Keim Time: We’re in this thing together

After an offseason that saw experts talk about the Arizona Cardinals being an NFL juggernaut and possibly bulldozing their way to the Super Bowl, the Cards have yet to live up to the hype.

After dropping Sunday’s contest to the Buffalo Bills 33-18, they now sit at 1-2. The Los Angeles Rams are next up for the Cards, as they look to stop the bleeding.

General manager Steve Keim joined Doug and Wolf on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, as he does every Monday throughout the season, to discuss what happened in Orchard Park and what he expects from his team moving forward.

Do you feel any anger about Sunday?

“Well, always disappointed when you lose. Very disappointed from the standpoint, I would say much to my opinion watching the tape, and to be going on four years, coach and me being together, I would say this is the worst we played on the road in all three phases, maybe the NFC Championship game or very similar to that. Not only all three phases, you don’t see a lot of consistency, a lot of rhythm, but at the same time, your Pro Bowlers, your top players, guys that you’re relying on didn’t play as well either in my opinion. Yeah, it’s disappointing. As we talked about that first week, when you lose it feels like the sky’s falling, when you win, everything’s great, and (Monday,) it’s certainly a disappointing morning. More than anything though we have to turn it around, get back on track this week against the Rams, and I feel pretty strong and confident that coach will have these guys ready to go Sunday.”

Do you fight overreacting and who do you lean on to make sure you don’t overreact?

“Absolutely, this is what I get paid to do, so the difficult balance is between making smart decisions and decisions based on emotions, and it’s pretty easy to make decisions based on emotion on Monday morning after you lost. You have to try to continue to fight that, but at the same time you have to do what’s best for the organization, and you have to keep that in mind, and coach and I have a simple philosophy that we have expectations, and if you don’t meet our expectations we’ll try to find someone who can, so we’ll stay aggressive with that mindset and we’ll bring nine players in [Tuesday], and if any of these guys can help us in anyway we’ll turn this roster.”

Do you sense that the players feel entitled?

“That’s a good question, I mean I think that’s a question that Bruce, myself, Michael Bidwill, every one of our fans is trying to answer right now. You feel like you have a good football team and talent’s one thing, but playing consistently on the field and playing collectively as a team is another, and playing smart because I know that the past several weeks there have been a number of mental busts on every side of the ball, and that’s something that we tried to clean up and will continue to clean up and it’s a week-to-week league. Just think last week in Buffalo, we’re talking about (them) having the first pick and firing their offensive coordinator and now they’re probably discussing the playoffs. You never can tell, but you got to continue to stay the course and do everything you can to put the best product on the field. That’s why I’ve been up early watching tape and trying to see if there (are) any other guys that can help us.”     

Did you feel there was an inordinate amount of mental errors in this game?

“There were certainly some mental errors, especially when it came to miscommunication with our receivers. There were some guys who ran the wrong routes, there were some poorly thrown balls, there were some games and stunts up front that had us confused or we did not handle the right way. It was disappointing for me to see the way the first half in particular, they got in a rhythm in running the football on us, especially on those inside traps. So again, we’ve got to become more physical up front on both sides of ball, we have to play with more consistency, and from a skill standpoint we’ve got to be on the same page.”

Are there moves that a GM can make that sends a message to the team?

“I don’t really make moves just to send a message. I make moves because I think they’re the smart and right decision to make for the organization, but there’s no doubt if you show a tendency to pull the trigger when you feel that way, they understand downstairs if you don’t consistently produce there are going to be changes made, and we’ve never been shy about that. So you know it’s not like a threat or anything, it’s a business, and we have to put the best product on the field and again that’s exactly why we’ll have nine players in here [Tuesday] and we’ll take a look at them and see how they look.”

Does Bruce Arians give you a report on the team after the game is over, with what the team did wrong?  

“Yeah, and that’s the kind of report that I need, because I can watch tape until I’m blue in the face and see a guy maybe not make a play physically, but there are times when as I’m watching a game on the plane on my iPad beside him, it’s a question of you know, when you get this kind of coverage, what are we asking our back to do in this situation? And that’s extremely helpful for me because I’m not in those meetings every day, I don’t know exactly, from a schematics standpoint, what are we asking this player to do. We have great lines of communication. He and I are really open about our thoughts, and we are always generally on the same page.”

What upsets you the most about Sunday’s game?

“I would say our inability to start fast, and put yourself in a position to keep your team in the game. We instantly got good field position, we’re in a situation where Carson (Palmer) makes a throw and Michael Floyd drops either a first down or it’s going to be a second and one I believe, and we’re going to be on the 30 yard line, you’re going to go in to score, you’re going to be in a position to at least kick a field goal and again, start the momentum, and to be able to give that up is extremely disappointing. Then that just sort of snowballs, and then you get behind and the other team is playing at home and they get a little energy in the crowd and it’s difficult to stop, so that’s the disappointing thing, and it’s disappointing to be 1-2, when you have higher expectations, and like I said Week 1, I am frustrated, I know everybody’s frustrated, all of our fan base, everybody in this building, but we’ve got one or two options. We can sit here and feel sorry for ourselves or we can get back out on the practice field and change the outcome of next week’s game.”

Do you believe you have the fighters in that locker room to begin competing?

“I do because I would say this; as bad as we played [Sunday], and the mistakes that we made from a mental standpoint or from an execution standpoint, I didn’t see any quit in our team. I saw guys that kept fighting and tried to come back, and just didn’t make the plays. There’s a lot to blame and it certainly goes all around and it can start at the top with me, or Bruce, or whoever it is, we’re in this thing together, and we’ll be in this thing together to turn it around. The Pittsburgh Steelers were thought of as one of the best teams in the league and they just lost [Sunday] pretty big. Week-to-week league, we’ll bounce back and be ready to go next week against the Rams.”

Do you think Kameron Canaday may not have been healthy after the hit he took?

“I don’t know for sure. I do know he took a big shot to the ribs and I don’t know the extent of his injury yet because I haven’t talked to Tom Reed of our medical staff, but that can certainly play a factor in it. Now the other thing I would say, the other snaps that he made after that injury were not effected, at least from what I could see. It’s not about excuses, bottom line is he’s got to get it done, and he certainly hasn’t, at least in two occasions.”

What are you looking for against the Rams?

“Fire and consistency. We’ve got to come back out hyped up and ready to play at home in front of our home crowd. I know it’s going to be an excited fan base to see us play at home. As disappointed as they are, they’ve been very loyal to us, so that’s going to be fun to be back at our home spot, and just want to see some execution. Just my opinion, but I have no doubt that Bruce will have these guys ready to go Sunday.”