Drew Stanton week-to-week with knee injury

Stanton should be back at some point this season. Mandatory Credit: Scott Kane-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Cardinals won on Thursday night against the St. Louis Rams to give them their 11th victory of the season and all but locked up a playoff spot for the first time since the 2009 season. It wasn’t without a loss, however.

Starting quarterback Drew Stanton injured his knee after getting sacked by Rams rookie Aaron Donald in the third quarter. The team and most of their fans immediately feared for the worse when they saw him getting carted off the field and into the locker room.

Everyone got good news on Friday morning though when it was revealed that Stanton had a partial tear of his ACL and a sprain of his MCL. Instead of missing the entire season, which was originally feared, Stanton’s return will be decided on a week-to-week basis.

This is great news considering the fact that if the Cards had lost Stanton for the rest of the season, they would have to rely on Ryan Lindley. The former San Diego State product was cut by the team earlier this year and was only brought back when Carson Palmer went down for the year because he knew the system.

When Lindley came on Thursday to spell Stanton, he didn’t exactly light things up. He completed only four of his 10 passes for 30 yards, but the Red Birds defense was so good that it really didn’t matter. Lindley will more than likely be the starter for as long as Stanton is out.

The Cardinals have gone through so many different injuries and tough breaks this year. It really is impressive that they are still at the top of the NFC with all of the things going against them.

With this injury though, it’s going to be tough for the Cardinals to beat the Seahawks and the 49ers over the final two weeks. Even if Stanton were at 100 percent, it was going to be tough, but now Arizona’s chances of winning shrink to a very small amount with him more than likely on the sidelines the final two weeks of the season.

This team was already a wounded animal heading into the postseason and with the Seahawks coming to Arizona next week, in a game that will by all rights pick the division winner, the Cards really caught a break with Stanton going down.