, $50 million contract extension, was lost for the season in Week 10 with a torn ACL. In came Drew Stanton, the backup quarterback who had already started three games for the Cardinals earlier in the campaign. Stanton ended up rallying Arizona to a victory in Palmer’s stead against the St. Louis Rams before defeating the Detroit Lions in a showdown for top billing in the NFC.

Still, the question remains: can Stanton led the Cardinals to a Super Bowl?

Stanton is only completing 53.6 percent of his passes, ranking lowest of anybody with at least 100 pass attempts. Nobody can accuse Arizona of playing a soft schedule with wins over the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers, San Diego Chargers and Lions, but it will face challenges going forward with Stanton under center in the primetime months of the NFL schedule.

The Cardinals will face the Seattle Seahawks twice and the desperate 49ers in San Francisco. They also drawthe Kansas City Chiefs, who own the best pass defense in the league. Stanton has enough moxie to put Arizona into the playoffs with the NFC West crown, but can he win playoff games?

In the postseason, the Cardinals will have to rely on a defense which blitzes more than any other in the league. The old saying in the NFL is “live by the blitz, die by the blitz.” At some point, Arizona will fall on the sword against elite quarterbacks such as Aaron Rodgers. It will force the Cardinals to get into a contest where 30 points is a must, and Stanton is ill-equipped to make that happen without throwing interceptions.

It is worth noting that backup quarterbacks have led their teams to Super Bowl victories, most recently Jeff Hostetler of the New York Giants in 1990 and technically Kurt Warner in 1999 with the Rams. Yet, it remains a daunting task.

Stanton is one of the better backups in the NFL, but that is a far cry from being a capable starter. Before Palmer’s injury, Stanton, 30, had not seen action since 2010 during his days with the Lions. Stanton bounced around the league after spending 2008-11 with Detroit, winding up with the New York Jets and Indianapolis Colts in 2012, and then the Cardinals in 2013.

For his career, Stanton has thrown 10 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 17 games. This year, Stanton has five scores and two picks to his name, and in his starts Arizona is 3-1. On the surface, Stanton seems to have the Cardinals humming in the same manner Palmer did, but there are troubling signs underneath.

Ultimately, Stanton is going to have to make plays in key spots for Arizona to become the first city to have its home team in the Super Bowl. While it would make an incredible story, it is not something to bet on.

About Matt Verderame

Matt Verderame, 26, is a New Yorker who went to school at the frozen tundra of SUNY Oswego. After graduating, Verderame has worked for Gannett and SB Nation among other ventures.

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