Kliff Kingsbury, Cardinals concerned over DL Corey Peters injury

The Arizona Cardinals avoided adding a loss to the their record, but were hit with one on the defensive side of the football on Sunday.

Starting defensive lineman Corey Peters was knocked out of the Week 10 contest after suffering a knee injury in the first half. The lineman was carted off the field and was ruled out of the ballgame soon after leaving the field.

Head coach Kliff Kingsbury wasn’t able to provide a concrete update on Peters, but didn’t mince his words when he said the team was worried about the veteran’s status moving forward.

“There’s definitely concern there. It’s a quick turnaround after a really physical game, so we’ll see how it progresses through the week and, like I said last night, it doesn’t look good with Corey,” Kingsbury said via Zoom on Monday. “And it hasn’t sounded good from what I gathered this morning. I don’t have anything final on that yet but that’s kinda where it’s at.”

If Peters were to miss an extended period of time, it would be another tough break for the Cardinals defense which is already without pass-rusher Chandler Jones and has been hit with a number of injuries throughout the season.

The Cardinals would lose not only their mainstay at the position, but a veteran presence and leader on the field at that.

“He was the guy who took me under his wing since I got here [my rookie season],” linebacker Markus Golden said Monday. “I got a lot of respect for Corey and when you lose a guy like that — we don’t know what’s going on right now, pray to God he’ll be OK and we can get him out there — but when you don’t have a guy like that on the field, it’s more than just football.

“He knows everyone’s job, he knows exactly how to calm us down when stuff is getting crazy. … But I know how he is. He’ll want us to go out there and play hard for him and do everything we gotta do to win.”

In his absence, players like Angelo Blackson and Trevon Coley were called upon to fill the void left behind. The duo combined for eight tackles, 2.5 of which were for losses. Coley was also credited with a QB hit.

Their play will be counted on even more if Peters was to miss time.

“We were really proud of their effort. They continued to come full speed ahead the entire game,” Kingsbury said of the players tasked to fill Peters’ shoes. “There was a lot of snaps and guys that hadn’t played that many snaps.

“Just kept fighting and kept battling, and that’s a tough quarterback to get down. I couldn’t have been more impressed by the way [Allen] plays and his style of play. Even when you get there, you can’t get him down and our guys kept coming and really did a nice job of stopping the run and making them one-dimensional there late.”

And you can best believe Peters will be right there every step of the way, injured or not, to lend a hand to his fellow defenders.

“One thing I know about Corey, he’s resilient,” offensive tackle D.J. Humphries said. “He’s a tough guy and will always be in good spirits. All of the wisdom that he can pass on to the guys around him, he’s going to pass it on.

“He’s not going to hold anything back. He always going to be a part of us whichever way it goes. … However it is, I know he’s going to be right there with us like [Chandler Jones] is now.”

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