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    Arians recaps the Cardinals’ loss to the Cowboys

The differences between Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson are easy to pick up.

CJ speaks softly and carries himself with a humble demeanor and posture. He shakes hands like you’re holding an egg he doesn’t want to break.

AP projects his voice and stands like a superhero on a movie poster. He shakes hands with such confidence that you feel it an hour later.

Johnson is inconspicuous. Peterson is impossible to overlook. And if this translates to the field, the Cardinals will have a shot at making the playoffs.

But before we put too much hope in a 32-year-old running back who for whatever reason wasn’t the No. 1 option with the New Orleans Saints, a team with the league’s 29th-ranked rushing attack, consider that the Cardinals still have big problems, and Peterson won’t be able to solve them all — especially if they have to do with the offensive line.

“He doesn’t block,” Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said Wednesday at the team facility in Tempe. “He just runs.”

A playoff berth remains a realistic goal.

The 34-7 loss to Philadelphia was bad, no doubt about it. Arians called it “embarrassing” but added “it doesn’t count any more if you lose by one or if you win by 20.”

He’s right. Bad losses happen in the NFL, but they’re often overcome.  

The 2008 Cardinals Super Bowl team lost 35-14 to the Minnesota Vikings — behind 165 yards from Peterson, coincidentally — and 47-7 to the New England Patriots in consecutive weeks in December. Then they went on a run that ended just short of a Super Bowl win.

And in 2015, the last time the big game was in Glendale, the Patriots won the championship despite taking a 41-14 spanking in Kansas City.

As it stands, the Cardinals are 2-3, just a game back from the Rams and Seahawks at the top of the NFC West. They have two games each against those teams and one more against the 49ers.

Aside from that, Tampa Bay, Houston, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Washington and the New York Giants are a combined six games under .500.

The Cardinals aren’t out of contention for a wild card or division title – especially if they get healthy and start to play their best football late in the season.

But it will come down to line play more than running-back play.

Aside from contributing to a league-worst rushing attack, the Cardinals’ offensive line hasn’t been able to protect Carson Palmer, who’s felt more pressure lately than a sumo’s sandals.

Palmer stood up for his blockers Wednesday, saying, “It’s easy to blame the offensive line, but it goes on everybody.

“It’s unfairly been thrown on a handful of guys.”

Noted, but I’ll stand by my criticism. This unit, which has been missing D.J. Humphries and Mike Iupati, has contributed to a league-worst rushing attack, just 259 yards on 2.6 yards per carry, and has allowed Palmer to get hit a league-high 50 times.

There might be a lot of reasons for the ineffectiveness, but the results are what they are.

David Johnson also refused to criticize the line play after I told him that I thought it’s been so poor that it wouldn’t matter who carried the ball.

“I really can’t say much about the offensive line, especially since I haven’t been playing,” Johnson said. “I don’t know what’s going on there. All I can do is speak for what I can do, and the running backs.”

Johnson said his dislocated wrist is healing and that “rehab is going great. Just got my cast. … so we’ll see how it goes.”

He said he hopes to be ready for a playoff run: “Definitely want to have them hopefully win out and give a chance for me to come back.”

The injured MVP-threat is excited about Peterson. 

“He’s a physical runner,” Johnson said. “He’s always been known as a physical runner, so that’s exactly what he’s going bring is that physicality.”

It’s exactly the quality that Arians liked when he talked with General Manager Steve Keim about going after Peterson, calling him a “violent runner who still has it.”

Arians also hopes the line gets stronger.

“I would hope our offensive-line issues are a little better than they were the last few games for our runners with D.J. and Alex (Boone) hopefully playing,” he said. “I would hope there’d be more opportunities.”

Palmer sees a chance for Peterson to help.

“As far as how Adrian affects the offensive-line play, you put a guy who’s done what he’s done in this league back there, I think guys get excited,” he said. “Guys come off the ball and know that if they get just enough of an edge or create just enough of a seam that he can hit it.

“When a guy like that walks in the door, there’s a little more pep in everybody’s step.”

Seems reasonable. We’ll see Sunday.

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MORE: Cardinals should trade ‘frustrated’ Patrick Peterson, says Deion Sanders

Reach Moore at [email protected] or 602-444-6295. Follow him at www.Twitter.com/WritingMoore.

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