Bruce Arians came out Sunday after his team beat the Jaguars and, during his opening comments, was blunt.

"Yes, I thought about going for it on fourth down," Arians said. "It was real hard not to."

It brought a smile to many listening. The week before, the Cardinals had tried to convert a fourth-and-1 with 6:33 left when losing to the Texans by three. Adrian Peterson was stuffed for a loss, the Texans ran for a touchdown on the next play, and that was that. It led to Arians taking the blame after the game for the call, and then reversing field the next day.

(There is a fascinating article about going for it on fourth down from the New York Times back in 2014. While critical situations have to be taken into account -- like the ones Arians faced -- that article says a team should always go for it on fourth-and-1 starting at a team's own 9-yard line.)

A week later, a lesson apparently had been learned.

Against the Jaguars, there was 1:21 left in a tie game, and the ball was at the 50. Not converting there would have led to a very short field to get in field-goal range for the Jags, which would have been a disaster. Peterson ran the ball much better against Jacksonville, and the blocking was much better. But Arians wasn't drawn in, and the Cardinals still won in regulation.

"Blaine (Gabbert) tried to talk me into it, and I just kept looking to see if it was going to be six inches or a yard," Arians said the day after. "We knew we'd get the ball back, and I'm really pissed off because we didn't line up properly on that one play; it cost us one of our timeouts, or we'd have two timeouts. But, we knew we were going to get the ball back if they threw it (on the possession after the punt), and they did."

A couple of sideline passes later, Phil Dawson kicked a 57-yard field goal, and the fourth-down choice this time around paid off.