Arizona Cardinals S Tyrann Mathieu: My heart was in my behind seeing Carson Palmer on ground
Aug 4, 2015, 2:15 PM | Updated: 2:15 pm
GLENDALE, Ariz. – For a brief moment on Monday a hush fell over University of Phoenix Stadium.
A player was on the ground, which is never a good sign, and it wasn’t just any player but perhaps the one player the Arizona Cardinals cannot afford to lose, quarterback Carson Palmer.
Palmer had gotten rolled up on by his running back.
It was the first real scare of training camp and on the first day the team practiced in pads.
“I saw a running back stop because the DB stopped and then hit him,” head coach Bruce Arians said Tuesday. “Because half the guys blitz, stop; some don’t. That’s one of the things we got to correct. Either come full speed or you don’t come full speed, but you don’t stop and then hit a guy that’s already stopped.”
The ‘DB’ was Tyrann Mathieu.
“My heart was, like, in my behind,” he said. “It was tough, man. We’re feeling pretty good as a team right now, so I definitely didn’t want to be responsible for No. 3.”
The play in question came during 11-on-11 team work.
Mathieu blitzed and hit Kerwynn Williams, who fell backward into Palmer.
The good news was just as quickly as Palmer went down, he sprang back up and started motioning downfield, as if to get the next play started.
Palmer, nine months removed from ACL surgery, didn’t seem affected at all.
“It scared the (expletive) out of Ty, though,” Arians said, smiling.
That it did.
“It was a scary moment for me,” Mathieu said. “I actually thought I was going to get kicked out of practice, so I was happy I was able to finish.”
Better yet, Arians never said a word.
“Yeah, which was weird because usually he gets pretty pissed off about those types of things,” Mathieu said. “Luckily, nothing happened to Carson.”
While Arians didn’t say anything to the 23-year-old safety, Palmer did.
“He told me it was football,” Mathieu said. “He wasn’t mad.”
Though he crossed the line here, Mathieu has been a star early in camp, making one play after another.
“I’m feeling really good,” he said. “I definitely want to be physical, so that’s just part of the game. Obviously, I have to know where the quarterback is at and not put him in that situation again.”
However, asking a defensive player to play hard and at full speed and then lay off the quarterback is often easier said than done.
“It’s pretty hard, man,” Mathieu said, “especially when you’re trying to get the right look and take the right angle and work on your craft. It’s pretty hard.”