All-Access with Bruce Arians: Disappointing loss, but issues are correctable
Sep 12, 2016, 3:09 PM | Updated: Sep 16, 2016, 9:46 am
Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians yells during the second half of an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Here in this space, we’ll highlight some of the most notable quotes from his session, which followed the Cardinals’ 23-21 season-opening loss to the New England Patriots.
“Good afternoon. Target’s in the front, not the back, OK? When you shoot, make sure you’re shooting in the front. Obviously very disappointing when you watch the film, and the week of preparation that led into the game was, I thought, very, very good. The play on the field was not. It wasn’t just young players, but it was a lot of young players that got caught up, I think, in everything that was going in. There were some critical errors by some young players. Obviously the busted coverage when we signaled that it was not roll coverage, that he had him man-to-man, and he still rolled up — that was an easy touchdown. Easy things to correct, but it’s too late now. You lose a game, and I think we have enough character on our team to get it corrected and show up and have a really good Wednesday practice. That’s really all you can do from here. You can sit and reflect as much as you want because you (the media) have until Friday to write; I only have until tomorrow to coach. Really, until 4 O’clock today, so I have to get over it quicker.”
On Evan Mathis’ status
“No update yet on Evan. He’s still in the tube. All three guys. Frostee (Rucker) is the only guy that I’ve gotten back. His MCL, possibly two to three weeks.”
On what he told his team after last night’s loss
“That it’s one game. Go back, watch yourself and your preparation. Was it good enough? Watch the film and see if your preparation got to the stadium. Make sure you show up to work today and we’ll correct it. Move on to the next game like we always do.”
On the offense’s slow start
“It was really a decision by me to not go for 4th-and-six inches, to punt it to their offense. I was thinking we could get good field position back. I think that third down call. In the past, I’ve gone for that a few times. In this game, had it been a different scenario, I probably would have. But, that was probably the most conservative call I made all night.”
On Earl Watford’s play when he came in for an injured Mathis
“Average. He was solid at times and then got the holding penalty. Pretty good in the running game.”
On what bothered him most when he watches tape of last night’s game
“Nothing to the point that I know can’t be corrected. It was not talent. I went around, especially defensively, and asked them, ‘Did we have too much stuff after Thursday?’ ‘No, we’re good. We’re good.’ Not to make the checks that we made, especially veteran players, was disturbing. But, offensively, the lack of third down production in the first quarter because of miscommunications on the receiver-quarterback. Defensively, it was just not getting off the field on third down, but I think those things can be corrected. That was probably the most disturbing thing because we’ve been so good at it.”
On if the miscommunications are a result of players not playing as much during the preseason
“No. Missed tackles, we harped on that all week and worked really hard on it. The communication is sometimes, ‘I’ve got a guy beat. I’m supposed to run a short route but I beat him so I throw my hand up and I get in somebody else’s reception area because he’s throwing it to somebody else.’ Just little things like that.”
On whether this loss caught the team’s attention and grounded them a bit
“I don’t think there’s any doubt. Hopefully it did.”
On whether the younger players like Brandon Williams will be able to correct their mistakes because they’re so young
“Brandon, other than probably three plays, played pretty solid. D.J. (Humphries), probably three or four plays. Over-aggressive in the running game, which I kind of like that, but you’ve got to be under control too. But other than that, Troy Niklas had had a great camp and didn’t show up like he should have in the run game. It was a bunch of first and second-year guys that didn’t play as well as I thought they would.”
On whether the special teams issues are as correctable as those of the offense and defense
“Totally. Other than our kickoff return team, we did not block the right guys and obviously turned too many of them loose on Andre (Ellington). We’ve got a hell of a returner back there if we just block somebody.”
On whether he had any problems with Ellington not taking a touchback and instead bringing it out
“Well there was only one, when he ran across the field and lost feel where he was. He thought he was on the goal line. The rest of them, he had to bring out. But, just that one over on the left sideline, when he had to run across the field.”
On whether he normally sees big strides from Week 1 to Week 2
“You would hope. If you don’t, then there’s an area of concern. Like I said, you never really know what you have until October.”
On what he would say to outside observers who are down on the team after this loss
“Give us another week. There’s another game next week. There are 15 more of them, but there’s another one next week. I’m as disappointed as they are, and they should be disappointed.”
On whether he’s worried they could hurt Brandon Williams’ confidence as opposed to motivating him
“I don’t think you have to worry about Brandon’s confidence. The guy didn’t beat him for a touchdown; he beat himself because he missed the check. He was in roll coverage and they went motion. He had him man-to-man, he stayed in roll coverage. That one’s an easy one to correct. He went for an interception, missed it, guy gets down the sidelines. But, he’s competing. He’s got the guy covered pretty good.”
On whether the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty by Chandler Jones and D.J. Swearinger upset him the most
“One of the things that has not happened around here and will not happen again. Or you won’t be here.”
On Carson Palmer’s play last night
“I thought down the stretch, when we gave him protection, he was solid. The one thing we talked about was, ‘They’re going to drop eight, drop eight and then rush you.’ I thought he handled it extremely well. I don’t think the receivers played well at all, other than Larry (Fitzgerald) and Jaron Brown, who played very well, to support him enough.”
On whether John Brown showed signs of rust in the game
“I don’t think there’s any doubt. He missed way too much time.”
On David Johnson’s play
“I thought he was impatient early. Made a nice run inside the five, for the touchdown. I’d say it was a very solid game. Not what we were hoping out of it in the passing game, but it was a solid game.”
On whether Johnson displayed all his tools during his big run
“Oh yeah. It’s almost the same identical run he made in Philly last year. You know it’s there all the time. Every time he hits it, it’s not always going to crack, but he pounded the pile pretty good for three and four, three and four (yards).”
On whether he talked to Kameron Canaday about the field goal snap
“No. He knows what his job is. And you’re talking about this much. If it was that much higher, because it wasn’t on the ground and Drew (Butler) put it on the ground. You’re talking about that much.”
On Chandler Catanzaro’s demeanor after the game
“He took the blame. Like a captain should. I still expect him to make that kick.”
On whether he talked to Catanzaro after the game
“No.”
On whether he was trying to get David Johnson more touches
“No, he probably played too much. I’d like to have Chris (Johnson) in there more, but we only had 59, 60 snaps.”
On whether he noticed any trends around the NFL in Week 1 when it comes to the kickoff
“I haven’t really studied the league to see what’s out there. I know in our game, they obviously found something that was very good for them.”
On whether Rodney Gunter will get a majority of Rucker’s snaps if Rucker misses time
“Yeah. He played a bunch and played very well.”
On whether there was one thing that led to the struggles on third down
“Yeah, a couple guys not being in the right spots. One guy didn’t run the right route early in the game. That was huge. All very easily correctable, but it should not have showed up in that game.”
On whether Drew Butler is still on solid ground after last night’s game
“Oh yeah. He kicked his ass off on one leg. He had a severely sprained ankle. Some guys would have not been able to go out there. He sucked it up for his team and went out there. He sprained his ankle severely on that first punt.”
On the backup plan had Butler not been able to punt after spraining his ankle
“Chandler (Catanzaro) would kick.”
On how Robert Nkemdiche played
“Poor. He jumped offside when they weren’t even set, on a big third down. Other than that, he was not a factor.”
On how close Justin Bethel is to being able to give everything he can
“Justin has to decide that he’s going to play with that foot. He was just an average spectator on special teams. He missed two tackles. If he’s going to play, he needs to play better. Or he shouldn’t play.”
On whether he looks for positives after a game like last night’s
“Always. Always. There are a handful of things to correct. I would never say they’re negative, but they’re things to correct. There’s a lot of positive.”
