All-Access with Bruce Arians: Following the Arizona Cardinals’ win over Philadelphia

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, we’ll highlight some of the most notable quotes.

“Injury-wise, the only person that looks like they’ll miss some time is Stepfan Taylor. Stepf strained a calf and could miss some significant time. Patrick (Peterson) is going through the protocol, as is Tony Jefferson, so both those guys seem to be OK, but we’ll go through the protocol and be careful like we always are with those things. Everybody else just bumps and bruises and we should get Troy (Niklas) back on the field this week, also.”

With Taylor out will Marion Grice get some playing time at running back?

“Marion will slide up the depth chart. Robert Hughes could get some time depending on what the situation is and what package, but yeah, Marion will be the next guy up.”

The defense continues to do a great job

“Oh, yeah, the thing we want to do defensively is be disruptive. I thought we were disruptive. We created turnovers, and yardage really doesn’t matter. We want to lead the league in points, and we want to lead the league in sack and turnovers. Sacks are the one thing that obviously is down, but there are disruptions there.”

Is this your team’s identity at this point?

“Survivors. We find a way to win. It’s not always pretty. It was another game that going back and watching the tape, we had some really good outstanding individual performances, but as a collective offense, defense, and I’ll throw special teams out there also, we had too many malfunctions. The attention to detail has to be better or else it’ll come back and get us.”

Where does a team learn to be resilient, does it simply come from winning games?

“Yeah, it is. You start winning games in the fourth quarter; you believe you’re going to win. You start losing games in the fourth quarter and doubt creeps in. We’ve been fortunate enough to set that tempo with the first one and build on it all year.”

What have you been able to see from Jonathan Cooper in practice lately?

“Oh, Coop’s getting a lot better. He’s getting healthier. He’s getting a lot better. It’s a shame because we’re now entering the phases where we’re not allowed to go in pads. But he has, he’s gotten a lot better, and he looks almost like his old self now.”

What did you think on the play where Patrick Peterson got hurt?

“Well you always hold your breath and say a quick prayer anytime a player goes down like that. I’m not one that runs out there. When I didn’t see him moving there for a while I did get out there, but I always have one of the doctors let me know what’s going on. He was fine at that point in time. It was just getting him up and being very cautious with that type of thing. Friendly fire, sometimes that’s what happens.”

Was Peterson knocked out?

“No.”

Have you talked to Patrick since the injury?

“Oh, yeah, he’s in the locker room jumping around joking right now.”

Do you feel good about Peterson?

“Yeah, he was the first one when we came into the door in the locker room. I’m too old to have guys jump on top of me, but he was excited.”

What are John Brown and Deone Bucannon giving the team?

“Oh, gosh, yeah. Two guys giving you this much contribution, and I’m going to throw Ed Stinson in there because he’s had three ball games in a row. The rookie class is doing their job, really doing their job.”

How did Carson Palmer play?

“Very average for him. I think some of the things, the confusion, will make you see ghosts sometimes. You’re hot, you’re not hot, and you think you’re hot. And, they had a good package. They have an excellent blitz package. That was one of the parts of the game I was disappointed at.”

This team seems to give you its all every game

“There’s no doubt. The one thing we never have to ask for is effort. We can play smarter, but being fast and physical, those traits are there for 60 minutes. Rashad (Johnson) was running off the field, ’60 minutes, 60 minutes!’ They believe it. When you play and win like we have, you’ll get guys to respond that way.”

Seven games in is this who you think your team is, won’t win pretty but instead survive?

“I would hope that we’d get one of those pretty games, but against the teams we’re playing it’s going to be survival. Everybody that we play from here is in the thick of it. The Rams are one of the better teams we’re going to play. They might have the worst record, but they’re one of the best teams we’re going to play. Every game is going to be to the wire probably, but it’d be nice to have one that we played as good as we could play.”

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