Taking it back: Arians no longer regrets fourth down call vs. Texans
Nov 20, 2017, 12:58 PM | Updated: 4:53 pm
Arizona Cardinals running back Adrian Peterson (23) is stopped by Houston Texans defenders Jadeveon Clowney (90) and Zach Cunningham (41) during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 19, 2017, in Houston. (AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith)
(AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith)
Immediately after his team’s 31-21 loss to the Houston Texans on Sunday, Arizona coach Bruce Arians wished he hadn’t called for an Adrian Peterson run on 4th-and-1 in Cardinals territory with more than six minutes remaining.
Down 24-21, Peterson was swallowed up by Houston defenders. A play later, Texans running back D’Onta Foreman scored a touchdown, making it a 10-point Arizona deficit.
One day after the fact — and with film sessions in between — Arians wasn’t feeling at fault.
Scratch that: He was feeling quite confident he made the right play-call.
“The fourth-down call, I take all that (expletive) back that I said yesterday,” he said of his initial regret. “That was a damn good call, and we busted an assignment at the point of attack.
“That was an easy pick-up. (Offensive coordinator Harold Goodwin) had a hell of a play designed, we called it and we busted an assignment. They did not whoop us up there, we just turned them loose — the interior of our offensive line.”
A day earlier, Arians was willing to take the blame.
“I regret taking the fourth-down play now. It was a bad call and a bad decision,” he told 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station’s Paul Calvisi.
That wasn’t a wild admission considering the Cardinals only got 26 rushing yards on 14 carries from Peterson, who never got going behind an offensive line that has struggled to get push since starting left tackle D.J. Humphries was lost for the year due to injury.
Arians’ change in tune on Monday came after he and general manager Steve Keim reviewed game tape only to find disappointing trends — dropped passes and mental mistakes — dogging the Cardinals.
As for what became the game-defining play, a miscue on the 4th-and-1 came down to one unnamed lineman who “blocked the wrong damn guy,” Arians said Monday.
More painfully, the Cardinals followed that mistake with another blown coverage on the Foreman touchdown, a 34-yard rush off a play-call that Arizona saw earlier in the game. Arians thought the coaching staff had corrected the Cardinals’ coverage, but the second time around, Arizona again didn’t fit into the correct gaps.
“We busted it again,” Arians said. “It’s a jet-sweep motion with a pulling guard and we don’t fit the thing properly and it’s a walk-in when it’s already been corrected. That’s frustrating.”
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