Cards hope win caps long UK stay
Only 2 teams made early trip to London
LONDON – The temperatures were in the 50s, the wind was blowing hard and the skies were threatening to spit at the Cardinals as they practiced Friday afternoon in preparation for their game against the Rams on Sunday. In other words, the day was perfect. The weather has been like that for days here, which is one reason the Cardinals decided to spend the week rather than only a couple of days. Factor in the eight-hour time change, and it made perfect sense to coach Bruce Arians to spend the entire week away from home.
“I’ve been very pleased,” Arians said on Friday. “I talked to a bunch of (players) this morning, how they felt, and they’re all on a good sleep pattern. So, I feel like they’ve adjusted, and the energy at practice has been very good.”
Of the eight NFL teams that will play in London this year, the Cardinals and Saints are the only ones who arrived early the week of their games. The Saints beat the Dolphins 20-0 here three weeks ago.
The Rams played in Jacksonville last Sunday and stayed in Florida for most of the week. They arrived in London on Thursday.
Kicker Phil Dawson said it’s hard to say whether a longer stay here will help the Cardinals on Sunday,
“We’ll be judged by how we play on Sunday,” he said. “If we play poorly, people will say it didn’t do us a whole lot of good. If we play well, they’ll probably say it worked. That’s just the nature of the deal.”
If they have complaints about this
trip, the Cardinals have kept them private. Rams running back Todd Gurley, however, told reporters he’s no fan of international games.
“Terrible,” Gurley said. “They need to stop this, all this stuff. This London, this Mexico City stuff, it needs to stop.
“It’s cool playing over there, don’t get me wrong,” Gurley said. “Just more of the long week, messes up a bunch of people’s schedules. I’m pretty sure y’all (the media) wanna be in y’all bed right now, too. But naw, it’s all good. It’ll be love. The fans over there are great.”
Early arrival