In the Bruce Arians offense, quarterbacks are expected to take hits

Indianapolis quarterback Andrew Luck was sacked 41 times last season in Bruce Arians' head coaching "debut" in place of Chuck Pagano. Ben Roethlisberger 40, in Arians' last season of offensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Apparently, in Bruce's offenses the quarterback must go down and must go down hard. And that could be unsettling for an Arizona Cardinals team that gave up a league-high 58 sacks last year and had Carson Palmer sacked 4 times against the Rams and hit 5 other instances.

And yet again, it could be status quo for the first year Arizona coach.

As I've said before, Bruce Arians digs the long ball. He wants the "chunk" plays that cover 20 or more yards. He wants to use a deep pass at least six plays a game and if the chamber still has bullets, than the barrel probably should be upturned toward the shooter's head in resignation. It's a major part of his modis operandi. The downfield plays have to develop, deep routes run and if his offensive line can't hold their position to give the quarterback time, then hell be damned, it's up to the field general to make the quick decision on where the ball should go. Arians wants the QB to decipher the defense, holding onto the ball as long as possible to use those bullets, with straight up blocking to get those long plays without taking a sack.

Even if that means getting your quarterback hit more than a few times.

But with at least Andrew and Ben, they are/were young and at least had mobility to escape pressure if needed. Even Peyton Manning - whom Arians coached in his first few years - had over 500 yards running in his first 5 seasons, which is fairly good for what some say is the best pure drop back passer ever. Palmer is 33 years old and has 372 rushing yards in a 11 year career so far. And oh, yeah - there's also that offensive line play - literally. But then again, Palmer has thrown over 4,000 passes and been with poor OLs in Cincy, Oakland and now Arizona so it's not like he's being surprised. It's called experience.

Experience Palmer will need to avoid ending up like Kevin Kolb.