All-Access with Bruce Arians: Fallout from the injuries and Week 1 loss

TEMPE, Ariz. – Head coach Bruce Arians, now in his fifth year with the Arizona Cardinals, meets the media several times leading up to gameday.

Here, in this space, with help from the Cardinals’ media relations staff, we’ll highlight many of the key topics and personnel conversations he has with reporters following practice.

Opening statement:

“Obviously, after grading the film, I felt the same way as watching it yesterday. For me, it was that our best players didn’t play well enough to beat them, in all phases, kicking game, offense, and defense. We gave up too many scramble opportunities that should have been sacks. Hats off to (Lions QB) Matt Stafford. He did a hell of a job getting out of there the few times we had great pressure and those scramble plays led to big plays. Offensively, we did not handle the edge or the interior very well in the running game. Obviously, once D.J. (Humphries) got hurt, we had to throw it a bunch and John Wetzel didn’t do his job as well as he normally does. I’ve got faith in him and I’m sure he’ll bounce back. The way I told our players, our five-star players didn’t play well enough to beat a team on the road. Our young players, on the positive side, played very, very well. I’m very pleased with all the young guys that got in and had a role. They’ll get their role expanded now because they were positive. And I really expect our five-star players to bounce back pretty quick.”

On RB David Johnson’s injury status:

“David is seeking a second opinion. The prognosis is the same as T.J. (Logan), a dislocated wrist that would probably require surgery.”

On the timeline before the second opinion reveals a result:

“It should be 24 hours before we know whether the second opinion is right or not.”

On whether the team will follow the same course of action as it did with Logan or whether the injury is season-ending:

“We’ll do the same thing because you don’t have to designate anybody anymore. Everybody goes on IR and whoever comes off, comes off.”

On how long Humphries will be out with an injury:

“Humphries is probably looking at one to two weeks:

On where exactly is Humphries’ injury:

“His is an MCL.”

On whether it’s a strain:

“Yeah.”

On TE Jermaine Gresham’s injury:

“He’s just got ribs. I’m sure he’ll play.”

On what happens at the running back position now:

“We’ll see. Once I know for sure, I’ve got all the confidence. Andre (Ellington) looked very good. Kerwynn (Williams) was good. Our young guys, we’ll see what we got, and what’s available.”

On what the team will do at left tackle:

“We’ll stay the same. We’ll stay the same. And in his (Wetzel) defense, he played left guard, right guard, right tackle, left tackle, in practice, so he didn’t really get a full week’s work at left tackle. When he has in the past, he’s played pretty solid.”

On how significant of a blow it is to lose Johnson:

“It’s always a huge blow to lose a top player, you know? But, it’s not the end of the world. We’ve got quality guys on our team and it’s an opportunity for somebody to step up. David Johnson became David Johnson because of somebody’s injury.”

On how he would explain Carson Palmer’s performance yesterday:

“Yeah, super pressure on himself to be perfect instead of just play. I can’t explain that first interception. I don’t think he can either. The second one, he’s shuffling up and it’s a high, hot ball, and the third one was just batted up in the air. But, he didn’t play very well. He knows he didn’t play very well and I’m sure he’ll bounce back.”

On whether certain players didn’t play very well because it was the first game of the season:

“No, because we practiced so hard. We had the lead in the fourth quarter and didn’t play the fourth quarter very well on either side of the ball. The kicking game was fine. The six-point swing at the half was huge, but to have the lead going into the fourth quarter, we should win the game. Offensively, we had a chance to get down and get going and take the lead back and didn’t get it done.”

On whether the long offensive drive toward the end of the game was how he expected the offense to look:

“In the two-minute drive? Yeah.”

On whether Johnson injured his wrist when he was tackled:

“No. On the catch. Then, he said he could play and couldn’t play.”

On whether it was the catch near the goal-line:

“On the goal-line.”

On whether the team would consider resigning RB Chris Johnson:

“It’d be an option.”

On whether Johnson’s wrist injury figured into his fumble:

“Yes.”

On whether Johnson is looking at going on IR with a return designation:

“With a possible return, yeah. You couldn’t put a timeline on it, but T.J.’s was eight to 12 weeks.”

On the red zone offense and not being able to score points:

“Yeah, that was very critical because we could have put a knockout punch early, you know? We take the field goal off the board because we feel very good down there. We don’t run the ball worth a crap and had a chance for a pass and don’t make it. Just don’t make it. Don’t execute the pass very well.”

On what happened on the missed field goal:

“You’d have to ask Phil (Dawson).”

On how the struggles on the offensive line impacted Palmer:

“I don’t think until we lost the lead, and he had a big part in losing the lead, but I don’t think that had anything to do with it. Certain guys just put a certain amount of pressure on themselves and I think he felt like he had to go win this thing for everybody and that’s not the case. You’ve got teammates to do that for you.”

On the play of LB Haason Reddick:

“He was outstanding. He’s one of those young guys that played extremely well. He got the one penalty with hands to the face, but he was going full speed. He’s fast and he’s going to be a heck of a player.”

On whether the team played any zone defense as opposed to man-to-man:

“We played a ton. Yeah. It was a good mix-up.”

On whether the team will consider moving T Jared Veldheer back to left tackle as Humphries recovers from his injury:

“If it were long-term, possibly, but Wetzel plays left better than right. So, we’ll probably stick to where we are right now. It does not look to be any kind of long-term injury.”

On whether Humphries will miss a couple weeks:

“Maximum probably.”

On how confident he is that Palmer will bounce back from Sunday’s performance:

“I’m very confident. Just talking to him today, you know? Formulating game plans already for Indy (Indianapolis) and bouncing ideas off of him. He’s embarrassed like all of us because it’s coaching as well as playing.”

On whether he was surprised by some of the dropped passes:

“Yeah, I was really shocked J.J. (Nelson) dropped that one because he’s been playing really, really well.”

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