A healthy restart

Cardinals running back Andre Ellington is questionable for Sunday’s gamewith the Eagles after suffering a left knee injury while running a pass route late in practice on Thursday.

Ellington underwent tests on Friday morning and didn’t participate in practice later in the day.

“He’ll be a game-time decision,” coach Bruce Arians said. “Tweaked his knee (Thursday), nothing real serious about it. We want to be very careful with it.”

Ellington declined to say what an MRI revealed but said he is optimistic about playing against the Eagles on Sunday.

“We have two days before the (game), so that’s a lot of rest, two days,” Ellington said.

If Ellington can’t play, it’s a blow to the Cardinals’ offense, which has shown steady improvement in the past four games, all of them victories.

Arians said the Cardinals can compensate if Ellington can’t play.

“It’s one guy out, there are still a bunch of guys who are capable of taking his place,” Arians said. “We’ll make our adjustments that we need to make.

“There are certain parts of the offense no one else can do, five or six plays, that you would just take out. Other than that, just keeping on rolling.”

Ellington, a sixth-round pick out of Clemson, leads the team in rushing with 441 yards, and his average of 6 yards per carry leads all NFL players who have least 70 attempts.

Rashard Mendenhall starts for the Cardinals. Stepfan Taylor, Alfonso Smith and Ryan Williams fill out the depth chart. Williams has yet to play this season.

A different game

A bit of a Southern accent wasn’t the only thing Arians brought north when he became Temple’s head coach in 1983.

Cardinals defensive coordinator Todd Bowles was a defensive back for the Owls when Arians arrived and was taken aback a bit by the coach’s defensive philosophy.

“He came from Alabama where they ran the option and the veer, played eight-man front (on defense),” Bowles said. “He got up to Temple and played an eight-man front and we were playing against ( Doug) Flutie, ( Dan) Marino and other guys. It just wasn’t working.

“We’re like, ‘Coach, you’ve got to change.’ ”

Arians did, and Bowles became one of his favorite players.

“He was hard on us but he was fair,” Bowles said. “Just like now, he’s very honest. He tells you when you’re good and when you’re bad.”

Talking rotation

There was considerable speculation in preseason about the Cardinals’ fourth receiver position. And while Jaron Brown technically holds that job, the game-day duties tend to rotate among players.

“It could be Andre (Ellington) some weeks,” quarterback Carson Palmer said.

“It could be Ellington or (Andre) Roberts, it could be Jake Ballard, it could be Jimmy Dray. You have a handful of weapons and you go into each game and there are guys that opposing teams want to take away and they want to limit their touches. That’s when you need your other guys to step up and make plays, and we’ve been doing that.”

After a week off, it appears the Eagles will be close to full health when they play the Cardinals on Sunday. Backup safety Earl Wolff (knee) is the only player who has been ruled out of the game. The other four players on the injury list are probable, including starting inside linebacker Mychal Kendricks (knee) and starting cornerback Bradley Fletcher (pectoral).

Helping hands

Cornerback Patrick Peterson said he wasn’t surprised last Sunday when teammate Karlos Dansby snared an interception against Andrew Luck and returned it 22 yards for a score during Arizona’s 4011 rout of the Colts.

“He hasn’t told you what I do to him almost every time we break the huddle?” Peterson said. “I have to rub his hands, kind of give him some of my grip.

“He’s doing a great job, man. He could be in the race for Defensive Player of the Year if he caught the last six (interceptions) he dropped.”

Fitz vs. Philly

There appears to be something about the Eagles that brings out the best in Larry Fitzgerald.

In five career games against Philadelphia, the Cardinals wide receiver has caught 35 passes for 570 yards and nine touchdowns.

That’s an average of seven catches, 114 yards and nearly two touchdowns a game.

“I think some guys have some team’s number,” Arians said. “… Larry’s playing very well right now, and I would anticipate him having a very good game right now also.”

Fitzgerald has at least one touchdown in all five games he’s played against the Eagles, including the postseason.

His nine total touchdowns are the most against any team outside of the NFC West, and he’s had three consecutive 100plus yard receiving games against Philadelphia.

Happy feet

As they did against Luck, the Cardinals will need to be mindful of Eagles quarterback Nick Foles beating them with his feet. His mobility allows him to escape trouble and move around freely in the pocket.

“Mobility, I think people need to look at more as a broad term,” Foles, the University of Arizona product, said. “Mobility doesn’t necessarily mean running for 50 yards on a scramble. Mobility is making a guy miss or stepping up in the pocket when there’s pressure or being able to throw from awkward positions; maybe being flushed out of the pocket and throwing on the run.

“I think ( Ben) Roethlisberger is great at doing that. He’s not necessarily the fastest guy, but he is mobile in the fact that he does make people miss.”