All-Access with Bruce Arians: We can get a lot better
Sep 19, 2016, 3:13 PM | Updated: 3:51 pm
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Jaron Brown (13) runs after the catch for a touchdown as Tampa Bay Buccaneers strong safety Chris Conte (23) defends during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
TEMPE, Ariz. – Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians meets the media the day after every game, often times explaining injury situations as well as anything else he may have seen the day before.
Here in this space, with help from the Cardinals’ media relations staff, we’ll highlight some of the most notable quotes from his session, which followed the Cardinals’ 40-7 demolition of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“Well basically, there’s double good news. We won and there’s nobody reported injured that will miss any time. A lot of bumps and bruises like normal, but nobody who will miss any time this week. So, we’ll be able to continue to grow, hopefully, on the practice field and continue to get better because there are a lot of things to be corrected. The score doesn’t indicate, I don’t think, how poorly we played offensively. We can get a hell of a lot better. Communication was not very good in the beginning of the game – way too many mental errors, especially by a couple young players. Defensively, I thought we ran and hit hard, and played very physical; again, some communication stuff which is normal at home with all the crowd noise. The crowd was fantastic and did a great job again. I thought it was the best finish to a half we’ve had in a long time, on both sides of the ball. The offense scoring, the defense getting it back, the offense scoring. It kind of really flipped that game around. Game balls: Tony Jefferson, had a heck of a ball game, and Marcus Cooper. Nobody offensively or with special teams really stood out.”
On Tony Jefferson’s play so far this season being as impressive to the coaching staff as it is to outsiders
“Yeah, he came back in fantastic condition. He’s got a good grasp of what we’re doing. He’s taken a leadership role back there. That doesn’t surprise me at all.”
On whether he really likes players like Jefferson who had to earn a spot on the roster
“Yeah. He’s never taken anything for granted. He shows up every single day and gives you everything he’s got; very physical and a very smart player.”
On the throw to Jaron Brown at the end of the first half demonstrating his aggressive philosophy
“In every play, there’s a touchdown, even if you’re playing for three. At that point in time, I think there was 28 seconds, we had a timeout. We were in alert down timeout situation, trying to get 20 yards to get into good field goal position. They gave us a coverage where Jaron had a chance to go over the top of the safety and the safety got on the in route, and Carson (Palmer) saw it immediately and put a perfect ball out there. We really had Smoke (John Brown) working the middle of the field and Larry (Fitzgerald) coming in on a dig, to get the 20 yards. We just found the right spot. Don’t ever play scared. Play smart.”
On whether he would tell fans ‘I told you so’ after he responded to last week’s criticism by asking them to be patient and wait another week
“No, no. They were pissed, and rightfully so. Hopefully they’re happier this week and everything tastes a little bit better.”
On why he’s upset at his offense even after the team scored 40 points
“Because we should have had 50, you know? We left at least 100, 120 yards and two touchdowns out there just on mental errors by David Johnson.”
On Robert Nkemdiche’s injured ankle being the same one he injured during training camp
“Yes.”
On whether Nkemdiche will be good to go from here
“We’ll see. Those other guys are playing pretty damn good.”
On whether Nkemdiche injured his ankle during Friday’s practice
“Yeah, he tweaked it Friday. It wasn’t the best week of practice for him. There’s too much competition in that room to have a bad day and dress out and play on Sunday.”
On how Arizona will avoid overconfidence as it faces a winless team in Buffalo
“You’ve got to respect your opponent every week. Buffalo’s got a ton of talent. Don’t get caught up with the coaching stuff. You just watch the film. There’s enough up there to scare you. Tyrod (Taylor) is playing extremely well. Their defense is outstanding. You just come to work today and get your work done. As long as we have the type of practices we should have, we shouldn’t have to worry about it.”
On when Steve Keim and his staff bring him into the process to evaluate players that Arizona might be interested in acquiring, i.e. with a player like Marcus Cooper
“The coaches evaluate him and see if he fits our eyes as well as he does theirs, and he did. It’s a collective effort.”
On what he saw from Evan Mathis
“He played really well. He got a little more turf toe right at the end. He’s a tough old bird, man. He played really, really well.”
On whether he’s ready to name Marcus Cooper a starter at cornerback
“No, we’ll list those two guys (Marcus Cooper and Brandon Williams) the same. There’s a lot of competition going on. Brandon played really well. We’ll see.”
On how far away Justin Bethel is from seeing more time on defense in addition to special teams
“A long way.”
On whether Arizona does a good job of staying on the gas pedal even when it’s ahead
“Yeah, I think that’s our philosophy – to keep pressing it, especially offensively. I wasn’t really pleased with the last nine minutes. We pride ourselves on not having three-and-outs. Of course, I didn’t throw the ball the last time, but we should have run the ball better and run that clock out.”
On where he developed the philosophy of always keeping his foot on the gas pedal
“Just ever since I’ve played the game, that’s the way I’ve played; was coached to play that way so I’ve never changed.”
On whether at halftime he was relaying the message that the team couldn’t let up even with a 24-0 lead
“That’s all we talked about. I was very disappointed in the first five minutes of the third quarter by our defense, missing the tackle on the screen pass and dropping the interception that stops the drive.”
On whether anything in particular happened with the missed extra point
“No. He just missed it.”
On whether David Johnson’s two mistakes have been an ongoing issue with him
“A little bit last week. Nothing to this extent. He played poorly, other than he made a couple big plays.”
On whether he was happy with the pass rush yesterday
“Yeah. I thought we had really good pressure with the blitz and the front four; a good mixture.”
On good pressure by the defense including forcing the opposing quarterback to make errant throws in addition to sacking him
“Yeah. When the guy’s moving his feet around back there, that’s good enough.”
On which defensive linemen he was impressed with
“I thought Calais (Campbell) had a good game. Really all of them. Ed Stinson played well. The entire group, as a group, it was one of their better games. I thought we got a really good 20-some snaps out of Xavier (Williams). Josh Mauro had a great game with the tip for the interception. But yeah, all of them.”
On his thoughts when Patrick Peterson returned the interception out of the end zone
“I was pissed he didn’t take it to the house. He kind of ran it out of bounds. He could have had about at least eight more yards in that thing.”
On whether Peterson was too busy pointing to his daughter on that play
“Yeah.”
On Chandler Jones being everything he thought he’d be
“I’d like to see him get one in the second or third quarter when it counts more than when we’ve got a 30-point lead.”
On whether Arizona is moving Jones around so that teams can’t match up with him
“Yeah. You game plan it. You know that if a guy’s sitting on that left side, you’re going to chip him and put tight ends there, so you’ve got to be able to move him all around and be position flexible, and he is that.”
On how he felt about Kameron Canaday yesterday
“It was a little bit erratic again. There was one low but it wasn’t un-handleable.”
On whether Arizona will look at bringing someone else in to compete for the position
“No.”
On the play of the offensive line
“I thought it was really good. D.J. (Humphries) struggled early with the no-huddle, just the communication part of it for some reason. He didn’t have any problem with it in practice, but he really struggled to start the game. Jared (Veldheer) overset one time on a play action pass, but other than that, it was pretty solid. Again, we had a couple routes run wrong. It made him pull the ball down and get sacked. We’ve got an easy touchdown and David runs the wrong route twice and Carson gets sacked.”
On Arizona being plus-seven in turnovers
“That’s probably the best thing we’re doing right now. Offensively, protecting the football. Defensively, when you get into a game like that, we should have had more. Pat had one and we had another one that was a potential pick.”
On whether Drew Butler’s ankle has recovered
“Drew really kicked well. He would’ve had a great net had we not missed tackles on the guy, point blank. Brandon went down there and just missed.”
On whether Arizona’s tackling has improved and how much room for improvement there is in that category
“It was much better. Much better. Again, it wasn’t a game like the first game where there was a lot of stuff inside and outside, running back-wise. But, we missed one on the first-and-20 on the screen pass. That was huge. Other than that, it was pretty solid.”
