If the Arizona Cardinals are going to beat the 49ers on Thursday night, they're going to have to do it with a quarterback who hasn't started a regular season game in nearly two years.
Cardinals backup Drew Stanton will get the start in San Francisco after Carson Palmer was ruled out by coach Bruce Arians.
During his press conference on Wednesday, Arians did say that Palmer had made some progress this week after suffering a concussion on Sunday. However, the coach also added that he didn't want to take any chances with the health of his starting quarterback.
The short turnaround likely made it almost impossible for Palmer to get cleared for play.
The matchup with the 49ers will mark the first time since 2014 that Palmer has missed a game. The Cardinals quarterback started in all 16 regular season games last year and led Arizona to a 13-3 record.
With Palmer out, that means the Cardinals will handing the keys to their offense to Stanton, who held his own in 2014 when he had to make eight starts after Palmer was injured. During his last stint in the Cards' starting lineup, Stanton went 5-3, a total that includes a 23-14 win over the 49ers.
Of course, if Stanton's going to beat the 49ers again, he's going to have to play better than he did during Arizona's 17-13 loss to the Rams on Sunday. After Palmer went down in the fourth quarter, Stanton went just 4 of 11 for 37 yards, which wasn't even really the ugly part. The ugly part is that he managed to throw two interceptions with his 11 pass attempts.
Thursday night's game, which you can see on CBS, is a big one for both teams: Both the Cardinals and 49ers are 1-3, and a loss for either team means they'd fall to last place in the NFC West.
