ST. LOUIS -- Bruce Arians has been called a mastermind, a genius, a savant.
It's time to give the Arizona Cardinals' 62-year-old head coach another title: architect.
The Cardinals laid the blueprint Thursday for how they plan to march toward home-field advantage in the playoffs, especially after being forced to play their fourth quarterback of the season: They got 143 yards out of their run game in a 12-6 win over the St. Louis Rams.
The Cardinals all but clinched a playoff berth, and it will become official as long as the Cowboys and Eagles don't finish in a tie Sunday night (or if one of two other scenarios plays out earlier in the day). They did it by controlling the ball for 34 minutes, 24 seconds and running on more than half their plays.
"The way we ran the ball the last two weeks against two good defenses, if we can continue to do that -- if you can run the ball and play defense in the playoffs, you got a chance," said Ryan Lindley, who saw his first action of the season after Drew Stanton went down with a right knee injury in the third quarter. "Hopefully I continue to improve and give us a better chance to improve each Sunday."
Maintaining a dependable run game will reduce the pressure on Lindley moving forward. He'll have enough on him if Stanton, the Cardinals' starter only because of Carson Palmer's season-ending knee injury, can't play down the homestretch of the regular season or in the playoffs.
It was the second consecutive game the Cardinals set a season high for rushing, following up last week's 141-yard outing against the Kansas City Chiefs.
"You saw it last week with how much better Drew played and how much easier it is to play quarterback when you have a running game," Lindley said. "If we continue to run the ball like that, it's going to be a lot easier to play the quarterback position."
It's a lot easier for everyone on offense.
"We got backs that will hit it in there in timely situations," veteran receiver Larry Fitzgerald said. "It's really nice to see."
The foundation for what Arians is building in the backfield is your typical thunder-and-lightning combination. Stepfan Taylor, a 5-foot-9, 216-pound power back, has paired with Kerwynn Williams, the former practice-squad player who is a 5-8, 198-pound "home run hitter."
Together, they've saved Arizona's season.
The thought of a season needing to be saved for an 11-3 team may seem strange. But after two straight losses, four consecutive games of 64 rushing yards or fewer and the loss of starting running back Andre Ellington (hernia), the Cardinals were teetering in the playoff race when the Chiefs came to town.
Then Williams and his 100-yard game came out of nowhere last week. He proved he wasn't a one-hit wonder Thursday with 75 yards on 15 carries. Taylor chipped in with 61 yards on 14 carries.
"It's even more important that we got to continue running the ball well," Taylor said. "But now we just got to get long touchdowns, explosive plays that way, put points on the board to keep the ball -- to take pressure off of Ryan."
You might consider Kansas City and St. Louis as rehearsals.
The true test of Arizona's revamped running game will come in Week 16 against the Seattle Seahawks, who boast the third-best rush defense in the league. If what Arians is building with Taylor and Williams is a playoff-caliber running attack, the Cardinals will have to prove it next Sunday night.
"You got to stay balanced," Arians said. "You got to run the football in December and January, just because every defense you're playing is so daggone good.
"You don't want to get one-dimensional."
