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TEMPE, Ariz.-- The Arizona Cardinals were back at practice on Wednesday with Kurt Warner still the starting quarterback and Matt Leinart the apprentice in waiting.

Kurt Warner

Quarterback Arizona Cardinals Profile

2006 SEASON STATISTICS Att Comp Yds TD Int Rat 103 66 720 5 4 87.4

Coach Dennis Green tried to explain how a report had surfaced that he had decided to bench Warner in favor of the rookie Leinart and his subsequent decision to release a statement Tuesday that Warner was still the starter.

While an admittedly impatient Green may have been ready to bench Warner in the immediate aftermath of the quarterback's mistake-filled game against St. Louis, the coach had thought better of it by Tuesday.

"I can be emotional, but not in my decision-making," Green said after Wednesday's practice. "I've got too much experience for that. So I felt that Kurt Warner is still the right guy and the best guy. I think he's the best quarterback on this team."

Warner acknowledged it had been a tough couple of days since Sunday's 16-14 loss to the Rams.

"Obviously it's really hard on my family and that's what I worry about more than anything," he said. "They hear a lot of that stuff, and you don't know what to believe, and your kids hear something at school and your wife hears something."

But Warner said he never thought he had lost the job because he hadn't heard it from his coaches.

"I was under the assumption I was the starter until I heard different and that's how I'm always going to approach it," he said.

Warner threw three interceptions, two of them with Arizona inside the Rams' 14-yard line, then fumbled a snap at the St. Louis 18 with 1:46 to play. As he left the field, Cardinals fans showered him with boos and calls for Leinart to take the job.

Green wouldn't say on Monday whether Warner would remain the starter for next Sunday's game at Atlanta, and that night ESPN reported that the coach had decided to go with Leinart. But Tuesday, Green took the unusual step of releasing a statement saying Warner still would be the starter.

"I didn't necessarily change my mind but I went through a thought process," Green said. "I kept it to myself but I guess because I didn't say that Kurt Warner was going to start or I didn't say I was going to make a change, that meant it was open for speculation."

Leinart said he thought all along that Warner would be the starter.

"It was just speculation. I didn't really look much into it," Leinart said. "Kurt's our guy. Kurt's our leader. Everyone has a bad game, you know. It's just unfortunate how the media views all these things. I'm ready and I've been ready. I just continue to say if my name's called, I'll be ready to play."

Green downplayed Warner's mistakes, referring to dropped passes and the team's inability to run the ball into the end zone on two plays after first-and-goal at the St. Louis 2.

"Kurt can't be responsible for the whole team," Green said.

Warner said he can't worry that a bad outing will cost him his job.

"I go in and say 'hey, I made the mistake,' see where I made them, work on not making them again and go play the next week," he said. "That's how I approach it until I hear something different."

He said no one plays a perfect game.

"When we go into our meetings, we're all accountable to ourselves," Warner said. "No matter what anyone in the stands thinks, or what anybody in the media thinks, or whatever they write, it doesn't matter. We know in that room what happened, and our job is to correct it, to a man."

Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press