In the two days following the 27-6 loss on Monday Night Football to the San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinal coach Ken Whisenhunt announced that there will be no change at starting quarterback. Derek Anderson spoke to the media on Wednesday for the first time since his postgame rant. With this week's practices beginning, the defensive side of the ball is a little banged up, as Darnell Dockett, Calais Campbell, Paris Lenon, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Clark Haggans and Greg Toler (all starters) were listed on the injury report.
Campbell (ankle) was the only player to sit out of practice. Toler (foot) was limited, returning to practice for the first time in almost two weeks. It is hopeful that both Campbell and Toler will be able to play on Sunday. Receiver Steve Breaston participated fully for the first time in two weeks. Dockett (shoulder), Lenon (knee), DRC (shoulder) and Haggans (groin) were all limited. Reserve safety Matt Ware (shoulder) and rookie Dan Williams (knee) were also limited.
It does not look that any of these injuries will keep anyone out of the game on Sunday, except for perhaps Campbell and Toler. The shoulder injury to DRC is interesting because I believe it came when he squared up Brian Westbrook as he scored after Adrian Wilson was unable to bring him down before the goalline. It was memorable because it may have been the only time this season that he squared up to hit someone.
In other non-injury news, Whisenhunt made it clear that Derek Anderson will continue to be the starter. As for the calls for Max Hall and/or John Skelton, Whisenhunt said, "I just think right now, based on what we're facing, what we're seeing, how defenses are attacking us, that the best chance to win is a guy that has had experience doing that." Skelton would only see playing time if both Anderson and Hall were to go down with injuries.
After practice, Anderson kept things light when talking to the media. He opened stating, "Good morning. Let's try this in a manner that doesn't end up all over YouTube." (That, by the way, is a good way to go about life.)
His apology went like this:
"I'd like to apologize for my actions after the game. There's a more professional manner I could have handled that. I wasn't raised that way. My mom and my dad didn't raise me to act like that in times of adversity. I obviously was very frustrated by what happened during the game and I let the emotions get the best of me."
Obviously an apology was the only thing he could do. Considering the circumstances, he could either make fun of what happened (a la Dwight Howard), be contrite (which he was), or go Mark Mcgwire and just not talk about the past.
How the team responds to this most recent embarrassment has yet to be seen. We know that they will likely have a good week in practice, but as we have seen in the last few weeks, it doesn't always transfer to gameday.