TEMPE, Ariz. — Arizona Cardinals quarterback Drew Stanton plays efficient, sometimes spectacular, football at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Away from home, it’s a different story, one that Stanton will try to re-write Thursday night in St. Louis.

Stanton is 3-0 as a starter at home and that doesn’t include coming off the bench to throw the go-ahead touchdown pass against the Rams in Week 10. Overall he has six touchdowns and two interceptions at home.

On the road, he’s 1-3 as a starter with one touchdown and three interceptions.

To coach Bruce Arians, it’s not as black and white as it seems.

“He hasn’t played poorly,” Arians said. “He beat the Giants. He was playing really well in Denver before he got hurt. I don’t know which road games he played so bad in. I don’t think he’s playing poorly on the road. Obviously, you guys do.”

The schedule hasn’t done Stanton any favors. Two of the three road losses were at Denver and Seattle, two of the more difficult places to play. Crowd noise in Seattle and Atlanta gave the offensive line trouble, and with the Rams having won three of four, it might loud at the Edward Jones Dome on Thursday.

“People don’t give it enough credit, being able to use the snap count and draw guys offsides, make them wait to get into the pass rush,” Arians said, “and the same thing in the running game, you can communicate much, much better when you’re at home.”

Stanton also has played two road games with his most reliable receiver, Larry Fitzgerald, out with a knee sprain.

Those are the excuses. And they are valid. But it’s also true that Stanton has played worse on the road than at home. He’s been antsy at times, too quick to leave the pocket, and he’s been hurt by inaccuracy.

All this shouldn’t be a surprise. Even though Stanton is in his eighth year, he had started just four NFL games entering this season and hadn’t played at all since December of 2004.

But Thursday makes his eighth start this season and his fifth on the road. He knows it’s time to show improvement and play well somewhere other than Glendale, Arizona.

Don’t judge him by passing stats, he said, just by whether the Cardinals won or lost.

“At the end of the day, that’s how you’re evaluated,” Stanton said. “We have to go on the road, and obviously the last two times we’ve gone on the road we didn’t take care of the football and we weren’t good on third downs.

“We have to go do those two things and be more productive in the red zone and come away with touchdowns instead of field goals and hopefully put ourselves in a good position at the end of the game.”

–If Kerwynn Williams becomes the regular starting running back, his food of choice might catch on with the youngsters. On game days, Williams eats a double-decker peanut butter and jelly sandwich, with milk. It’s called the Ker-wich.

To offensive coordinator Harold Goodwin, it sounds like a Ker-upset stomach. Goodwin will avoid it.

“I’m fat enough,” he said.

–Arians is 29-12 as a head NFL coach. Only John Fox (33), Bill Belichick (32) and Pete Carroll (31) have that many wins in their last 41 games.

Arians is the first Cardinals coach with 10 wins in each of his first two seasons.