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No One Wants to Watch Cardinals-49ers (Photo)

By Jeremy Klump

Oct 6, 2016; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Arizona Cardinals quarterback Drew Stanton (5) warms up before the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi
Oct 6, 2016; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Arizona Cardinals quarterback Drew Stanton (5) warms up before the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi /
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The NFL gods have punished us with a Drew Stanton vs Blaine Gabbert football game and the lack of crowd at Cardinals-49ers proves it

When it was announced that Carson Palmer would not play in the Arizona Cardinals Thursday Night Football game against the San Francisco 49ers, I was hoping Palmer was doing okay. He suffered a concussion in their Week 4 matchup and was not ready to go on the quick turnaround for Thursday.

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After I thought about Palmer’s health, I thought that the Cardinals should still be able to survive this week without him because they are playing the 49ers.

One big factor is that 49ers quarterback Blaine Gabbert is not very good. He currently sits at No. 31 in the NFL Quarterback Power Rankings following Week 4 and has looked like his mediocre-self this season. Then it hit me. Wait. No. It can’t be. Really, NFL gods?

Palmer’s backup, who would obviously start the game, was Drew Stanton. Now, with no disrespect to Stanton, he is a backup quarterback for a reason. Stanton came in after Palmer went down in Week 4 only to throw two interceptions and lose. In his career, surprisingly, he has won seven of the 12 games he has started. However, to no surprise, he has more career interceptions (18) than he does touchdowns (12).

That meant we get to watch Drew Stanton vs Blaine Gabbert on Thursday Night Football. Meaning, this is the only NFL football game on tonight. It definitely isn’t a game you go out of your way to watch and I guess the fans in the Bay Area have agreed with me.

Wow. That is just flat-out embarrassing for an NFL game. There is no one there. But for the fans who decided it wasn’t worth going, they made the right choice.

The battle between Stanton and Gabbert started how we’d all predict. Through the first five minutes of the game, there was three punts and no completions. Both quarterbacks were off on some throws and just looked the part of mediocre starting quarterbacks. The first quarter ended with no points scored and the most exciting part was watching Colin Kaepernick take a knee with some teammates during the national anthem.

So, I ask, “What did we do to deserve this quarterback battle, NFL gods?” I’ll wait for an answer.

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