Carson Palmer, Drew Stanton and intermediate passing game

It has been said a number of times -- Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians loves to throw the ball down the field. His passing game design is not a dink and dunk scheme. It does not really have West Coast concepts. It is about getting the ball down the field.

It shows.

Pro Football Focus breaks down quarterbacks and their passing numbers. We learned a while back the Cardinals don't throw many short passes -- only Nick Foles did so at a lesser rate.

Today we look at the intermediate throws-- ones thrown between 11-20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.

Drew Stanton had the highest rate of all qualifying QBs in intermediate passes -- attempting 29 percent of his passes in that 11-20 yard range. Carson Palmer wasn't far behind, ranking seventh at 25.6 percent.

In terms of raw numbers, PFF has their passing stats for individual players broken down differently. From 10-19 yards from the LOS, Stanton was 36/71 for 561 yards, two touchdowns and three picks. That earns a passer rating of 69.0. In terms of PFF grades, Stanton was one of the least effective -- earning the second-lowest grade in that range -- a -21.3. Only Josh McCown was worse.

Palmer was almost right at the league average (0.0) with a -1.0 grade. In terms of raw passing numbers (at least from 10-19 yards down the field), he was 31/54 for 465 yards, two scores and two picks. That is a passer rating of 82.7.

As Stanton's total passer rating was 78.7 for the year and Palmer's was 95.6, their intermediate throwing was not their strongest suit. Of the eight interception they threw between them, five came on intermediate passes. Four of their 18 touchdown passes came in that range.

It is an area that could improve in 2015.