ARIZONA CARDINALS

All-Access with Bruce Arians: Tie was still ‘very, very positive’ for Cardinals

Oct 24, 2016, 3:01 PM | Updated: 4:10 pm

(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)...

(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

LISTEN: Bruce Arians, Cardinals head coach

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 comes after the team’s wild Sunday Night Football 6-6 tie against the Seattle Seahawks.

He opened with a statement:

“The only significant injury that came out of the ballgame was Jaron Brown. He tore his ACL in the same leg that he had the brace on, so he’ll be on IR and we’ll make a roster move sometime this week for that spot. Everything else was basically insignificant injuries that shouldn’t cost anybody time this week. Michael Floyd, we’ll see how the hamstring progresses, but we feel like he should be able to play this week.”

On Patrick Peterson’s health

“He’s fine.”

On what losing Jaron Brown means for the offense and for the special teams

“Oh, more special teams. You’re losing one of your core specials teams players. Alex Okafor was the other guy. He’s got a strained calf, and he’ll miss this game for sure – another core special teams guy. That hurt us because that was the position where we got the kick blocked, although Kerwynn (Williams) was more than ready to go in there. He just didn’t get his job done.”

On when he expects an explanation from the league office on Bobby Wagner’s jump on the field goals

“I’ve already talked to the league, and it’s illegal to comment on the officiating.”

On how he slept last night

“I slept fine.”

On whether he saw leverage on the overtime jump attempt to block the Cardinals field goal attempt

“I thought I saw that, yes.”

On whether the leverage he saw was with the hands

“Yeah, it looked like that. Yeah.”

On how he’ll bring the team back both physically and emotionally after a game like last night’s

“Well physically, it’s going to be very hard to practice very hard on Wednesday, especially with 95 snaps offensively and as physical as the game was. Defensively, we didn’t play that much, but we won’t hit on Wednesday for sure, just to get back physically. Mentally, our football team is very, very resilient. It’s a long journey to the end. This is just one step in it. I thought it was a very, very positive step, other than three plays – the two field goals and the punt. I thought it was very, very positive. It was one of the best defensive performances that I’ve seen since I’ve been here. Offensively, I thought we controlled the line of scrimmage as well as we ever have against that group, to have 95 plays and 21 third downs and get ten of them. The fourth-and-one was overexcitement by a young player trying to kill somebody and turned the guy loose. That was one of the only disappointing plays offensively.”

On whether today last night’s tie feels like it was a loss

“No, because when you watch the tape, you see so many really, really good things. That’s a really good football team that was dressed in red last night. They had some poor plays in the special teams phase, but it is the ultimate team game for a reason. It takes all three phases to win a game.”

On how much toughness the Cardinals have shown in not allowing a touchdown in two games

“Like I said, our defense has been playing really well for three weeks, but last night the communication was as fine as it’s ever been. I think we only had five mental errors, and there were a couple ticky-tacky ones by the coaches. But, the effort was fantastic.”

On his decision-making process to go for a touchdown or FG in overtime

“It never crossed my mind that we’d miss a field goal. It never crossed my mind, or it never crossed my mind that they’d block the next one. The touchdown is the sure thing. I thought J.J. (Nelson) was going to score, I thought David (Johnson) was going to score, and we’ve had success with that little hurry-up play all year. Again, we turned a guy loose off the back. They went in an all-out blitz, and I think had he had a true head of steam, he’d have got it in. But, at that point in time, you always kick it on third down. You don’t wait until fourth because it gives you an extra down in case something does happen.”

On the special teams play the last couple weeks after issues in the beginning of the season

“They’ve been fantastic. They helped us win two games, and injuries have something to do with it a little bit. As far as the punt block, we were down to our third wing, but he’s a capable guy. The field goal issue, you just can’t miss that kick.”

On whether the things that happened on special teams are correctable or whether he needs to change what they are doing

“No, the kicker just needs to kick it through the two poles and we’d be 5-2.”

On whether there are decisions he made in last night’s game that he wants back

“Not really. I’d still go for the fourth-and-one. That game with them—a lot of the time, it’s about imposing your will and I thought that that was a time that we should have done it, and we should have made the first down. We got a little too aggressive.”

On what David Johnson can do in the future when he gets close to the pylon

“Take two hands and hit the pylon with the ball. Never reach with one, take two. I think he thought he had it outright on the run, but just make sure you secure the football. Do not lose the football in that situation.”

On whether Chandler Catanzaro has his full support

“Yes.”

On how else he will ensure that the Cardinals are fresh when they play the Panthers this Sunday

“We’ll monitor it all week – how hard we practice, how much we practice, sunlight and all that thing; whether we go inside or outside. That’s just how you feel them every week. Your trainer has a real good feel for that.”

On whether Johnson was still at full speed even though he had 41 touches

“Oh yeah. Yeah, and he should have had about 45 had he run better routes. He’s still struggling running some routes that he runs extremely well in practice. In games, he runs a little bit too quick or he makes poor decisions. But, when you have 95 plays, he’s going to touch it most of them.”

On whether he has to monitor Johnson’s touches or snap count

“No. If he’s tired, he taps out.”

On who will fill in at wide receiver for Jaron Brown

“Britt (Golden) right now, and I think we’ll have John Brown back. Hopefully by Wednesday, we’ll have it under control. J.J. (Nelson), I thought, played really, really well for the first time playing 80 plays in a game. I thought he played very well.”

On how Nelson was caught by the Seahawks defender in overtime

“The guy made a nice angle. He was stumbling a little bit. If he was obviously hitting full gear, nobody’s catching him, and I didn’t think he’d catch him.”

On Michael Floyd’s game

“Mike had a really good game, other than the drop. He blocked really, really well and had a bunch of good third down catches, and obviously, the one drop.”

On whether the Cardinals will need another wide receiver on the roster

“We’ll look and see. We’ve got one guy on the practice squad and we’ll see what’s available.”

On the process to have John Brown return

“Most of it is muscle fatigue, and the soreness in his body. Most of it is gone. We’ll work him out, weightlifting, do some things aggressively today and tomorrow and see how he does. Then, treat him again with what protocol we’ve gotten. A lot of fluid, oxygen, and see how he responds. He should be fine by Wednesday.”

On whether the Cardinals will have to see what Brown can withstand in practice as part of this process

“Well, the biggest thing is that he can practice full once he goes. Then, it’s about a rehydration and oxygen issue right after practice.”

On whether the fact that next week’s opponent is the Panthers makes it easier to rally the team

“I don’t think it would matter who we’re playing. They’re going to be very rested. They’re obviously coming off a bye week and get some players back. But yeah, we’ve lost our season—it ended over there twice now, so it should be a little bit extra, but it really is the next game. Right now, we’re in the hunt so every game matters.”

On how significant it’s been for the Cardinals to keep their core players together while the Panthers have lost some

“Oh, I think that Steve (Keim) has done a great job, I think, of retooling the roster, but keeping the majority of the core leaders here that can still play. In every organization, that’s what’s tops. You’ve got to have a locker room with really good leaders, and we’ve been able to do it.”

On whether last night’s game was James Bettcher’s best game as Cardinals defensive coordinator

“I don’t know about that. He’s had some really good ones, but it was the best the defense has played.”

On whether last night’s game was Chandler Jones’ best game as a member of the Cardinals

“He had a really good game. New England was a good game. He’s played pretty solid all year, but that was a big game. I just wish we’d have had one more guy closer to that ball when he got the strip sack. That’d have been an easy defensive touchdown.”

On whether the Seahawks offensive lineman recovered the ball because he missed his block

“Yeah, but if we’d have had one more guy whip a blocker, then we’d have had one back there fighting him for it.”

On whether the Cardinals will need 10 wins to get into the playoffs

“God, I have no clue. I don’t—the way parity is right now, I would think it would have a good shot of at least getting the tiebreaker. It normally does.”

On how this tie will affect standings later in the season

“Sometimes it can help you. You never know. It’s not a division loss. I’ve seen it help teams, and we’ll have to wait and see.”

On whether last night was one of the more bizarre games he’s ever been a part of

“It was a different one for sure. I’ve only been doing it for about 40-some years, but that’s in the top five.”

On who Kerwynn Williams replaced at the wing position due to injury

“Jaron and then also we lost … it was a couple weeks ago, so I don’t know.”

On the two tight-end packages being an effective way to open up the offense

“Yeah, we’ve always been a two-tight end group and a three-wide receiver group. So, those are the two things we’re going to be in the majority of the time, some four wideouts. But yeah, Darren (Fells) got the sprained ankle early. I think he’ll be fine, but it affected his running. He could still block, but Mo (Ifeanyi Momah) came in and did a heck of a job. He’s been waiting for his opportunity, doing a great job on special teams and he came up with two big, big pass catches, and Hakeem (Valles) is doing a really good job for a rookie.”

On how much different the Panthers look this season as compared to last season

“They don’t look any different at all to me, in the short time I’ve watched them this morning. (Luke) Kuechly is still Kuechly. Their front is still solid. There’s no Josh Norman, that’s for sure, but the injuries at the corner position have obviously hurt them. I think they’ll get some guys back, supposedly.”

On why the Cardinals were able to get so many pressures last night and whether that’s because the Seahawks offensive line was not playing well or because the Cardinals defense was playing well

“I think a combination. Things have been written about their offensive line all year, but I thought our guys, the front four, run and pass. When your linebackers have 20-something tackles, your D-line is doing a hell of a job.”

On what he said the Pete Carroll after the game

“Oh nothing. Just, ‘Good job’ and ‘See you in a few months.’”

On whether last night’s game epitomizes where these two teams are

“Yeah. I would have liked to have had that win, but I think it’s going to come down maybe to the game up there, hopefully. Hopefully, we can do our job and make that game a big game.”

On whether he liked last night’s style of game even though football now is about passing and points

“I do. Yeah, for me, it was a … we had opportunities down the field that we didn’t make again. But, to be able to run the football, there’s nothing better for your offensive line and tight ends than to be able to know that they ran the football on somebody.”

On how confident he is that the Cardinals will be as good of a road team as it was last season now that it has five of the next seven games on the road

“Very, because there are so many same faces. I think we’ll be more ready for this game at 1:00 than we were at Buffalo.”

On whether he learned anything about his team last night

“Oh yeah. Yeah. I think we’re a very, very good football team. I’m very confident of that.”

On Darren Fells’ health

“He’ll be limited, but he’ll be OK.”

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