Cardinals vs. Raiders preview: Bruce Arians praises Oakland pass rush, talks Derek Carr

The Oakland Raiders, the team the Arizona Cardinals will face on Sunday on the road, are winless on the season, but don't think for a moment head coach Bruce Arians isn't worried about the game.

He addressed the media on Wednesday and talked about the upcoming matchup.

"Every NFL team looks great to me Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday," Arians told reporters, because of the game planning he and the coaching staff do. "But you wonder how they lost some games."

The one thing Arians said a lot about was Oakland's pass rush.

"They must have knocked (Tom) Brady down 20 times in New England," he continued. "They got after Philip (Rivers) last week and they've been there, though it's hard to win with a rookie quarterback sometimes. They're making plays. They're getting better."

Then he named names.

"When you start talking about a pass rush with (Khalil) Mack, (Lamar) Woodley, Justin Tuck and then Antonio Smith, that's four big time pass rushers," he said. "We've got our hands full."

But if you look at the stat sheet, you don't see a ton of sacks. In fact, Oakland has less sacks on the season (five) than the Cardinals do with their thus far anemic pass rush (six). Of the guys Arians mentioned, only Justin Tuck has a sack.

But Pro Football Focus gives Oakland credit for 45 hurries and 16 hits on the quarterback. But again, that is essentially equal to Arizona, who does not have a good pass rush. PFF credits the Cardinals with 53 hurries and eight QB hits in five games.

Arians also talked a little bit about Oakland's rookie starting quarterback Derek Carr, who was believed to be a target of the Cardinals in the 2014 NFL Draft.

Arians said Carr had a second round grade. Had he fallen to Arizona in the second round, we might be having a different storyline this year.

According to Arians, Carr is "very mature, could make all the throws, had good size."

"I really liked him," he continued, "It's one of those things like Peyton (Manning) and Andrew Luck. When you grow up in a football family like he did, you don't go into the locker room in awe of anything because you've been in there your whole life. It's just another day in the gym, so that part of it's easy for those guys to overcome quickly.

"He was in a good offense that spread the ball around, so, yeah, i liked him. I thought he would be a successful quarterback."

The Cardinals will face Carr this weekend.

So far this season, Carr has completed over 61 percent of his passes for 1016 yards, eight touchdowns and five interceptions. He has been sacked only three times.

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