No ‘pressure’ to name starting QB
Aug 20, 2012, 8:01 PM | Updated: 9:13 pm
August 20, 2012: Lunchtime with Whiz
FLAGSTAFF — Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt meets the media daily at lunchtime.
Of course this will be the final time he meets the media, at least at lunchtime. He will address the media one more time after the team’s last Flagstaff practice tomorrow morning.
On how long the starters will play vs. Tennessee
“Well, John (Skelton) is going to get more plays. It was disproportinate last week. Now, we’ll have a little bit more of an opportunity this week because we’ll start the second half — most likely, with our offensive line just because you want to get into the routine of going into halftime and then coming back out.
“A lot of it is going to be determined by how many snaps we get. The first thing is we got to give John enough snaps that we can balance it out and then we’ll proceed from there.”
On when he expects to name his starting quarterback
“I don’t think there’s any pressure, any reason to say you would have to make that decision before (the last preseason) game.”
On what he would like to see from his team vs. Tennessee
“Well, we travel. We travel east. Even though it’s a two hour time change that’s going to be real test for us. I know it’s an evening game. It’s not a one o’clock game. That’s a little bit different. Handling that, on the road is what you really want to see.
“[It’s a] short week. We’ve got two days of practice, essentially today and tomorrow; and then we travel on Wednesday. See how our team prepares and plays Thursday night. And I’d like to see us try to continue to improve what we started to build in the last game as far as making plays and all phases of the game contributing.”
On if players learned a lesson after first two preseason games
“Maybe, maybe we all learned a lesson about that. I hope so. Last week was a very good week of practice and it translated to the game.
“That lesson being if you think you’re just going to pick up where you left off (last season) that’s not going to happen. Our guys worked hard. They’ve worked hard this camp. I’ll say that. I haven’t had complaints about that. My complaint has been with how it’s translated to the games. I’m not going to ignore the fact that it was a tough road trip, being in Kansas City and everything that went along with that. Maybe that taught us a lesson much like it did five years ago when we went to the east coast (and stayed for games against) Washington and the New York Jets. Hopefully it does.”
