AP

While the Raiders might have left last night’s game feeling encouraged by the way their young defense played, the old quarterback on the other side didn’t reach expectations.

Because while Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer had been efficient in his first two starts coming back from last year’s torn ACL, he was sloppy Sunday night, and his coach wasn’t ready to put it all on bad routes or bad protection.

“We’ve got to do a better job of getting the ball out of our hands sometimes,” Bruce Arians said, via Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic. “I thought we held it a little bit longer today. Our backs could have helped a couple times to protect [Palmer].

“I thought we were just out of sync. They did a good job of loading up the box and making the run game tough.”

Granted, Khalil Mack and the Raiders were making things difficult on Palmer, who was 8-of-22 passing for 103 yards and two interceptions. He was also sacked three times, but Arians didn’t pin that on the like.

“It was just one guy on one guy most of the time,” Arians said. “Carson’s got to get the ball out of his hands. He can’t be looking for three and four (options) against that rush.”

The way their season ended last year, it’s almost easy to forget the Cards were one of the strongest teams in the NFL at the time of Palmer’s injury. Some hiccups are to be expected in the process (of getting ready for a season in general and coming back from injury in particular), but Palmer nearly created his own problem by raising expectations in his first two outings.