Arians: Cooper and Williams will split snaps, Nkemdiche has work to do

Tuesday was an off-day for the Arizona Cardinals, but head coach Bruce Arians made his weekly appearance on Sirius XM NFL Radio’s Late Hits show to talk about the team’s win against Tampa Bay and the challenge ahead in Buffalo.

Arians touched on the cornerback battle, Robert Nkemdiche’s chances of playing this week and took the blame for the loss to the Patriots in Week 1.

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— Marcus Cooper’s two-pick performance on Sunday didn’t completely usurp rookie Brandon Williams from the cornerback spot opposite Patrick Peterson. Arians said as much after the game.

But no matter who officially takes the field for the first defensive snap against the Buffalo Bills, it seems the cornerback competition will rage on with a split of the playing time.

“Brandon Williams played good in this game, he’s getting better and better,” Arians said. “Coop’s been out there a few years … made a really good interception in the slot. The tip one for the touchdown, I think you and I could have got that one. I’m going to keep alternating those guys so we can keep that competition going, see who gets to play the most.”

— Will Robert Nkemdiche, who is out with an ankle injury, play in Buffalo? Not if he doesn’t kill it in practice this week. “The guys who played played really, really well,” Arians said. “It’s going to be hard to crack that lineup and get a hat on Sunday unless you have just one hell of a week in practice. He did not play very well in that one job he had in New England and the guy who did play this week had 24 plusses and one minus. It’s going to be hard to get him out of there.”

— Buffalo’s decision to fire offensive coordinator Greg Roman doesn’t change much as far as Arizona is concerned. “Really doesn’t,” Arians said. “Only does because we don’t have a peg on the (new) coordinator’s tendencies. There’s no way you can put in a new offense in three to four days.”

— Could the Cardinals go up-tempo on offense to keep the Ryan-and-Ryan defense on its toes? “It can help. It helps (the defense) get lined up and helps the quarterback see things a little longer.”

— Arians admitted fault and took the blame for over-coaching in the Cardinals’ Week 1 loss to the Patriots. “I got out of it. I got too involved in doing the gameplan. That’s not my forte — took a bullet for playing more zone than we normally play. I had a lot to do with that, and it was my mistake. We were playing our style of defense and cutting it loose (against the Bucs), and I was really happy the guys were flying around.”

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