All-Access with Bruce Arians: ‘Very high optimism’ Stanton will be playoff-ready
Dec 22, 2014, 8:03 PM | Updated: 8:16 pm
Here are the major talking points from Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians at Monday’s press conference after the Cardinals suffered a blowout loss to the Seattle Seahawks at home on Sunday Night Football.
What’s your level of optimism Drew Stanton will be ready for the playoffs?
Very, very high optimism because he wants to be ready. Had he not had that minor setback last week, he would have tried to play in that one. There’s no way I’ll play him this week unless we have to.
Did he have some swelling?
Yeah, after Thursday’s workout there was a little bit of swelling, but it went right away. We don’t want to do another setback. He will work into practice some this week and get some action in practice.
On the emotional impact of the Seahawks loss going forward:
You just go back to work. That’s the one thing: Our guys respect the process. We’ll go back to work, learn from the mistakes we made, build on them and go from there.
You gave up 596 yards with what was supposed to be one of the better defenses in the NFL. What were the reasons?
Tackle. Just tackle. When you blitz, don’t stop or let the guy get out. We had five times we had unblocked blitzers and do exactly what they were told not to do or coached to do. If you give him a chance, he’s going to make you pay, and he did.
How was the protection for Ryan Lindley?
Overall it was not bad. We had a couple of mental assignments where we missed a blitzer and passed off a stunt we shouldn’t have. Overall it was pretty solid, especially the tackles.
Did you think Ryan Lindley was jittery?
No, I don’t think so. I thought he was very calm. He was handling his protections extremely well. It was just a matter of finding the open guy and being accurate.
Why did Kerwynn Williams not play more?
Once we got in the situation where it was three scores he’s not going to play. He’s a good pass blocker, but he’s not our best one.
How close is Larry Fitzgerald to being where he was before the knee injury?
Probably 70 percent. He’s nowhere near what he was playing at before.
Besides Drew Stanton, is there anyone else you would consider holding out?
No; we’re playing to win the game. If Drew were truly healthy we would start him, but I don’t see that happening by Sunday.
If Jonathan Cooper is good to go, will he back in the starting lineup?
We will have to see that in practice. He did not do very well with that in practice last week. We won’t be in pads so it’s very hard to find out. We’ll see. The way the cast was built, it was non-functional.
