Cardinals coach Steve Wilks doesn’t feel like a broken record

TEMPE, Ariz. — Steve Wilks’ demeanor hasn’t changed as his Arizona Cardinals have repeatedly this season followed any signs of blossoming with different varieties of withering in the face of adversity.

The latest: following up a win in Green Bay with consecutive losses to four-win squads in Weeks 14 and 15 of the season.

Arizona has fallen to 3-11 with games against the NFC West’s two playoff contenders in the Rams and Seahawks remaining. It’s assumed that the Cardinals will consider following an expected ugly end to the year with an uglier axing of their first-year head coach.

But to Wilks, it’s business as usual after a 40-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.

“I really don’t listen to the outside noise,” he said. “I wake up every morning blessed, and I come in here with my nose down and just grind away, trying to get coaches and players on the same page. Just trying to get a win, that’s my focus.”

Monday after the blowout in Atlanta, Wilks went the furthest he’d gone thus far, questioning his team’s mental strength in how the Cardinals allowed an early pick-six thrown by rookie quarterback Josh Rosen snowball into more problems.

Otherwise, the message to the Cardinals’ locker room hasn’t changed in the many weeks since a flop of a debut, a 24-6 defeat at the hands of the Washington Redskins.

Wilks has thrown out broad buzzwords like “finishing” and “execution” while admonishing the Cardinals’ “fundamentals and technique” following losses.

Asked if he thought such messages would come across like a broken record, Wilks explained that it was a necessary part of being a head coach.

“I don’t really say it’s a broken record. I think you can never get away from it,” he said. “Even if you talk to the playoff teams right now, the great teams, I guarantee you they still talking fundamentals and technique.

“It’s not so much about always trying to over-scheme. The game hasn’t changed. It’s about leverage, it’s about angles, it’s about blocking, it’s about tackling; and we have to do a better job at all of them.”

Rosen ‘didn’t like’ benching vs. Falcons

Rosen went 13-of-22 for 132 yards and two interceptions before Wilks pulled him for backup Mike Glennon in the fourth quarter against Atlanta.

While the rookie Rosen wasn’t pleased with his benching, it was done to protect him after taking six sacks and fumbling once.

Rosen will return as Arizona’s starter Sunday at home against the Los Angeles Rams, Wilks said after the game. The head coach expounded a day later on what he believes is a necessary move to give Rosen crucial game experience.

“Yesterday I felt the need to take him out based on where we were in the game,” Wilks said, adding he hasn’t discussed the possibility of Rosen being shut down. “He didn’t like that, he was disappointed a little bit, wanted to stay in there. Sometimes great players like that, you got to help them help themselves. But moving forward, we’re not going to take a defeated attitude and say that we’re going to put him on the shelf for the remainder of the season.

“We have to do a great job as coaches, starting with myself, by putting him in great situations, protecting him and doing everything we can to see his development and growth the last two games.”

Wilks said the team should use more six- and seven-man protections with Rosen dropping back for passes. He also wants to move the pocket around and use bootlegs to allow the rookie to throw on the run.

The head coach isn’t worried about Rosen’s turnovers, which included a tipped interception for a pick-six, a sack-fumble and an ill-advised throw into traffic during a two-minute drill. All three first-half turnovers let to 20 Falcons points as the Cardinals trailed 26-7 after scoring the opening points of the game.

“That sack-fumble, that can’t happen. That two-minute drive, trying to force the ball in late, we can’t turn the ball over in that situation,” Wilks said of Rosen’s turnovers.

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