What?! Happiness For Week 9?!

Arizona won! Holy cow!

OK, fine, it was the Rams. OK, fine, it took a 98-yard punt return in overtime. Yes, John Skelton was hit with two safeties in the third quarter, while also leading the team in rushing (38 yards).

You know what? Who cares? They won. First rule of Arizona Cardinals' fandom: All victories are good. Actually, that may be the second rule, with the first rule being "Never underestimate the Cardinals' ability to lose." Whatever, there is a rule that says enjoy any victory.

Besides, it keeps them out of sole control of the NFC West cellar for another week.

There is some discussion online as to whether the Cardinals have themselves a quarterback controversy, seeing as Skelton has in one try, won as many games as Kolb managed in 7 tries. The official word is "No." Which is fine. It's not like Skelton lit the world on fire yesterday. One of the safeties was his crap O-line's fault, but in the other, they had the ball at the nine, and Skelton backpedaled all the way to the end zone, then got called for intentional grounding. That's not as bad as Dan Orlovsky getting called for a safety when he ran out the back of the end zone while scrambling, but it's not good.

On the other hand, he did show some pocket awareness, the ability to scramble successfully, and he actually completed more than 50% of his passes, which was not something he did consistently last season. Then again, it wasn't something Max Hall or Derek Anderson could do consistently, either. He didn't get sacked much, didn't throw picks, didn't lose his one fumble, on a day when the Cardinals had no running game, except for Skelton. So he wasn't the biggest reason they won (as Skelton stated after the game, giving credit to the defense and special teams for bailing him out), but he didn't cost them the game, either. And it isn't as though Kolb's been Kurt Warner circa 2009. His completion percentage is about 57%, he has 8 TDs and 8 INTs, he gets sacked on a little under 10% of his dropbacks, I'm not sure the difference between Kolb and Skelton is all that much right now.

Arizona's issue is this isn't a case of veteran QB and young QB. Given the team has no realistic shot at the postseason, with San Francisco already 5 games ahead of them, that would make a good case to give Skelton some run, let him gain some experience. But Kolb isn't much of a seasoned hand, either, so he needs the experience as well.

Ultimately, it probably doesn't matter much. Like I said, I don't believe the gap between the two is large enough to make much difference in the team's fortunes this season. Since they traded so much to get Kolb, I guess it makes sense to give him as many chances as possible, but I don't think they should hesitate to call Skelton in the from the 'pen in the event Kolb stinks up the joint.