GLENDALE, Ariz. -- It didn’t matter that Drew Stanton threw for 300 yards for the first time in his eight-year career.
Nor did it matter that Stanton won his first game in his new role as the Arizona Cardinals' starting quarterback, extending Arizona’s lead in the NFC West to three games with a 14-6 victory over the Detroit Lions.
He was still on daddy duty Sunday night, less than a week after his wife, Kristin, gave birth to a daughter. Kristin Stanton had been running the household while Stanton prepared for his eighth-career start, he said. In return, he’s in charge of watching his newborn Sundays and Mondays.
“My wife has been getting five, six hours of sleep a night, so we’re fortunate in that aspect,” Stanton said. “We just need to hopefully keep that going a little bit.”
The Cardinals’ win gave Stanton’s family that was in town Sunday another reason to celebrate, especially after how Stanton started. He was 8-for-10 passing for 156 yards in the first quarter and threw two touchdowns to receiver Michael Floyd.
That was all the Cardinals needed. They didn’t score after the first, which they finished leading 14-3, and the Lions added just a field goal during the final 45 minutes.
Then Stanton cooled off, throwing for 150 yards and two picks in the final three quarters.
“To go out there and kind of get an early lead, I think it let everybody take a deep breath,” Stanton said. “At the same time we’ve got to find a way to sustain drives better.
“That will come with playing with each other more and being on the same page as we progress each and every week. We’re going to have to be that much more (focused) on the details.”
On Stanton’s first pick, he didn’t see linebacker Josh Bynes.
“I let it go and it was one of those where you’re like, ‘I want to have it back,” Stanton said.
Stanton said he threw the second pick right to cornerback Cassius Vaughn.
“I dotted him between the two and the nine I think,” Stanton said.
Despite Stanton’s two picks, another one that was negated by a penalty and one that was dropped, Cardinals coach Bruce Arians was pleased with how his quarterback played in his fifth appearance of the season.
The Cardinals converted 57 percent of their third downs -- on which Stanton was 7-for-12 -- and Stanton avoided getting sacked.
“I was really pleased with the way he played,” Arians said. “He tried to force a couple of balls real quick and got fooled by coverage, but he’ll get better from that.”
Receiver Larry Fitzgerald said Stanton did what was expected of him, and the offense will anticipate that from the 30-year-old every week going forward.
Even though he won, Stanton didn’t yet quiet the doubters of Arizona’s offense. It struggled moving the ball after the first quarter, totaling 174 total yards for the rest of the game, which didn’t yield any points. But Arians said there aren’t any doubts that Stanton can be a quarterback for him.
“They must not have watched September football, because he played damn good in September, too,” Arians said. “This is not the first time he jumped out there. This is his fourth game. He’s 3-1 as a starter and didn’t finish the other. So, I think they should notice him. He’s a solid player and we’ve got some huge, huge challenges ahead of us.”
