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By MARIO KALO
Cronkite News
TEMPE – Not many teams that lead the league in scoring, set a franchise record for most points scored through three weeks of the season and have converted all but one red zone possession into touchdowns would seem to have much room for improvement.
But Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians believes his team hasn’t hit its full offensive stride, even after cruising to a 47-7 victory over division rival San Francisco on Sunday, the second consecutive week the team scored more than 40 points
“We still had too many penalties and turned the ball over, missed a couple (hot routes) that we shouldn’t have,” Arians said Monday. “We still haven’t scratched it offensively, in my mind, how good we can be.”
Arizona committed four penalties that cost it 24 yards against the 49ers and turned the ball over once on an interception thrown by Carson Palmer with just over a minute remaining in the first half.
Chris Johnson tallied 110 rushing yards and Larry Fitzgerald continued his resurgence, catching two touchdowns passes and totaling 134 receiving yards in the home victory.
Cornerback Justin Bethel and safety Tyrann Mathieu accounted for two of the Cardinals’ six touchdowns on a pair of interceptions on the 49ers’ first two possessions of the game.
“I think as a football team when you score defensively, you turn turnovers into points offensively and special teams sets up safeties, you’ve got a good team effort,” Arians said, but added, “It wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination.”
Palmer continued his superb start to the season, throwing for 311 yards and two touchdowns. Sunday’s game marked his ninth consecutive victory, the league’s longest active winning streak by a quarterback.
“When Carson spreads the ball around like this, you can’t target anyone,” Arians said of the opposition’s defensive approach to covering Palmer’s receiving corps.
The Cardinals host another divisional opponent in Week 4 when the St. Louis Rams visit University of Phoenix Stadium on Sunday.
St. Louis has given Arizona plenty of fits over the last few seasons, including a couple of significant injuries to the Cardinals’ top two quarterbacks in 2014.
Palmer tore his ACL on a non-contact play against the Rams last season and backup quarterback Drew Stanton sustained a knee injury that forced him to miss the remainder of the season when the teams met again in St. Louis.
Arians said his team is aware of the challenges the Rams present.
“Very, very tough defensive front, probably the best in the league and we’ll have to be ready for it,” he said.
INJURY UPDATE: Arians said the team left Sunday’s victory over San Francisco “injury free,” but was hopeful the team would get reinforcements this week.
“Andre (Ellington) and Mike (Iupati) will be limited again,” Arians said of the running back and offensive lineman who have missed time nursing injuries. “We’ll see how their progress is. I don’t think J.J. (Nelson) is quite ready yet, but he’s getting close.”
Ellington injured his right knee in the season opener against New Orleans while Iupati continues to recover from offseason surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. Nelson hurt his shoulder in the Week 2 win at Chicago and Arians said last week he expects the rookie to miss 2-4 weeks.
SILENT COUNT: Arizona was forced to use a silent snap count on various plays Sunday because of the opposing fans in the Cardinals’ own stadium, Arians said.
“The offensive line couldn’t hear early in the game because the crowd noise got us at home,” he said. “We had to switch to a silent count because of it. We would hope the visiting team wouldn’t get that many tickets, that we’d have to use a silent count at home.”
GROUND GAME: The Cardinals have eclipsed 100 rushing yards every game this season and the team is 14-1 when rushing for 100 or more yards under Arians.
Last season, the only individual 100-yard rusher for Arizona was Kerwynn Williams, who accomplished the feat in Week 14 when he tallied 100 rushing yards against Kansas City. Veteran running back Chris Johnson, who is starting in place of the injured Ellington, has helped the team match last season’s individual rushing mark three weeks into 2015.