Bruce Arians isn't going back to Drew Stanton (for now), but he is pulling a reverse on the self-critical assessment he made to pinpoint when the Arizona Cardinals lost Sunday's game.
Immediately after the Cardinals' 31-21 loss to the Houston Texans, Arians blamed himself for costing his team a chance to win with a bad play call on a late fourth-and-1 play. Upon closer examination of the play, however, the head coach had a different take on what transpired.
"I take all that expletive] back I said yesterday," Arians [said during a news conference Monday after confirming Blaine Gabbert will remain the starting quarterback for Week 12. "That was a damn good call, and we busted an assignment at the point of attack. That was an easy pickup.
"They did not whoop us up there, we just turned them loose. I take everything I say back."
The Cardinals were down 24-21 with 6:33 left in the fourth quarter when they decided to go for it on fourth-and-1 from their own 35. Adrian Peterson was stopped immediately for a 1-yard loss. On the next play, Texans rookie running back D'Onta Foreman scored on a 34-yard run to give the Texans a 10-point lead.
Arians credited offensive coordinator Harold Goodwin for designing a "hell of play," that didn't work because one of the interior linemen blocked the "wrong damn guy."
In his postgame news conference, Arians saw things differently from his original sideline vantage point.
"It's very simple: I cost our team the game," Arians told reporters. "Trust is a funny thing sometimes when you can't get it to fit. You deserve to lose, especially when you make the decision I made and the play I called."
Although it's simply just another interesting tidbit in a disappointing loss for an injury-hampered team, it's clear Arians will be completely honest about how he sees the Cardinals' shortcomings.
