TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Bruce Arians-Chuck Pagano storyline has dominated the headlines in Phoenix and Indianapolis ahead of this Sunday's game between the Cardinals and Colts. But for Cardinals offensive coordinator Harold Goodwin, who was the Colts offensive line coach last season, the game dredges up painful memories.
Goodwin’s next-door neighbors in Indiana included a girl named Carter, who would come over to the Goodwins' home with her brother, Will, to play with Harold’s son, Bryson. Like Pagano, Carter was diagnosed with leukemia.
"When Chuck started his battle, she gave me a letter to take to Chuck because she was in remission. He read it and wrote a letter back," Goodwin said.
Carter died on Sept. 26 at age 7. That was the same day Pagano had been diagnosed one year earlier.
"She was a beautiful soul, and she's going to make a great angel," said Goodwin, who kept in touch with Carter's parents. "It was really emotional for me, my wife and my kids because we saw her every day. She was in the same class as my son."
While Goodwin admits that he pours his heart and soul into every week of game preparation, he said Carter's death taught him a greater lesson about appreciating what you have because it can be gone in an instant.
Larry Fitzgerald never took winning for granted -- not when his first several seasons produced losing records and even the Super Bowl season had its trials. But after three years of anemic offense and Januarys off, Fitzgerald is appreciating this three-game winning streak that has the Cardinals in the thick of the playoff hunt.
"It's nice," Fitzgerald said. "It's good to be able to control your own destiny. From this point on, it's up to us."
Fitzgerald's role is clearly not what it was during the Kurt Warner years. He is just 37th in the NFL in receiving yards with 554 yards on 45 catches (six TDs), and the Cards have involved Michael Floyd and tight end Rob Housler on an increased basis the past few weeks. But Fiztgerald says he has come to grips with that.
"I'm at a good place right now in terms of understanding and accepting the roles that we've been dealt," he said. "Whatever it takes to get the W."
When Carson Palmer was traded to the Cardinals, his third team, he wanted to learn as much of Arians' complex offense as he could before he hit the field. Unwittingly, Andrew Luck began helping his Week 12 opponent.
Palmer said Wednesday he watched video of Luck’s rookie season in Indianapolis to give him a deeper understanding of the offense.
“You get so much on a piece of paper and in a playbook,” Palmer said. “The way I’ve always learned is (as) kind of a visual learner and watching it work on the field, and I learned a lot of the offense through Indianapolis cut-ups and film and saw him do a number of things."
The learning curves for Palmer and Luck have followed similar arcs. The Cardinals averaged 19 points a game in their first seven but have averaged 27 in the past three.Last season, the Colts averaged 19.4 points a game in the first seven and 24.6 thereafter.
Luck called learning the Arians playbook difficult. But Arians joked Wednesday that it’s actually tougher for veteran quarterbacks to learn it.
“When you get a rookie, you can just brainwash him real quick,” Arians said. “Forget all that stuff from college and start learning at page one. It was very simple when you have a rookie. It’s much harder with a veteran player.”
Arians said Wednesday that special-teams ace Justin Bethel passed the league's concussion protocol, and Bethel said that same day that he expects to play Sunday after going through a limited practice.
But Bethel did not practice Thursday, suggesting a setback, although the team did not say as much. The Cardinals already lost Teddy Williams, their other gunner, to a torn Achilles tendon. He is out for the season.
Bethel has been playing at a Pro Bowl level, so his loss would be more significant. The Cardinals signed Bryan McCann this week, and he is expected to assume gunner duties.
Arians was a one-line machine at Wednesday's media session, but one of his best came when he was asked what it would be like when he took the field to take on Pagano, his former boss and close friend.
“Just like playing your brother in your backyard,” Arians said. “I’m kicking your ass.”
NFL.com released its latest Pro Bowl voting update Monday. The Cardinals' Patrick Peterson was second among all cornerbacks with 189,605 votes, trailing only the Seahawks' Richard Sherman. Peterson made the Pro Bowl in each of his first two NFL seasons -- his rookie year as a punt returner, last year as a cornerback.
Bethel (concussion) did not practice Thursday. LB John Abraham (hamstring) and C Mike Gibson (illness) were upgraded from limited Wednesday to full practice Thursday. WR Michael Floyd (shoulder) and WR Brittan Golden were still limited.
For the Colts, S Laron Landry (toe), FB Stanley Havilli (concussion) and former Cardinals CB Greg Toler (groin) did not practice Thursday.
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