TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Once was enough for Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians when it came to watching film from Sunday’s 34-7 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. “It’s not one you want to watch twice, but there is a
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Once was enough for Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians when it came to watching film from Sunday’s 34-7 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
“It’s not one you want to watch twice, but there is a lot of things we can learn from,” Arians said.
One lesson might be less free time for players on trips to the East Coast, Arians said. But that isn’t the biggest concern for the 2-3 Cardinals after a performance that general manager Steve Keim said was perhaps the worst on defense, offense and special teams since Arizona’s 49-15 loss to Carolina in the 2016 NFC Championship Game.
Keim made the statement on his Monday morning radio program on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. Arians backed it up.
“We made errors in the game that we have not made all season,” Arians said. “Things that are easily correctable but my concern is, why were they made in the first place?”
Injuries, which have been a major storyline for the Cardinals this season, also were a factor in Philadelphia.
Arians said five long snappers were working out Monday after Aaron Brewer was placed on injured reserve. Brewer will have wrist/hand surgery on Tuesday and is out for the season.
The Cardinals hope to get offensive linemen Alex Boone and D.J. Humphries back from injuries this week to help an offensive line that has struggled to support a ground game, though the sacks allowed went down from six against San Francisco in Week 4 to two on Sunday.
“A combination of missed blocks and poor running,” Arians said of a general lack of success at running the ball. “The few that we’ve made, everybody was on the same page.”
Pass protection is critical to the big plays that have been a staple of the Cardinals’ offense under Arians.
“We have guys, if we can get them in space, who can get us 15 or 20 (yards), but to get over the top of the defense, you have to protect for at least three (seconds),” Arians said.
The Eagles gained 419 yards of offense against an Arizona defense that didn’t tackle well at times, 304 yards with four passing touchdowns from quarterback Carson Wentz. The Cardinals gave up a 76-yard punt return to Kenjon Barner and had a field goal blocked on special teams.
“We’ve just got to regroup. There’s a bunch of fighters in this locker room and this isn’t going to change where we’re trying to go,” defensive lineman Frostee Rucker said. “We have no choice. This is what we signed up to do. We signed up to battle for 16 or 17 weeks, so everything after that is a plus.”
NOTES: DT Olson Pierre has an ankle sprain, which is good news after he was thought to have broken a bone. He will “miss a little time,” Arians said. . OT Jared Veldheer and DT Corey Peters left the Philadelphia game for a time with knee injuries, but both returned. They are expected to practice to some extent this week.
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