All-Access with Arians: Confidence in Drew Stanton has always been there

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.

“The tape showed a football team that did not play its best and won a football game. We really played poorly defensively, much below our standard and still
won a football game. Normally when you get a 4-0 turnover margin you’re going to win a ballgame.

“Offensively, the only disappointing things were our red zone production (and) third down (conversions.) Those two areas were still concerns coming out of
last season. We played well in the first game. We did not play well in this one, especially in the red zone offensively.

“Defensively…we did not tackle well. We had way too many mental errors, which is very unusual for our defense, against what they were doing.

“So, we’ve got a lot of things to clean up this week and get ready to play San Francisco.”

How is Carson Palmer coming along and does the fact that the team has a bye the following week play into your decision

“No, not at all. If he can go, he can go. It’s just one of those crazy things that he’ll wake up one day and he’ll be fine. We don’t know what day that’s
going to be though. That’s the thing. Drew (Stanton) will continue to work. We’ll get Logan (Thomas) some work and just see how it goes.”

Is there any concern the nerve issue in his right shoulder may lead to long-term damage for Palmer

“I think any time you’re dealing with nerves you’re concerned. I saw what happened with Peyton (Manning) and how long it took with him, but his was after
neck surgery. This is just a bruised nerve that’s being ornery.”

From a play-calling standpoint, how much did you have to change or adjust with Stanton rather than Palmer at quarterback

“I call plays to beat the other team and not to put that quarterback in a situation, ‘ew, I really don’t like that play.’ I’ll scratch that one completely
off the plan. That’s the last thing (I’ll ask them the night before), ‘hey, what do you not want me to call?’ Normally they don’t say anything, but every
now and then they say, ‘don’t call this.’ We’ll just put a marker through that one because you want them comfortable and knowing when they pick them
there’s a little more accountability or two.”

How much confidence have you had in Stanton

“I’ve always had it. You guys finally got to see him play. You’ve been hearing me talk about it, but you’ve got to see it to believe it. And he can play
much better. I think he was a little careful at times. Threw some balls early because he was playing fast in this mind and the receivers weren’t quite
there yet. He can play better, especially in the red zone.”

What did you see from Tyrann Mathieu in his season debut

“I saw the quickness. I saw a couple of things. He didn’t play that much. He was disappointed. I would like to see him play more, too, but he’s not ready
to play that much, yet. I think his role should increase this week. We’ll see what packages we have and where we can put him in the best, and then with
that open date continue to progress. The guys that are playing where he was playing are playing pretty good. So until he can show that he is totally 100
percent and ready to roll, then I’m not taking those guys out.”

How did you think Patrick Peterson played

“I thought it was probably his poorest game since I’ve been here. He got frustrated and let the referees get to him. The referees called a heckuva game.
The players played a bad one. All right. There was a lot of holding, on both sides. We were as guilty as they were. The referees did a heckuva job, I
thought, continuing to throw the flags because guys continued to grab. You better learn to play with the rules.”

What about your rookie kicker, Chandler Catanzaro

“He got a game ball. I’m not going to jinx him. He’s doing extremely well.”

Will Ted Ginn continue to handle returning kickoffs

“We’ll continue to look at him. He’ll get one more opportunity and (see) if he can’t hit it up in there like I’ve seen him do it, especially against his
former team.”

What’s it say about your team that they were able to rally for the win in each of the first two weeks?

“Very resilient. We’ve played two really good fourth quarters. That’s usually the determining factor in the ballgame. You’re going to have a
knock-down-drag-out for three (quarters) and what do you got to do to win the game? Last week it was coming from 11 (points down), this week we came from
four (points down). The last four possessions for them were either turnovers or three-and-out. For us, it was all scores until we kneeled down.”

You’ve talked about playing better against your division and you’ve got your first NFC West game this week

“This is a big one. The way the crowd was for San Diego I really expect it to be even better. Hopefully we kept all of our tickets and didn’t give them
away early, so it can be all of our red and none of theirs. They took over Dallas’ stadium.”

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